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Jennifer,

There's nothing wrong with companies rushing to get involved with social media. That's where many of the people talking about their brand live, so it's a good thing that they're moving there as well. But you're point is very well taken. Companies need to start by listening.

In his book “Word of Mouth Marketing”, Andy Sernovitz wrote, “The best word of mouth you can get comes from doing something good.” It begs the question of priorities when millions are being spent on poorly-executed ad campaigns when marketers could spend much less and get a higher return by simply tuning into the real, authentic conversations that exist.

Here's the three-step alternative method I recommend as a way of getting started:

1. Find an intern or junior staffer with not much to do.

2. Put them in front of a computer. Use Google News, Google Blogsearch, and Technorati and search for your name, your clients, and your industry.

3. Ask for daily reports.

Simple.

Our company, a PR firm based in Chicago, recently had a similar experience and blogged about it. Click the link below for the gory details, but the quick summary is that we never got a response. Zip.

http://tinyurl.com/2grzm5

----
Michael E. Rubin
Call me -- 312-787-7249 x212
Tell a friend—fight destructive spin! http:///www.spinsucks.com
See what I’m up to—http://twitter.com/merubin
See a picture of an orangutan—http://tinyurl.com/yosceb

Posted by: Michael Rubin, Arment Dietrich on September 14, 2007

Jennifer, or is it micro business guru. Love your articles, I`m about to creep into the whole social media experience. I`ve been following your example for a while now by starting a small web business on NOTHING! Just lots of time to work on it. What fun.

Posted by: John Pointon on September 21, 2007

Thanks for posting John! Always good to hear from readers that are diving into the fun. :) Please stick around and let us know how things go, we'd love to hear from you over in the Small Business Ideas forum.

Posted by: Jennifer Laycock on September 21, 2007