Social Networking (SN) is rapidly becoming an accepted practice in the business world. Branding and brand protection are some of the main reasons businesses are using SN sites. A great way to find a name or ‘handle’ for your business which can be the same across all or many SN sites is to use namechk in much the same way as finding a valid domain name to register.

Any publicity is good publicity, right?

Almost.

Some ‘publicity’ can be bad. Now, compliments of blogs and social networking sites, it is easier than ever for employees to get a jab at employers and clients even if they don’t mean to. Some companies have used this as excuse to ban employee email usage and worse; but others, such as IBM, have chosen to develop a set of employee guidelines to set tone for employees and to embrace rather than negate these new venues.

Nice. Now the rest of us have a model to follow. Leave it to ’stodgy’, ‘old’ IBM to address this emerging issue with style.