Many organisations are rushing towards the social media without a proper strategy, looking for the rewards but without realising the pitfalls hence getting trapped. Poor planning and execution of social media strategy can easily go wrong and would damage the brand and would take considerable efforts to undo the damage.

Many organisations are rushing towards the social media without a proper strategy, looking for the rewards but without realising the pitfalls hence getting trapped. Poor planning and execution of social media strategy can easily go wrong and would damage the brand and would take considerable efforts to undo the damage.

On one hand Social networking sites provide unlimited opportunities to businesses, provided used properly but at the same time can be counter productive. On the other side is the fact that poorly planned social networking marketing can harm the organisation as mention earlier and second factor is the billions wasted by employees using social networking sites. BBC mentions that fact that time spent by employees in UK are costing firms Million of pounds each day.

Another example of miss use of social networking sites is by DSGi employees calling customers 'retard' or as 'hardfisted' as quoted by Simon Brew in following words:  Comments such as calling a customer a 'retard' or describing them as 'hardfisted' (and there are plenty of other examples) were widely reported, leaving DSGi attempting to shut the proverbial stable door long after its equine occupant had left.

From business point of view, social media is not only about making a presence over social websites but there is much more to it. A largely believed miss conception about use of social media is that having a presence on the social networking sites would be sufficient to bring positive dividends for the organisation. Business have to very careful with use of social media as one wrong step in the field of social media can be devastating for the organisation.

The relevance of social media is obvious but more important is the right strategy. This should be planned and executed in detail, as aim of any organisation should not be just to have a social media presence but to have a well thought, planned and executed strategy which should be able to help organisation achieve its aims. Without a social media strategy or a badly planned and executed strategy can do organisation more harm than good. Use of social media is more complex than many thinks. It not only involves marketing side of business but crucial aspects like customer relationship, communication, branding, competition and interest of stake holders etc are just few to mention.