By Lauren FenthumSocial media is able to spread news quickly around the world. Some of the news that is spread may not be all that true. The platform gives a voice to everyone, and more often than not, those voices are false, malevolent and more and more companies are battling with how to do deal with them. This has lead to the urgent call of social media regulation. CEO of Facebook, Mark Zuckerberg has said the way to media regulating is through managing harmful content, election integrity, privacy and data portability. A quick look at the CRM industry shows that its use of social media coupled with analytics far outpaces anything that Facebook could be dreaming about. Here are a few ideas that CRM companies use that social media could follow:
CRM companies own their own data and only certain people have access to that information. Each organisation has a set of rules that outlines who can use the data, what it can be used for and determine the frequency of use. The system tracks who uses the data and for what purpose, even providing reports on customer responses.
Many people can do things themselves, but for more complicated jobs, we prefer to hire someone else who is better equipped with the job at hand. Social media was first seen as an elaborate email scheme that has become a data gathering and analysis effort to help gain insights into peoples actions and motivations. The majority of social media platforms are free to use, meaning that their users are actually seen as “products” rather than an individual.
Zuckerberg further proposed a top-down approach in creating a more regulated approach. Top-down approaches are often more bureaucratic and require more laws and contingencies. However, a bottom-up approach would be better in this instance, because it gives individuals the chance to regulate themselves.
So in essence, if regulation had to come into place for social media, it would allow do-it-yourselfers to still be able to operate on a personal level, but with a restriction on the number of contacts. Professional users should be required to have the same amount of qualifications and certificates.
Social is successful because it is spontaneous, and fills the need for constant human contact. People don't like being told what to do, and so in a world of free will, and where so many people have access to a specific platform, some sort of regulation needs to be put in place. Placing responsibility enables a sense of agency.
