Social Media Risk and Governance: Managing Enterprise Risk
Phil Mennie, Kogan Page, 2015

Given the burgeoning number of social media platforms and users on the internet today, it is surprising that more books have not yet been published to tackle the risks. I suspect there are more marketing books focusing on the opportunities, however. This convergence of professions gives the topic an interesting dynamic – and presents a set of challenges of its own for risk professionals.

Something I noticed at CIR's recent summit on the topic (where I happened to meet the author of this title; and see p12-13 in the current issue of CIR for a review of the key issues covered) was that the room was indeed a mix of brand professionals and risk professionals – each with their own view of what social media is and what it means to them.

Which leads me to the opening chapter of Phil Mennie's book. The issue with social media is that is used by a number of different stakeholders across any business. “It's difficult to manage [social media] effectively when there are so many stakeholders, each with their own objectives, agendas, skillsets and experience,” he writes. “Governance is all about how you operate social media... bringing stakeholders together and encouraging them to work towards one common goal – the success of your business.”

In his day-to-day job, Mennie helps clients of PwC navigate the risk and governance landscape of social media, which is about more than just having a social media policy. And with this book, he sets out to focus on that common goal by tackling some of the challenges and themes that have cropped up during his many conversations with clients as they seek to navigate that new and relatively uncharted risk landscape.

As such Social Media Risk and Governance tackles culture, strategy, policy and training, regulation crisis management, cyber security, technology and potential future developments in the sphere.

In a years' time, I suspect there will be more books like this, but this will still be one of the first to tackle this important risk, and undeniable opportunity. I also expect that this inevitable confluence of the risk and brand worlds could have a positive effect on the management of reputational risks more generally.

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