Social Media & reputations

Today I was driving down a street in Milton, Ontario and saw a man protesting outside of a Nissan Car dealership. He had a sign that stated " Unhappy with my Altima". Of course like many other people, I was curious what had happened to the man that made his so upset he was willing to protest in -15 degree weather for more than a week. I searched the Milton Champion newspaper and every where on Google, but found nothing. Until I logged on to my Facebook yesterday. I saw a thread talking about Milton- Web, which lead me to a social media forum that had the whole story. This forum allowed for both the dealership and the man protesting to state their story. So how does this relate to social media in the workplace? The dealership went and posted on the social media forum and defended their side of the story. Bringing light to the situation and providing good customer service to the individuals interested. It most certainly change my perspective of what I thought had happened. By posting to the page, a lot of people commented on the good relationship they had with the dealership and any problems they encountered. This man protesting could have affected their customers and business. But by posting to this page they received support, which in my opinion will only make the business more profitable. Not only did they get free advertising, they gained support through a community. Social media is not always about posting photos and talking with family and friends, it around to provide business's with the opportunity to bloom and to advertise and to protect their reputation. 


Here is the link I found through my Facebook page which lead me to a social discussion board
" http://www.hawthornevillager.com/phpbb/viewtopic.php?f=1&t=52812"