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The rise of the social Web has led to a fundamental shift in the way businesses of all sizes engage with their customers. Rather than focusing on "touch points" during the marketing and sales process, they're using social technologies to form meaningful, ongoing relationships that involve frequent online interactions, oftentimes through social channels.  

"There is something revolutionary going on, but not in the way people often think. This is about a lot more than generating Likes on Facebook and followers on Twitter. We are in the midst of a fundamental shift from mass communication to mass collaboration. This is the first time in our history that we can work together on a global scale. "

SceneTap is a maker of cameras that pick up on facial characteristics to determine a person's approximate age and gender. The company works with venues to install these cameras and track customers. It also makes web and mobile applications that allow random observers to find out, in real-time, the male-to-female ratio, crowd size, and average age of a bar's patrons. And no one goes unnoticed. "We represent EVERYONE in the venue," SceneTap proudly proclaims on its website.

Our industry is afflicted with shiny object syndrome, a focus on the new tools, without thinking about the content that will drive it. As we mature and the tools make it easier to share information, companies need to be extra sensitive to the content that will be shared, both that's created by the brand, and the customer.

"Social media can be a great way of increasing brand awareness, customer engagement and long term loyalty and generating a short term boost in sales, but it's also a potential minefield and in the worst case, a bottomless pit into which you endlessly shovel money with nothing much to show for it."

"Before preparing to tackle the wide array of topics, questions and issues that your customers will pose, it's important for the social media team to understand the different types of complaints and work out how to respond to each."

F acebook's imminent IPO should put to rest claims that social networking is a short-lived fad. Experts say sites like Pinterest, Twitter and Tumblr, Google+ and Svpply, Instagram and Spotify are reshaping shopping and turning old methods of customer engagement upside down.