Over the years, marketing and public relations
departments have seen the tremendous benefits of maintaining an open line of communication
with the public. On a basic level, this transparency builds customer trust, which
builds brand loyalty, which can be gasoline for the word-of-mouth marketing fire.
Traditionally, a company??™s stream of communication has flowed in one direction: from
business to individual. Annual reports, financial statements, newsletters, mailing lists, and
letters from the CEO are all positive, proactive steps in informing the public about the
happenings inside the business, but they do not allow for reader feedback. All of these are
controlled environments in which public relations can operate; the best a customer could
do was respond with a letter or phone call to voice their opinion. The only forum where
opinions could be voiced by the public were annual shareholder meetings, or indirectly
through mainstream media.
The World Wide Web has leveled just about every communication-related playing field.
Web-based publishers can report news the second it happens, small media outlets can
compete with large media outlets, independent blogs can compete with all media outlets,
and any reader can instantly argue with anyone simply by posting a comment.
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