How blogs can impact your business

It was fascinating to read the articles about how quickly bloggers undermined the latest Motrin Mom ads, http://adage.com/digital/article?article_id=132622. Health care organizations need to quickly recognize the impact consumer-generated content can have on their businesses and develop strategies to both engage with and monitor social networking. As I heard one speaker this past week say, 'social networking is like air". It is not going away, and organizations need to determine how to embrace this new medium. There are a number of great guidelines and policies out on the net in the private sector to review and emulate already, and way that organizatations can start simply without requiring huge amounts of resources. Hospital legal and IT departments need to be made aware than consumers are viewing and writing about their organizations, and hospital employees need access to what their consumers are saying.