Thought of the day. There is a lot of discussion about the good things and the bad things that social media can do for companies. From a Marketing, Product Development and Customer Support POV, we believe this is the best thing to happen to your respective departments in a long time!

Back in the pre-web and web 1.0 days, companies would conduct expensive research through 3rd party analysts, focus groups, customer surveys, feedback cards and various techniques and tools to try to understand what their consumers wanted and or did/didn't like about their products or services. Conversations about your company in past decades went unchecked in living rooms, events, and the work place across America - good or bad - without any ability for you to:

• Monitor
• Influence
• Intervene
• or Interject.

If a customer had a negative experience with your company, chances are they would tell many people and the damage was done - unless of course they took the time to call or write a letter. If they had a positive experience there was no efficient way to hear about it.

Among the many benefits of social media, the best attribute is perhaps transparency. Company’s now have complete unfiltered and open dialog with their customers and prospective buyers. People still talk offline, but more and more they are talking online through blogs, discussion forums, consumer reviews and tools like Twitter. If you want to find out what Joe consumer thinks about your product or service, a quick pulse of the social web will reveal a wealth of real-time conversations good or bad. And wouldn't your rather know what people are saying about you company?