From blogs and message boards to podcasts and social networking sites, the world of social media has exploded onto the marketing executive’s radar. With so many individuals participating in social media through outlets such as Google, MySpace, Facebook and YouTube, a marketing campaign no longer remains under a company’s complete control.

Today, in the midst of an uncommonly tight presidential primary campaign, we have a front row seat to just how prevalent social media has become. In a traditional campaign, the candidate and their team could control the content of their message within television and radio advertisements. They could discuss the information they want citizens to know in interviews, in debates, and in the newspapers. Whereas journalists were traditionally expected to be unbiased in their reporting, today’s users of social media outlets are having their one-sided opinions heard globally.

In the face of blog posts and YouTube videos trashing the opposition’s past, present and future, candidates need to play the game better – to enlist the crowd and outnumber unattractive social media posts with more favorable entries. We see this with YouTube videos such as “Vote Differently,” which spoofs the original “1984” Mac commercial by protraying Hillary Clinton as a brainwashing dictator. Or the “I’ve Got a Crush on Obama” video, which paints Barack Obama as some sort of rock- or movie star. In these instances potentially false or incriminating information is published for anyone anywhere to access.

So how can we engage our markets with social media? By continuing to offer excellent customer service, as well as participating in social media so that the positive postings will appear before, or overwhelm, the negative. Being pro-active instead of reactive is key. So buff up on your computer skills and join us in one of today’s most popular forms of communication.