Social media 'can harm brands'

If companies paid attention to comments made through social media, they could limit the risks to their brand's reputation, an expert has claimed.

Glenn Fannick, product development manager at Dow Jones, made his comments to online resource Computerworld, highlighting the high ranking many blogs are now attracting within search engine results.

He urged marketers to be wary of a situation where someone searching for their brand would see a blog within the first results, particularly if it contained negative information.

Mr Fannick highlighted recent examples of the power of social media, such as HSBC eliminating overdraft fees following a Facebook protest or Cadbury relaunching the Wispa chocolate bar following an online protest.

Jeremiah Owyang, a former community manager at Hitachi Data Systems, told Computerworld marketers should set up alerts through Technorati or Google to monitor the sorts of conversations consumers are having about their decisions.

Last year, E-Consultancy claimed using social media as a marketing tool offers "pitfalls as well as ... possibilities".

It suggested blogs, social networks and social search could help firms understand what threats their business faces.