In addition to providing opportunities for companies to develop their corporate development strategies, engaging individuals on social media platforms allows organizations to provide enhanced customer service experiences to their consumers. According to a December 22, 2011 press release, a new study suggests that many customers believe that such interactions will shape the way that corporations interact with people at the customer service level.

The report, published by Conversocial, indicates that 78 percent of respondents believed that social media would soon replace current customer service channels and become the dominant means of communication between companies and their customers. More than half of the individuals polled stated that they used websites like Facebook and Twitter to reach out to corporations.

Other key findings of the report suggest that two-way communication is vital to a company's image and brand reputation. Of the individuals polled, 45 percent stated they would be angered by a company's failure to respond to their concerns through social media platforms, and more than 20 percent said they would stop doing business with a company that failed to reply to their concerns altogether.

"The message to companies from their customers is now clear: if you want to speak to us in social media, you better be prepared for us to speak back," Josh March, chief executive officer of Conversocial, said in a statement. "If your company is on Facebook or Twitter, be prepared to treat these social networks as serious customer service channels. If not, you risk losing not just your current customers communicating with you via posts and tweets, but the vast number of potential customers who now have a window to see how you respond to [or ignore] your customers in full public view."

There are many ways for companies to leverage the power of social media platforms to improve their brand reputation and address customer service concerns. According to an October 28th, 2011 post by news blog Mashable, the flexibility and accessibility of social media can be a powerful tool in providing customers with a rewarding experience.

For example, one way to meet the changing needs of today's consumers is to decentralize the customer service team through social media. Mashable reports that online retailer Zappos requires that all staff undertake four weeks of customer service training to enable them to understand what customers expect. Officials from Zappos also told Mashable that during the holidays, staff will be diverted from other business areas in order to ensure that customers interacting with the organization through social media can be answered in a timely fashion.