ABSTRACT
The companies and organizations that consider social media to be a threat to how they control their brands and messages are missing out on the larger opportunity to use the powerful tools to build their reputation through authenticity and transparency. Why then are organizations drafting social media guidelines when they would never consider handing out 'communications guidelines' along with logo-ed apparel? The only difference between what someone says while wearing peoples' brand and what they tweet is the scale and potential for social media comments to 'go viral'. Fear of the negative prevents companies from taking advantage of the huge upside potential of empowering their workforce as brand ambassadors. Social media is time for dialogue with stakeholders instead of using social media as another channel to 'deliver' messages to a passive 'audience'. In fact, corporate apparel are social media.
