Social Media Not Just for Reconnecting with Old Friends and Finding New Ones

Social media is used for a lot of things - reconnecting with old friends, telling your family what you're doing every minute of the day and establishing relationships with industry thought leaders and journalists - but it's being used in

An article in today's Boston Globe talks about how authorities in New Zealand nabbed a crook allegedly trying to break into a safe at a restaurant after they posted photos and video of the alleged thief on Facebook.

And in a bizarre case of how social media is being used, reporter Bryan Eisenberg brings us a story about how a chiropractor is suing a user on Yelp, a site where users can post reviews about restaurants, retails and doctors in their area, for negative reviews the user posted about the chiropractor.

The Yelp article raises good questions about word-of-mouth and online reviews, and the potential trouble if a business doesn't like what was posted about them. Businesses need to understand that social media is changing the way customers can interact with them, and rather than sue a person for something negative, try some old fashioned customer service. Hire a PR professional to help build your reputation and help out repairing the damage. It's what the 21st century is all about.