• Social Media is NOT a Silver Bullet
• Putting the Cart Before the (Social Media) Horse
• Why is Social Media So Hard For Businesses?
• What Blogs Should You Be Reading?

Do you have more info about this survey from Cone? What does the term "social media" mean as used? I really dont beleive the 93% figure unless of coruse they are talking about a survey conducted amongst people like you and I? Most people i know who use the internet who are not part of the twitter, active blogging crowd, social media aware crows, rarely even understand these terms.

I always take some of these things with a pinch of salt.

Mike

Posted by: mike ashworth on October 2, 2008

Mike check out the link to Church of the Customer above, I believe Ben puts a link in your post where you can download the study. And I believe the study did talk to people that are active in social media.

Posted by: Mack Collier on October 2, 2008

Mack-
Looking at the eMarketer study, I see that discussion forums outrank blogs when it comes to online resources for customer care. What are your thoughts on company forums? We use both blogs and forums to communicate with our customers about service.

Kara Krautter
Dell Small Business Community Manager
@kara_atDELL

Posted by: Kara Krautter on October 3, 2008

Hey Kara! I absolutely think that companies should be aware of what's being said about them on forums and message boards, and advise my clients to monitor them right along with blogs. Now as for a company starting their own forums, that's fine, but I think companies should also be willing to invest some time interacting with customers that are talking about them on non-company forums. I also think that review sites and places such as Amazon and Epinions should be routinely monitored for customer feedback.

It's all about spending time interacting with your customers in the places where they spend their time. But this is preaching to the choir with Dell, as you guys do an excellent job of interacting with us on blogs, Twitter, etc.

Posted by: Mack Collier on October 3, 2008

Mack I think monitoring who is talking about your business can be accompliched using Google alerts

I am surprised that the increase is only 33%. Thought it wold be like 200%
I mean the amount of blogs, especially affiliate marketing blogs popping up here and there, and the quality content that can be found on these blogs, I thought blog creation was set to increase exponentially

Posted by: Niche Marketing Guide on October 4, 2008

I don't think it's possible to ignore blogs and social media networking. For a start it’s a way of free marketing PR, now you can promote your product or services using social media tools, like Facebook, MySpace. While you can get more advertisers to your company if you create a blog that has great content. You can’t even afford no to use these social networking sites as a hobby or to create money, there’s a site that I’ve found called www.ourswaps.com where you can swap, barter, exchange, trade or even sell products and services. OurSwaps allows you to combine cash offers with products or services so you can swap items that don't have an identical value. You have the possibility to buy, trade, promote and make money online, using social networking or trading sites is a must!

Posted by: Geek Barter on October 15, 2008

Here in South Africa the numbers are a lot lower and so are the number of blogs. All this said and done "having your say" is what blogs are all about and business will have to understand that if people are having their say "negatively" about your business you better be listening.

Posted by: SEO Tips on October 25, 2008