DISQUS

As to what you're asking, my answer is an astounding - YES, some brands are engaging only those whom they feel are influencers. Many social media practices doesn't believe in true conversations, but rather free advertising through blogs. As much as they hate to admit it, it's all that readership statistics at play. Saw the same episode with Samsung, Rummz and a couple other brands who are sneaking into social media in my country. I figured, that's enough to sum up the kind of "social media" they're doing.

Ironically, the better experiences come from foreign service providers (iStyles & Scribd) than my immediate environment when I wasn't really a customer to begin with. (And they actually shared information).

To be totally flat out about sales acquisition of new customers, it's not about the brands trusting the bloggers. The brands should be more worried about if bloggers trust them. If they're continuing with the kind of favoritism that they have, I don't see how they can guarantee that my problems with their products will be attended to in future. Simply - bad customer service. If not for certain better functions, I would have drop that brand totally. But then again, I can't find a better replacement. That isn't a good reason for brands to get all high and mighty.

Hey peeps, happy holidays to you too and let's welcome 2009.

I feel point 3 really hit it on the right note, regarding acknowledging criticism and dealing with them right. I recalled the day I was searching for a webhost so desperately, and found myself reading up Dreamhost's blog. Archive after archive i went until I hit the incident where another webhost literally started a fake blog with malicious intents on Dreamhost. The supporters went all out to defend Dreamhost, with some of them playing detectives which led to the discovery of the true identity behind the fake blog.

Brand evangelists are such powerful testimonials, not just by words but also in practice.

Not forgetting... nobody ever seemed to response to emails submitted. It's plain silent when their assistance is needed.

And now where's the steak? LOL!

Friendfeed? I gave up on it.

If we are able to take a conscious look at some of these blogs, the authors are not replying to comments. A good example is Valeria of Conversation Agent, she takes great pride to engage her readers in comments. That marks the difference. If they're not even connecting with their readers who took the effort to leave comments, it takes little wondering to know why comments will gradually fall out of favour - in their own posts. It definitely says nothing about comments going dead.

I'm not a Digg user because I have never used it due to my reservations about it. Not intending to rebutt you, but rather, do we really expect nothing out of a social media campaign other than relationships? In truth, we are all working towards what comes after the relationships are established. It's almost like establishing brand evangelists through conversations with foster the relationships. That's only how I feel, which may differ from you.

Since I don't agree with Digg's (or rather the top user's) practice, I am only reduced to the idealogy it's just another traffic-raking site.