But you can add value in a lot of ways.

BTW, when I choose who to follow the @ is just part of how I make that decision. I love when people RT people or link to others blogs as well.

Answering a customer query in a Tweet seems more about showing the world that you respond rather than actually about addressing the issue–like when companies spend millions of dollars advertising that they are giving a hundred thousand dollars to a charity.

I think that Twitter was better before it was flooded companies. Micro-blogging seems too restrictive a field for real conversation even if its value for sentiment monitoring and information transfer is high.

Thanks for the out of the “echo chamber” response. It’s great to have conversations with people like you, who have a different take on social media than myself.

As with any social network, they are what you make of it. If you want it to be a broadcast medium, but all means broadcast.

As for businesses that want to broadcast with social media however, they are never going to achieve the “following” or connection with their audience that social media can provide them.

We can already get these messages from their website and advertising. To develop loyal customers you must let them connect with your brand, the people behind the brand, and you must show them they are valued.

In other words the best thing brands can do is to treat their customers as friends, and I don’t want a friend that doesn’t listen or interact.