“Social media” refers to the broad range of Internet tools that have cropped up in recent years to allow us to share and exchange information. YouTube, Facebook and MySpace are examples of websites that have become ubiquitous in many of our everyday lives. From promoting rock stars to organizing the kids’ soccer team practice, these portals are readily used to inform, market, entertain, and, yes, potentially distort.

With great power comes great potential for “distortability” (I made up that word, but you can use it for yourself if you want). Fear not, I say, to those whose faint hearts have kept them from jumping off any of these platforms for fear of falling into the abyss of social distortion – because the benefits of tapping into the social media far outweigh the costs.

This is especially true with businesses and B2B today, as many shy away from these new avenues of exposure because they are unable to do the following:

• Control what the disgruntled blogger will say about them
• Monitor what negative video is posted
• Perform the damage control caused by some malcontent taking shots at their public image

I recently heard an anecdote from a Product Manager who saw a video posted on “the YouTube” where a disgruntled employee at one of his company’s overseas manufacturing facilities was grumbling about the mundane nature of his job. My morbid curiosity got the better of me, and when I had a spare moment I went to YouTube to see for myself. Sure I found the disgruntled employee video (ho-hum), but not before I watched the first results that showed up – 5 very polished, professionally-produced videos that spoke to the quality and superiority of their products. Suddenly the Blair Witch-styled smear video by an apathetic employee hardly even makes an impact.

My point is this: if you’re worried about the distortion of your message or worse, your brand reputation, get over it. When you take into account that the majority of technical influencers and decision makers go to the Internet first as their primary resource, you can see how this is an avenue that shouldn’t be ignored. So before you say you’re not ready to be dragged into the 21st century, think again. It just might be worth the distortion.