Peter and I have written numerous posts about the benefits of social media to entrepreneurs who want to promote their businesses and get customer feedback and to individuals likeconsultants and service providers who want to promote their personal brand. But there is a dark side to the social media groundswell and it's found in the increasing rate with which we appear to be losing our privacy.

 

Wall Street Journal columnist Peggy Noonan recently wrote about the issue (see "The Eyes Have It, May 21)  relative to our culture and our country, saying that "It [loss of privacy] didn't happen over a few days but a few decades, and it didn't fall exactly, but is falling. If you're not worried about that, or not feeling some nostalgia for the older, more contained and more private America, then you're just not paying attention." And when you do start paying attention, you'll realize that you've already lost a lot. After all, today there is nowhere to hide when practically everything about you is online and can be accessed from anywhere in the world. 

 

Even the exhibitionist-leaning X generation (aka the New Millennials), who enthusiastically embraced Facebook and Twitter, are finding that there's a downside to letting the world see how you partied last weekend or read what you really think of your boss. For example, if you search for "stupid boss" on YourOpenBook.org, you'll get a lot of Facebook posts from people using their own names and pictures as they complain about their bosses. Duh! How smart is that? The site was actually started to prove a point and get Facebook to restore the privacy of information that its users post. 

 

In fact, more and more young people are carefully monitoring what is posted about them and what their friends say about them. The UC Berkeley Center for Law and Technology recently conducted a survey of 1,000 people about whether they trust the intentions of social community sites. Surprisingly, 88 percent of those in the 18-24 age category wanted a law that would require Web sites to delete stored information. Another 62 percent wanted a law that gave them the ability to find out what a Web site knows about them. Clearly, the Millennials don't trust the social sites to have their best interests at heart.

 

One way to monitor what others are saying about you, your company, or your brand is to hire a company such as BuzzMetrics to "listen to" blogs, discussion forums, YouTube, and anything else online on your behalf. Of course, once you get that information, you need to have a plan to do something about it.

 

As more and more people begin to think about what they're giving up in the way of privacy by sharing so much information about themselves online, will it be more difficult for entrepreneurs to get the precious feedback they need to make effective decisions about their business strategy? With some customer segments, that may be true. But there is a way to do it and respect the privacy of your customers. Using the applications of companies such as Communispace or Networked Insights, you can set up a firewalled, private community that can essentially operate as an ongoing focus group for your company. That way you can get honest (and sometimes that's negative) feedback that does not get repeated in perpetuity all over the Internet. What's more, your customers' private information is kept private, which builds trust.