Knowing and Making

The idea of businesses using social media for marketing has bubbled up to the BBC , which I guess means it is now mainstream. The article talks about some relatively low-key applications: market research, networking with potential suppliers and local promotions. Not sure about this quote: Companies that have jumped on the Twitter and Facebook bandwagon are reporting a surge in customers while others struggle. But of course social networking - just like traditional networking - is a good channel for businesses to talk to customers, create relationships and get introduced to new prospects via their existing clients - always a good way to build a quick reservoir of trust. The question for the economy as a whole - and especially for larger companies - is whether and how social marketing can be used for a mass market. One of the commercial benefits of large companies - and equivalently, the economic benefits of a liquid market - is that they reduce the transaction costs associated with smal...