I recently participated in a compelling conference on social media. One of the most interesting dialogues centered on the importance of Wingmen — those brand advocates who will support your brand in the dogfight that social media has become.

Before we can define the value of Wingmen in the social media environment, we must first agree on a definition of the form. Unfortunately, due to the category’s lack of maturity, there are nearly as many definitions of social media as there are tools to leverage it. Among the most concise is Wikipedia’s:

Social media is media designed to be disseminated through social interaction, created using highly accessible and scalable publishing techniques. Social media uses Internet and web-based technologies to transform broadcast media monologues (one to many) into social media dialogues (many to many). It supports the democratization of knowledge and information, transforming people from content consumers into content producers.

Unfortunately, democratization gives everyone a voice, advocate and detractor alike.  In this environment every brand issue, real or imagined, can surface at any time and in nearly any place. Once an issue is in the fore, conversation runs rampant and the battle is on. Literally before an organization is aware they can be the target of a brand slam.

When it comes to such situations, many companies decide to come to their own defense. Unfortunately, as one might expect, the explanations tend to sound… well, defensive or worse yet arrogant. In these cases, the brand detractors gain momentum so, rather than winning the battle, the brand is just providing ammunition to their opponent. For a good example of brand detraction, go to youtube.com and view the United Airlines Taylor Guitar Video.

Third party support in the form of a Wingman delivers a brand message more effectively than a company ever could. No brand is devoid of advocates or they wouldn’t be in business. These advocates are your best friends, they speak the language of your brand more credibly than you could dream of and they are your best allies in any brand battle.

Of course, you will always face brand detractors, but the advocates have every bit as good a chance to dispel negative conversation and positively influence other consumers. The key is identifying the potential Wingman, engaging them to defend and grow the brand and properly arming them for the battles to come. And, remember all your Wingmen don’t have to come from your customer ranks there are many other potential sources of support on so large and dynamic a battleground.

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