Brian Dunn, CEO of Best Buy, learned a difficult lesson in using social media as a communication tool (Robbins, Decenzo, & Coulter, 2013). What started as a great tool for communicating with his employees turned into a disaster. Brian Dunn's Twitter account was hacked by someone logging in as him and sending inappropriate messages to all of his connections. These devastating incidents can ruin companies and cause employees to question their leadership. Social media problems can be as small as one misspelled word to a customer posting negative comments about a company for the world to read. Further concerns include employee usage during working hours causing lack of productivity (Calvasina, Calvasina, & Calvasina, 2013). Additionally, the employee may use social media while driving a company vehicle or defame an individual and/or use it for insider trading. Second, social media can provide a platform for disgruntled employees to express their problems or publicize company trade secrets. These are all real concerns for companies and their legal advisors. In addition to the concern that current employees may cause problems with social media use, internally it can pose a danger. In some cases, potential candidates are asked to provide their password to allow a possible future employer to access their personal accounts. This invasion of privacy opens up huge legal implications for companies, especially if done during a hiring process. If a candidate doesn't get hired and can prove it's due to something on their social media accounts, it could cost a company large sums of money to settle claims or fight them in court. When a company uses social media to communicate with them...... middle of paper ......and our company has gained new patients due to positive reviews. Overall, social media has a very positive influence for companies and employees. Information can be obtained so quickly compared to a few decades ago. It has made our world a smaller place and that's good for all of us. Doing business globally was previously impossible and is now the norm. Our children are having access to the world and information that we never imagined could happen when we were children. References Calvasina, G. E., Calvasina, RV, & Calvasina, E. J. (2013). Concerted activity protected under the National Labor Relations Act and employee social media use: Policy and practice issues for employers. Journal of Business Studies, 5(2), 59-67.Robbins, S.P., Decenzo, D.A., and Coulter. M. (2013). Fundamentals of Management (8th ed.). Upper Saddle River, NJ: Pearson.