The near zero cost of accessing social media for business communication means that it's often not taken as seriously as other communication channels. Once a business accepts that the likes of blogs, Twitter accounts and Facebook pages provide a cost-effective way to reach their target audience – they usually enter the fray in a haphazard and ad hoc fashion, without much planning.

Most of us have fumbled our way through opening an account, learnt what works through likes and retweets… and a number of us also bear the emotional scars of discovering what doesn't work from the school of social media hard knocks or censorship – either the empty room syndrome, rude and irate responses, or watching follower or supporter numbers drop off.

I was recently asked to interview a local outdoor equipment retailer. Their latest earnings before income tax dropped more than 36% year-on-year – not quite as fast as an abseiler with a failed descender, but you get the picture. The brief was to find out what went wrong and what they planned to do to regain investor confidence.

When I made contact with the nearby head office, they "politely declined" my interview request.

Now, when it comes to media relations, turning down an interview is (usually) very short-sighted. It's done in an attempt to control the process, but in most cases declining an interview isn't actually going to stop a journalist from writing about you.

The story might not make the initial planned publication, or it might not be as compelling a read as it would be with an interview and quote – but it's probably not going to stop the story (or a variant thereof) being written.

Refusing an interview is the social media equivalent of not signing up and taking part in the conversation under the misguided belief that the conversation (good or bad) will not take place without you. It will.