One of the challenges for people or organizations that venture into social media is they fear that they may lose control over their brand. Individuals worry about saying something that can be taken in the wrong way and companies/organizations worry that something may be said about them or to them that is out of line with organizational goals. While an understandable fear, I think this fear is shortsighted.
The social media and web 2.0 is a new way of communicating that is all about community and collaboration; the organization or individual that focuses on community and collaboration will be successful in social media and web 2.0 communication.
If an organization focuses on collaboration and community, the opposite will happen. Social media is a brilliant way to actually BUILD your brand as an individual or corporation because it enables the community to contribute to your brand and your brand to contribute to the web community.
Clay Shirky, during his talk from TED, stated this brilliantly saying that the organization needs to change from being obstacle to enabler. Twitter is just the beginning of the social web and the communications revolution.
