Fast forward to the present and you’ll see the complete opposite is in effect. There is an all-out blitz on social media by companies wanting more customer-brand interaction. It’s not just feedback they’re looking for, but actual interactions and interest. Brands want to become more a part of their customers’ lives by becoming more involved with their daily social media activities. And it really is no surprise businesses would want to jump on the social media bandwagon. Over 350 million people use Facebook and it is one of the most visited sites on the web. It would be a huge mistake for a business to overlook the marketing benefits it could gain by tapping into that giant audience.

A brand can’t simply create a fan page and expect results, though. The user-generated content will never appear and people will never follow a brand that has nothing interesting to get people involved. So, brands are constantly soliciting responses out of the social media users by posting announcements, questions, updates, sales, polls, games, and anything else you can think of. The game now is for the company to get you talking about them. Good or bad they’ll let you speak your mind and leave your mark (they’d much rather have the good). The control is no longer entirely in the hands of the brand as they have given in to democracy where any person can voice their opinions. Sure, they could just delete the negative comments, but that is frowned upon in the social media world and defeats the purpose of the system.

In a time when user-generated content is constantly updating and flowing onto our smart phones, PCs and TVs, brands have become aware of the power of social media and have just one thing on their mind: What do you to have to say?