FINALLY! Big companies have been extremely slow to embrace social networking into their corporate cultures. In some ways this is so strange, because large organizations are the ones who have the resources and capabilities to quickly implement new technologies and change the way we do business. On the other hand, its often the new, start-up companies that actually bring us the newest innovations.

For awhile now, big businesses have been unsure how they can use Twitter, Facebook, LinkedIn, blogs, forums, etc. to increase sales. That has been their main problem: its not social selling, as Nora Ganim Barnes, a marketing professor and director for the Center for Marketing Research at the University of Massachusetts Dartmouth, describes the actions of some Fortune 500 companies.

Companies can accomplish many things with social media tools and on Twitter, Comcast has been a great example with their @comcastcares account which responds to every single customer concern and complaint that comes accross that Twitter page. Organizations can also use Twitter and other tools to build online communities where they can perform customer service and let current and prospective customers engage with each other. Additionally, brand awareness can be built using these tools and at extremely low cost.

Adam Brown, Director of Social Media at Coca-Cola, has the following to say about his experience with social media in a large company:

“Multinational corporations, such as Ford Motor Co. and Coca-Cola Co., are beginning to use social media to increase positive sentiment, build customer rapport and correct misinformation,” says Adam Brown, Coca-Cola’s Atlanta-based director of social media. “Having the world’s most-recognized brand, we feel like there’s an obligation or a responsibility when people are talking about us, we have a duty to respond,” Brown says.

I say that’s good stuff and I hope these organizations, who serve so many of us in some way each and every day, continue to want to be where we are in order to better communicate with us!