Do you know that your customers are talking about you – so how does that make you feel? Social media has finally landed and it marks the beginning of something new.

Social sites like Facebook have drawn a critical mass of consumers and in fact according to website tracking company Hitwise “Facebook edged past Google Inc. to become the most visited U.S. Web site for the week ended March 13, the first time Google has been topped since 2007” The headline Facebook is now more popular than Google! Is now a reality!

So what does this mean for you? With consumer’s comments about your products and services being very easily shared and visible to more and more people who carry a lot of influence. In short, the social web empowers everyone to be an author and that of course can be both positive and negative.

With increased web browsing mobility and the web 2.0 revolution will have a direct impact on how companies engage with their customers and there’s no turning back.

This change marks a shift from companies and customers having a one-to-one interaction to consumers having simultaneous and public conversations. People are also increasingly looking for colleagues, friends and family to be their trusted advisors.

This highly mobile and collaborative world of social media means that as a minimum, marketers should at least be joining in even if it’s initially just to listen.
As yet, there are no clear rules for social media, which is in some ways the beauty of the beast. The steps for success however are not complex. It is not about selling something anymore: that might be the end result, but to get there, you need to work on the relationship.
Social media success is about listening and measuring and then actively engaging based on this knowledge.
No one can predict exactly how social media will evolve but the certain thing remains that it will.