Zappos.com is cleverly using quirky product videos on its blog which are also available on YouTube. If you like what you see on the video you can simply click through from the video to buy the product. Using LinkedTube which enables you to link to your e-commerce web site. How neat is that?

Now don’t tell me that there are not other retailers out there who could
be using these methods to engage their social media audiences and drive sales?

What’s good about these videos are that they are fresh, direct and quirky. It’s like you are having a conversation with a fun friend. Which is spot on. They are not slick traditional PR corporate ad videos. Far from it. Zappos has got a great intuitive grasp of the power of social media. It’s a valuable case study.

Pizza Hut is advertising for a summer “Twintern” – someone to be their social media journalist who will share what is happening at the company and interact with fans in 140 characters or less.

The intern will also monitor online conversations about the brand, alerting staff of any developing negative conversations.

The internship will be based at the company’s headquarters in Dallas and will be an integral part of the PR team, focusing on new and emerging social media such as Twitter, Facebook, and others.

Good to see a major company taking Twitter seriously. There is so much that you can do with Twitter. One service we are offering is: using Twitter to communicate with journalists. And we have a real live journalist who can tell you what works best.

There is a risk with Twitter that you just go ahead and do it. Without thinking what will work best and what are the best policies to follow. So we strongly advise taking specialist advice before plunging into the world of tweets.

Also despite what Pizza Hut is doing. You don’t have to be young to use Twitter or to understand its power as a new communications channel.

After the initial buzz around Second Life three or four years ago, the initial hopes that it would prove a valuable tool for business have apparently been disappointed. Commentators have criticised it for being clunky to use, for suffering from technical problems and for being nothing more than another way for Internet geeks to waste time.

Yet Second Life hasn’t gone away. A number of global businesses such as IBM, PA Consulting and BT have set up shop there, though mostly on a small scale. IBM is the company that has put most resources into the technology, using it for training sessions, collaboration between people in different geographies, and for modelling particular scenarios for its customers.

As usual, however, it is the young who will determine whether the technology fades or flourishes. Universities and colleges have been discovering the value of virtual classrooms: at Leicester University, archaeology students have walked round a virtual recreation of a Sami society in Second Life, while paramedic students at St George’s Hospital tackle simulations of real life accidents. In examples such as these, Second Life has demonstrated its usefulness by letting participants do things that simply can’t be done any other way.

Despite its current small-scale use, my prediction is that Second Life – or a similar virtual world – could, in a few years’ time, be as popular as Facebook is now. Why? It’s not just that the technology will improve and become more user-friendly. It’s that the next generation will be ready for it.

While a lot of media attention focuses on Generation Y and their liking for Twitter and instant messaging, if we want to know what the future looks like, we should study the under-12s. And they’re all using Club Penguin, Bin Weevils and Runescape – mini virtual worlds that are as natural to them as writing an email is to the over-40s.

Don’t believe me? Come back in 10 years and tell me if I’m wrong.

The arrival of social media  clearly heralds a change which companies cannot ignore. Key audiences are no longer passive recipients of company messages. They are participating. They are having conversations about brands and company news. They are making their own comments and sharing them with their peers in real-time.

Broadcasting messages to these audiences in a traditional mass media style is not going to work. No one likes megaphone style messaging especially when they are with their friends and colleagues. Besides it is anti social behaviour. It makes no attempt to listen and be relevant. Nor does it try to add something useful or interesting to add value.

In order to retain customer  loyalty, companies are going to have to reinvent the way they communicate through social media. It’s going to be far more one-to-one and personal. Traditionally companies would reserve all their personal attention for a reporter from the FT or the Wall Street Journal or the Today Programme. Now companies are beginning to realise that individuals through social media deserve respect and attention if they are to remain or be converted into brand custodians. Especially as they have extensive social networks of their own.

These individuals will not be satisfied with traditional company messaging or brochures. They require something more authentic, honest and useful to them. Otherwise they will ignore you because you don’t sound like one of them.

This poses a number of challenges.  If you respond to what is being said about you through social media, what are the risks of legitimising a small group of customers who are spreading false stories about you? If you post a comment in response to a piece on a blog, are you prepared to enter into a conversation? Is there a risk that you will come over big brother-ish and scare the living daylights out of an individual who never expected to meet a representative of a big company personally on Twitter?

Using social media is quite  different to traditional methods of communication. As a former journalist, I can remember how reassuring it was to have an editor at the Guardian to check my work before it was published and to know that they would vet any reader letters before deciding whether or not to publish them. Now when I post for my Media Week blog, Bloggerati, publication is instantaneous and readers comments can appear in minutes. I can remember my initial stage nerves. However you soon get used to it. People are different when they realise they are accountable for their opinions. If you are polite and respectful online, it can go a long way.

For some companies there are certain audiences who will never agree with your views. However I believe you can draw some of the poison out by entering into reasonable discussions and explaining your position as best you can. So long as you talk like a human being and not in the language of corporate spin.

Companies who participate more,  who observe the social etiquette of particular communities, and talk one to one with more audience members will do better. Rather than allowing festering comments and misconceptions to linger, the company which tackles them head on in a fresh and honest way will gain respect and build up their social capital online.

Seeing the amount  of social media comments and posts about your business for the first time is daunting. Large organisations are seen as easy targets. But when individuals see and meet people within these organisations,  some of their stereotypical views will melt. Imagine a group of people talking disparagingly about someone in the corner of a room. Then they meet the person and discover that person is quite different to what they have been told. It will be hard for them to cling to their same views from then on. It might be uncomfortable to begin with but if that person persists in being open and friendly and respectful, they are bound to begin to wield more cultural influence in a positive way than they did before.

Many companies who are fearful of participating with social media, soon discover it is much easier than they think when they develop their own platforms so they can communicate directly with key members of their audiences. If you find you have people talking about you on blogs, Twitter, Facebook and You Tube (which you probably have) and you are not there, effectively you are silent. But create a platform for yourself through Twitter, and blogs, and through participation you will begin to gain social experience and providing you use these channels effectively, you will begin to exert cultural influence through the audiences and their networks that you engage with.

Entering into conversations will require companies to reinvent the ways they communicate. It will require them to reinvent working patterns. But no company can ignore social media and those that reinvent themselves more quickly will do better faster and I think the world of corporate communications will be better for it. There is an opportunity here to empower experts within your organisation to impress and motivate customers. Conversations are the new marketing.

Those hesitating to engage with social media. Those that talk up the risks too much should consider the fate of some newspapers who have for ages treated the internet as a threat and have criticised Google without identifying the opportunities for themselves to create new types of journalism. There are new types of corporate communications to be created and now is the time to begin creating them. Being ostrich-like will only leave the way open for cannier competitors.