Social media enters the corporate and consumer worlds

Social media is starting to cross into the corporate world in ways that may benefit the consumer and the employee.

Over the weekend at a Dominos pizza outlet in North Carolina,employees who decided to post You Tube videos of things they do to your pizza cost them their jobs after repulsed viewers managed to track their location down.

Internet book retailer Amazon also saw the power of the social networks when it came under attack ffrom twitterers,facebook users and blogs over its decision to remove gay and lesbian-themed books by James Baldwin, Gore Vidal, Jeanette Winterson.

There is an interesting post from Daniel Dworkin over at the Huffington Post who writes that

For years, forward thinking business leaders have espoused the virtues of involving employees in decision-making as a means of driving engagement. Give them a voice, the mantra goes. Don't talk at them; facilitate a meaningful dialogue. Then along comes social media (content created by the people, for the people) to share ideas, build communities, and influence one another's actions.

The problem though now is how to best use this technology as Dworkin himself writes

How do we manage the user-generated content (UGC) of independent thinking employees? How do we effectively respond to their questions and suggestions? What if we don't have the resources, budget, or leadership alignment to act on their ideas?