Web 2.0: Companies Gain Competitive Edge with Social Networking Tools In a world that is becoming increasingly digitized, maintaining your reputation through press releases and advertising may no longer be enough.  Social media has opened up an entirely new way for people to communicate. Blogs, wikis, YouTube, Twitter, to name just a few, are quickly shifting communication from monologue to dialogue interactions.  The ability to publish content is becoming ever more accessible.  With such an enormous volume of information being created and exchanged daily, participating, monitoring and facilitating content flow are necessary approaches in preserving your company's reputation. Pete Blackshaw, executive vice president of strategic services at Nielsen Online and local Cincinnatian, would agree.  Blackshaw's recently published book, Satisfied Customers Tell Three Friends, Angry Customers Tell 3,000 , illustrates the impact the Internet-driven age has had on today's business and ways to stay competitive in this consumer-driven world.  Check it out! Unfortunately, many companies have learned the importance of monitoring social media the hard way. Monitor Social Media ... Or Else Dell's reputation was seriously compromised when Jeff Jarvis, a credible blogger, shared his negative experience with the company via the Internet.  Similarly, Comcast felt the sting of online criticism when a customer posted a YouTube video of a Comcast technician falling asleep on the job.  It received 1.2 million hits and more than 750 comments.  Even worse, disgruntled customer and columnist for Advertising Age, Bob Garfield, started a Web site called ComcastMustDie.com, which has received hundreds of blog comments within the last few years empathizing with Bob's frustrations. If You Can't Beat Them ... Social Media cannot be controlled.  The media landscape continues to change as customers are becoming contributors and corporations are beginning to take notice.  Since its negative press, Comcast has made monitoring social networks and blogs top priority. Their efforts have paid off.  Customer, C.C. Chapman, posted a complaint on Twitter when he noticed a mark on his new high-definition television. Within 24 hours, a Comcast technician was on-site to address the problem, spurring Chapman to relay his positive experience through a podcast. Southwest Airlines has also taken the role of social media seriously.  They have created a social media division where Twitter, Facebook, YouTube, Flickr and LinkedIn are scanned daily for comments and fact-checking. By keeping an eye on the Internet, Southwest is able to respond quickly to negative attention and proactively address customer needs. Understanding and utilizing these new technologies will give your company a competitive edge.  We can help.  Please visit our Web site to learn more about Vehr Communications.  Also, feel free to contact us if we can be of further assistance to your company on this important topic. Our White Paper on Social Media Vehr Communications brings nearly 5 decades of experience to strategic communications. Get more familiar with social media trends and check out our White paper.  We're not trying to answer big questions. We are hoping to connect you to informed ideas and opinions so we can learn together. Good Reads about Social Media Amazon: 1. Satisfied Customers Tell Three Friends, Angry Customers Tell 3,000 by Pete Blackshaw 2. Social Media Marketing: An Hour a Day by Dave Evans 3. Groundswell: Winning in a World Transformed by Social Technologies by Charles Li & Josh Bernoff 4. The New Influencers: A Marketer's Guide to the New Social Media by Paul Gillin 5. Secrets of Social Media Marketing: How to Use Online Conversations and Customer Communities to Turbo-Charge Your Business by Paul Gillin PR News, PR Insights This edition of March Forth provides links (on left) to some excellent blog discussions on this ever-evolving social media movement.  As practitioners, we use communications to manage reputations, build relationships and deliver results.  The Internet is changing how we do it, but how we have always done it is just as important. We hope the connections we provide here, and the various additional news outlets and blogs we connect to on the Vehr Communications' Web site, help you to understand this rapidly changing industry as much as they help us.