I swear, I went to this panel despite not because of the PG-rated name. That being said, sometimes it’s nice to attend an event that knows not to take itself too seriously right from the title.

As Internet denizens, perhaps even avid Twitter users, you may have gone online to express your… ahem… unfavorable thoughts on a particular brand, product, campaign or customer service failure. You know you’ve all complained about something. The $64K question becomes – does this ultimately help or hurt the company that has so thoughtlessly offended YOU (don’t they know who YOU are???)?

The answer lies in what exactly the company does with the information they receive from their customers. The beauty of social media is that for the first time ever, customers are able to talk back to corporations, and thanks to real-time web (shameless plug: read my post on real-time web here), the things that customers have to say really do matter. If companies respond by fixing the issue, overall perception of the brand will be positive. However, if the company uses social media as a marketing tool only and ignores complaints or questions, a brand’s image is likely going to suffer.

Now, because we’re close and I’m nice, I will let you in on a secret: I have found that asking a company to solve my issue through Twitter is an absolute shortcut through the clutter of 800-numbers, endless menus, and unhelpful customer service reps. Additionally, being a responsible Internet citizen, I shower the company with praise after issue resolution. Yet every time I type up a 140-character complaint, I wonder just how long this tiny customer-service shortcut will last – once *everyone* discovers the power of Twitter, it will probably become unsustainable for any company to operate their customer service through this platform.