When I was reading up on the latest social media news that has hit the web I came across this new start-up company called "HearSay Social." At first I thought it was yet another social network that was trying to set itself apart from all the other ones that are striving for stardom. Instead this was a sidekick for companies looking to utilize Facebook, Twitter, and LinkedIn to market themselves. According to Tomio Geron of Forbes blog.com HearSay has helped raise 18 million dollars for local social media management. What hearsay does according to Geron is they help companies such as State Farm who are global local based organizations. For example there are many state farm insurance agents in every city or town around the country. Hearsay provides tools for national media managers to pass on to local media mangers for state farm. The whole point of Hearsay Social is to cut down on the amount of time it takes for media managers to check the content that is posted by users visiting their various social network outlets such as twitter and facebook. No one has enough time to go down every minute of every hour scouring for negative and outlandish remarks that can diminish the companies reputation in a heartbeat.
I think this is a good and bad idea. Yes we should be allowed to have the ability to micro manage what is left on our social media websites. However there is one thing to filter and there is another to censor information. Perhaps there is true information that someone wanted to be a watch dog for the good of the public. Following the outcry the company eliminates the source by simply deleting the comment. Is that fair to the general public who help keep these companies alive? I don't think many people would find this to be fair at all. Now say someone is being a "troll"(When I say troll I am referring to someone who constantly is posting false and misleading information to sabotage a companies reputation) and they are filtered out due to false information. This is the only concern I have for Hearsay as it will do great things for companies that want to clean out any of this terrible misleading information.
I look forward to hearing more about this new start-up company and I hope they take this in the direction I think they should. Until next time take care everyone.
