It is true that corporations do look at the engagement analytics of the personal endorsement in their campaigns these days. It used to be called "astro turfing" and was considered a black hat practice.
There is more to social media than applying social pressure in the point of purchase, however. Companies such as http://getsatisfaction.com/ use an "outside in" approach to involve the customer in the product/service design cycle.
There is also the use of corporate social media in enterprise collaboration.
Check out http://it.toolbox.com/blogs/future-of-work/towards-a-more-sane-recipe-for-effective-corporate-social-media-37514 which calls for corporations to use social media in a white hat way.
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