Businesses Can't Shut Out Their Customers Anymore

More and more businesses are paying attention to what blogs say.
They can't shut out their audience any more.

Business bites the blogging bullet

more and more firms are paying greater attention to what blogs are saying about them - and even trying to meet the bloggers halfway.
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Companies have been used to a level of control, and it's been very much a one-way street," says Matthew Yeomans of Custom Communication, an agency which seeks to help businesses navigate their way around the burgeoning blogosphere.

"For years, they've shut out their audience and hidden behind the world of PR. That's all blown out of the water now. They can't do that any more."
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It can be an amazing piece of market research that you can get for free," he says.

"The more enlightened companies are not trying to control this conversation, because they realise they can't. The web is out there for anyone to see. But the best companies are seeing that as an opportunity, not a threat."