With the growth of web-based social networks and a desire for transparency, trust and peace-of-mind messages, it shouldn’t be surprising that relationships rule these days in marketing. Like in life, relationships are everything. When you build relationships with consumers, you also build a band of brand loyalists that can become your most powerful source of word-of-mouth marketing, brand advocacy and brand guardianship. Building these lasting relationships with consumers is far more powerful than making a quick sale and turning your head to the next individual. Marketers and communicators are understanding the importance more and more and are starting to leverage the social web to interact with people around the world and build relationships that wouldn’t have been possible a decade ago.
It wasn’t long ago that business relationships were generated from networking events and face-to-face interaction such as trade shows. However, in today’s technology driven world, relationships are commonly built by using the tools of the social web. The Web has created a whole new way of building relationships, and we (as marketers) are no longer forced to focus on traditional (or monologue) marketing, where the marketer only talks to the customer. Which usually results in the customer to react and say something along the lines of “I am or am not interested.”
This new way of connecting to customers is exactly the same way we do with our personal relationships nowadays. That is, we utilize different communication channels such as Facebook, Twitter and YouTube. Come on, is it not easier to drop Aunt Betty a wall post rather than picking up the phone to be ear strained for an hour. This same technique applies to business, where by using these connection points you get to build a conversation. Would you want to talk about the simple and strategic messages that are created? You have short quick messages in real time that are focused on a single idea, not run-on like the phone call with Aunt B. Get to know your customers likes, interests and address them personally and strategically (via your message or medium of choice) about any issues they may be experiencing. Utilize this information to strengthen the relationship which in turn will help create better (and quite possible more) influencers among their social networks and potentially even create/design products and services they might want.
Step outside your comfort zone and get personal with your existing and potential customer base. It will not only change the way your business is viewed, but will bring you much success from the ambassadors you create.
As a part of the launch, SunChips is launching a national composting education initiative via strategic alliances with the U.S. Composting Council and Earth 911 to promote composting through educational materials, consumer outreach and other awareness-building activities. The goal is to reach more than one million American households directly through this effort. 
Before you rush into setting up your company blog (slow down there Ricky Bobby), it wouldn’t hurt to do a little research on your competitors blogs (if they are smart enough to have one), maybe pick up a book about blogging from Amazon (or Borders-they need the sales) and even looking at Technorati to see who has the best blogs out there to give yourself something to aim for (besides Sarah Palin). Your blog is only as good as writer(s) though (I grant myself an exception), so you will want to make sure the person (or people) contributing are knowledgeable about your company and the industry. Your CEO is probably the best primary voice of your blog. Take into consideration Southwest Airlines, their CEO Gary Kelly, posted a question on the Southwest Blog about possibly changing the seating arrangements which “die-hard” Southwest customers came to love. This possible change erupted into hundreds of comments ultimately resulting in the company keeping their current seating policy. This was smart, take the idea to the people, the ones who in the end are putting dinner on your employees table and paying for that Ice Rink of a engagement ring (did you go to Jared?) you just bought your future ex-wife.
During the product’s test market phase last year, high consumer interest and demand drove people to travel for miles to sample the Colonel’s tasty new creation. From online chatter speculation to late night talk show mentions, the Double Down generated more buzz than any test market item in KFC history. 
As you can see, the average Twitter user is not a pre-teen Bieb-aholic, so I’m going to go with option A and say that Twitter must be pretty darn useful (and/or Justin Bieber is a much bigger deal than I thought). Twitter seems to be a great social marketing tool for businesses, but the real question is how can you utilize Twitter to make it beneficial for your company? I found the following nine tips in an article by Jason Snell at macworld.com and I believe they highlight the best strategies for company tweeting.
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