Just as DNA evolves, to transform living organisms, helping them adapt to their enviroment, so does conversation. And DNA evolution affects other DNA. As organism evolve, they impact other organisms around them. Likewise with conversation.
The conversations appearing now within social media, a virtual world, modify each other, just as they do in the physical world. Yet, in social media, there aren’t the “checks and balances” that occur within normal conversation in the physical world. Check and balances such as facial expressions or body language augment what is being said, so that the receiver may use those cues to help put the verbal communication in context, evaluating its sincerity or even its veractiy.
This augmented communication doesn’t appear in social media, by and large.
This lack of augmentation leaves the door open for the creation of claims which have no basis, for fabrication, for lying. (Sort of like in a political campaign. 
) When aimed at a company or even an individual, such communication can have devastating results, with little or no recourse thanks to the anonymous nature of the medium.
This is a threat, which I’ll call “mutant conversation,” against which all companies must guard. The protection of their reputation is priceless, and must not be minimized. What steps must be taken in this pursuit? There are many, such as this one. But the first step is in the realization of the threat.
Conversation as evolving? I never thought this way. Good observation!
How true. How often have we seen social media conversations quickly become a “pile-on” that quickly deteriorates into “trashing and bashing” – making it very hard for anyone to enter the conversation with an opposing point of view thought? Maitaining one’s good reputation in cyberspace presents a unique challenge.