I found Doug deGrood’s recent article, This Social-Media Kegger Not All It’s Cracked Up to Be, to be quite insightful and worth a read by anyone looking to start social-media and Internet marketing efforts.

Especially if you if you are considering handing money to a company to assist you with your efforts.

As one of the comments asks. “Didn’t ANYBODY pay attention to the Internet bust of 1999?”

I do remember and my business has survived it.

The absolutely outrageous ideas and services that people shelled out tens of thousands of dollars out for (on the low side) would eventually lead to the bubble bursting with only serious plans surviving.

My favorite point made in the article is:

“Marketing is no longer a one-way conversation; it’s a dialogue.”

For the record, consumers have always had “relationships” with brands. And we’ve always had means to communicate with them, and share our passion or disdain for them with others. It’s just a lot easier now. And faster. But on the other hand — THIS JUST IN — not every member of the human race wants to have a relationship with the company that manufactures his or her toothpaste. Freaky, I know, but true.

Further to the point of dialog is that in the past the relationship might actually have been stronger and consumer opinion more enduring.

Dominos recent public relations nightmare (which I am not detailing to help prove a point) is a good example. The issue spread like wildfire across the Internet and Social Networks in a very short period of time.

However a quick search today for Dominos Pizza in Google’s web and news sections returns only one result related to the incident and it’s the one result Dominos would want you to find.

In under 60 days enough new content has been published online so that unless you are looking for the incident specifically you would not readily find out about it.

A company’s online image is more fluid today than it might have been in the past and that while disasters can strike, time may in fact heal all wounds.