Social media for the competitive enterprise

"Companies that still think they control whether they "do" social networks or not are terribly mistaken."

That was my favorite quote by Erik Qualman in his April 3rd, 2008 article for Search Engine Watch. He uses John Deere as an example of a company that is involuntarily marketed by its users. At the time this article was written, there were over 500 Facebook groups devoted to John Deere, with 10,000 people as members of the most popular 10.

Social media has made it so that a business' clientele can organize and communicate with little to no effort. John Deere customers can inform each other if the company's products fall off, or if another competitor has outdone them.

There is no refuting that businesses are now tied to social media one way or the other. If your company is not actively promoting its products on the internet, you are providing the opportunity for your detractors to influence the conversation.

As obvious as this seems, I'm only going to be able to find a job in social media if more companies come to this realization!