The Social Age brings with it a new approach to communication and collaboration across boundaries using technology. As with any new technology, there are great benefits and plenty of challenges as well.

One of the advantages for businesses is the ease of interacting with a large audience very quickly. But this also provides the temptation to react when negative things are written and posted about the company.

In Chapter 8 you read about Coca-Cola’s social media guidelines. One of the company’s guidelines is to avoid the temptation to react in defense of the company in social media spaces. However, not all companies have such policies, especially smaller ones.

Use Strayer’s library or the Internet to search for an example of when someone that represented a company or was known to be affiliated with a company reacted to something negative posted about the company.

• In the discussion, describe the scenario and what happened as a result. If you were able to recreate this situation, what would you do differently? Why? Is there ever an instance where you should defend a company you work for? What if it is a company you own? Explain.