Social media can be a positive tool for PR Professionals. Social media can also have a negative impact on PR Professionals. Below is a top 10 list of the negative aspects of social media.
1. Hello Social Media Addiction! Most people can’t just have one social media site to follow. I for one have close to 10 sites that I use. I know…. I need social media rehab.
2. Can be very distracting. Seriously, I’ve been working on this post for two days because of social media. At this point, I can only keep my fingers crossed that one day I will be a social media director for a company, that way addiction and the one thing that distracts me more than anything else will be combined into one 🙂
3. DRAMA!!! DRAMA!! DRAMA! Without social media, we’d have to go back to watching soap operas to get our daily dose of drama. This can be a negative impact for a PR Professional because the public loves drama! With weekend 1 of Coachella this last week, we learned (through social media) that Kelly Osborne and Paris Hilton had an awkward run-in with each other probably before the two of them even left the tent where the run in occurred. This is a perfect example of what PR Professionals have to deal with on a day-to-day basis, regardless if they are representing a person or company.
4. Digital Footprint – when it’s out there, it’s out there. In fact, many two-year-olds already have a digital footprint. This can affect the PR Professional because once it’s out there, its out there. PR Professionals can only try to fix the situation, nothing can be taken back. Sometimes, it can’t even be fixed.
5. 24/7 availability – In order for a PR Professional to stay on top of everything, they would literally never be able to sleep. Australia is just waking up when we go to sleep; therefore, they are just starting their social media day.
6. #imlovinit – NOT!! Remember when McDonalds though it would be great to start the Imlovinit hashtag? The hashtag that was supposed to be associated with positive public feedback in regards to the company. Needless to say, it was an epic fail because the public turned it into a way to spread negative views of the company.
7. Mistakes and errors spread faster than wildfire. The power of sharing at its best – that is what social media is all about. When the public sees something, it is automatically believed to be true (many are too lazy to check facts) and if it’s interesting, it will be shared a million times. Mistakes are remembered – mainly because we are all perfect and never make them. But, if the PR Professional should happen to make one, it has the potential to make headlines.
8. Limited space to correct rumors or give information. Twitter only allows 140 characters while Facebook has increased status characters to 60,000 (replies can still only be 5,000 characters). A PR Professional definitely needs to utilize multiple social media sites to spread their message or provide crisis management.
9. Annoying! All news sources (gossip and legitimate news) use social media. What this means for the public – the same story repeated over and over in their news feeds. The PR Professional needs to find a way to relay their information without it sounding like another version of a story that is already out there.
10. Information Overload! With social media companies (people and companies) are literally connected to everyone. Information can be found on anyone at anytime just by performing a Google search. The more information one provides about themselves, the easier they are to search. This means that the PR Professional needs to find the happy balance between providing enough information to be searchable and not providing too much information so they are over represented.
Rebecca Baldwin 
Great list!