Companies are having a real tough time dealing with the uncontrollable exposure they receive at the hands of social media. At Forrester, I cover emerging channels and help companies figure out what’s going on and how they can use these technologies and channels. I constantly get calls from clients asking how to deal with feedback that is outside their control (positive or negative). But control is a big issue for firms, that’s largely what the PR department does — spin messages in the company’s favor and make bad news disappear. Those tactics just don’t work any more. All of this activity is forcing brands to be more transparent. Back in March, Wired published a great article on the subject (The See-through CEO — 15.04).

It boils down to the fact that companies must be more open about their flaws, and that’s really hard for companies to do. But think about it. The exposure is already happening and it’s not going away. Companies that try to hide it and get caught suffer even more ridicule. For example, Wal-Mart was exposed for not properly disclosing (note: full article for subs only) the relationships of the authors of it’s Walmarting Across America blog. Sony suffered a similar problem for it’s attempt at a fake blog authored by teens about the PSP. While companies have a lot to learn, I still give Wal-Mart (and Edelman) some credit for trying to blog. This is just uncharted territory and someone had to make the first mistake. Now we have a better idea where the boundaries are.

From a design thinking perspective, I think there’s a lot of opportunity to use design as the method of communication rather than the marketing approach. Designers create solutions that communicate values all the time. Maybe marketers should work more closely with designers to craft that outreach strategy. Or, what if designers became the new marketers…?