But what about the people inside the company? Where do they fit into the scheme of things as a company embraces and deploys social media?
In many ways, getting employees to buy into social media is as important as the effort and investment made to make sure social media resonates externally. If a company plans to use social media to become more transparent, engage and have conversations, you have to believe this approach will impact how it communicates with employees.
If, for example, a company has a corporate culture in which the lines of communications between management and employees are not particularly open, it would be strange for a company to suddenly decide it wanted to have public conversations with millions of people outside the company.
Another consideration is whether a company is also willing to let is employees embrace social media - based on the idea that what's good for the goose must be good for the gander. It is difficult for a company to get itself into social media but, at the same time, prevent its employees from getting involved as well.
A good example of a company that lets its employees engage in social media is IBM Corp., which has thousands of internal bloggers, who follow "Social Computing Guidelines" that feature 12 "rules".
When a company lets its employees participate in social media, it's another way of telling the world that it believes in social media as opposed to simply using it as a marketing and sales tool.
Amid the growing excitement about social media, companies often lose sight of the potential impact that social media could have on its organization and corporate culture. By maintaining an internal and external focus, a company can give itself a better chance of success.