Scanning through my twitter feed today I picked up on a link to a Christian Science Monitor article talking about facebook and twitter in reference to digital branding.

It talks about how Penn State offers a class on this subject for all freshmen student athletes. Creating four anchor words to describe your values and to then apply them to your social media output. If what you post does not fit what these anchors represent than you are jeopardizing your digital brand. This really caught my interest, for it connects to what I think one of the largest downfalls to social media is; the people. The fear from the big scary monster lurking under the bed of organizations should not be caused by social media. Rather, it is the miss understanding of the utilization and the ramifications of what individuals post under context of being ok.

Though I must admit that being forward thinking in such a changing landscape is tricky. It must be remembered that social media is tool like any other, if you don’t use it properly it only well cause frustration and cussing. In the end it becomes a matter of desire; the desire for business to be progressive rather than antiquated in social media. Though it tran-sends into wanting to be progressive in customer service and community relations. Soon it well be the norm to promote your entities digital brand and by then you well only be joining the band wagon rather than blazing the trail for where it goes.

With various individuals already in the social media game your organization/entity actually becomes behind the proverbial eight ball if you join as the band wagon comes. It is possible that a digital impression, as it were, is already out there defining you. One which you may have to work over to build your digital branding back up. That added with being left the less than desirable account names could leave an organization/entity a considerable up hill climb.

You may still perceive social media to be a monster lurking in the dark but it is not. With appropriate handling it can be the means of integrating your origination/entity with the community and build strong relations with like minded digital brands.