What can social media sites do for my organization?

I'm sure many of you are on Twitter, Plurk and other conversational social media sites. This dialogue is nice and all, but what does it mean for branding, marketing and public relations? Well, it is incredibly important because individuals wield the power to sway, convey and share anything, and everything, they want. There was an old marketing saying that said 'for every positive experience a person has they tell two people but for every negative experience a person has they tell 7 people'. This helped to direct companies to do what was in the best interest of the customer. From here flowed the concept of being consumer centric or consumer focused. Today, with the help of social marketing sites, people can share their opinions and experiences in an instant, and to multiple people around the world, who may then share it multiple times again. It is powerful.

So, what is your company doing to be proactive with their online marketing strategy? Are you listening to your customers? Do you know who your customers are? Do you know how to find them? How often are you having conversations with your best customers? Can you quickly identify a customer who has voiced a concern online and address it immediately before it spirals through viral communications? What sort of value or savings comes from having satisfied customers who feel engaged and appreciated?

Ok, so there are a lot of questions to consider. I'll try to address these over the next month. Maybe give you the rationale and motivation to make the leap to 2008... and shift your organization's thinking about engaging customers.