The article “Companies and social networks” posted by The Economist talks about two companies (British Airways and Virgin Atlantic) and the problems they have found in networks such as Facebook and My Space.
These companies have explote this type of social networks (Facebook, My Space…) to expand their publicity over a bigger public but, as well, they have found that this tool of advertising can damage their images.
On October 31st Virgin fired 13 of its cabin crew, and on November 3rd British Airways start an investigation of the behaviour of a part of his employees, both of it because they found offensive comments ,of these employees in some forums, that where addressed to passengers or to the own company. That supposed a totally disrespectful behaviour of this people who may represent the company, and that take us to question if they have done enough to educate these people about a respectful use of the internet. So on British Airways establish a policy that doesn’t permit to post any comments about the firm without authorisation but they must to do more.
Finally, managers should ensure that these rules are respected, so companies must to visit these social-sites in order to prevent these disrespectful behaviours that damage their images.
Mark = 5