Agenda for Action

Corporations are basically surrounded by people and organizations that want to influence what a company does or does not do. Thus, corporations are in a unique position to experience social media warfare as a defensive as well as an offensive activity. Action steps should include, but not be limited to, the following areas:

• ? Through industry groups or consortiums, corporations should develop policies and procedures to deal with unprovoked social media warfare attacks.
• ? Corporations should develop formal procedures to monitor social media content that is critical of the company, reveals proprietary information, or threatens company employees or facilities.
• ? Corporations should continue to train staff and executives how to use social media applications in a manner that does not embarrass the company, regardless of whether they are using social media in a professional or a personal capacity.

Key Terms

Corporate social responsibility (CSR) is a perspective as well as a set of conditions that demonstrates to what extent corporations are being responsible for their actions, and what efforts they take to mitigate the negative consequences of those actions on the environment and the people that are impacted.

Native advertising is the use of formats that make advertising or promotional messages look like objective content.

Selective release of information is the deliberate release of information designed to create a positive image and the withholding of information that may tarnish the desired image a corporation is trying to build.