I want to focus specifically on the following statement in the article below. "While in the age of social media, the most alarming stories take on a life of their own". I sense the industry frustration in dealing with social media and I know somewhat where they are coming from as I spent over 30 years working in the oil and chemical industry, much of it focusing on emergency management and crisis management. Those were the days before social media when the main media concerns focused on what the TV, radio and print media were saying about the situation. Times have changed, however, and whether or not industry recognizes social media, it is a reality and it is not going  away. Social media presents a risk to the chemical industry and it is also a resource. But is social media being recognized as such and used appropriately?

I recently looked into Canadian Responsible Care and CAER groups use of social media to support their communication needs and my on line research, which went well beyond the Canadian borders, could find very little use of social media. My Google searches, blog articles and Twitter enquiries over a period of weeks showed very little use of social media. I must, however, give the American Chemistry Council credit for starting to use social media as they have a Facebook page, Twitter feed and a YouTube channel. When I compared their on line statistics to that of a one man consulting company from a small Ontario town, they were not particularly impressive, but I'd give them credit for trying. 

What are your thoughts on the article and the chemical industry use of social media to support their communication needs?