Social media, such as Facebook and Twitter
have added new meaning to spreading news and information. While
traditional information channels such as
newspapers, radios, and TV, are `one-way' media, the
dawn of Internet and social media has made communication a two-way extravaganza.
In the absence of an adequate control mechanism, in general, the social media
frenzy, has proved to be a very effective method to rally around a mass on any significant
or even not so significant issue.
The recent banning of Facebook and other social networking sites by
certain governments is proof that social media cannot be ignored. Though
authoritarian governments can resort to such
drastic methods, public corporations cannot adopt such measures. They basically have to
live with social media - either countering effectively, when a crisis starts brewing
or suffering the consequences when it grows out of proportions. In this backdrop, it
is interesting to explore how Toyota, the Japanese automaker, had `handled' the
social media and what options does it have in
order to ensure that the crisis, which the company is currently facing, does not go out of
control and harm its reputation, of a top quality automaker in the world built over
the decades. Toyota's recall of its cars also prompts one to explore a bit of
`digitization in the automobile' industry. The
digital technology in music and video industry and its exploitation by Apple using Internet
and social media basically pushed the old industry heavyweight, Sony to the sideline. Could
a similar thing happen to Toyota? Could a newcomer exploit the digitization
in automobile industry, along with Internet and social media, to dethrone an
established giant like Toyota? |
