At the risk of repeating myself, consider the following statements:

1. Never before have brands had so much data about their customers or capabilities to analyse this data
2. Never before have we had customers so willing to interact with brands and each other online (social media, user generated content)
3. Yet, we are the least connected that we will ever be...

Not too long ago one of the people I follow on twitter posed the rhetorical question; ‘when is the last time your loyalty programs showed it was loyal to you? ‘ Mmmm go me thinking.

Well, I guess it was just a matter of time... ever more sophisticated consumers looking to exercise their economic muscle and progressive companies providing them with the platform to do so. 

We have talked about the rise in consumer power before; what is new are the brands that have not just seen the writing on the wall but turned this into a positive. 

Setting Objectives for Customer Communities

Embarking on customer engagement online seems overwhelming at first – there are just so many possible ways of proceeding.