OPEN

Find the original report on MediaPost.

One telling quote in the article from Brian Clark

CEO of GMD Studios the agency which ran the campaign from Audi was:

"People are talking about you whether you’re listening or not."

This point is one which businesses need to take on board with all of
their communications and indeed their approach to communicating with
their customers, partners, suppliers et al.

My current prescription (I may change my mind later)  for the
timid corporation or public body upon whom it is dawning that they need
to deal with social media:

1. Start listening to the conversations
   out there (or get yourself a professional who can filter the noise and
   explain what’s going on).

2. Have an honest conversation in the
   organisation about what the opportunities and threats are and in what
   spirit you should respond.

3. Decide how you will hear and respond to stories quickly and with integrity to deal with misunderstandings and genuine problems.

    

4. Start playing with the medium – start up internal blogs, wikis and podcasts. Encourage as many people as possible to have a go.
5. Decide how you are going to deal with the medium across all of
   your communications – marketing, PR, sales, support and customer
   service.