Kelly — there is undoubted business value to be found in social media. I think the sharpest lesson Krista was teaching, however, is that those who pay the bills need more convincing. And even when they’re convinced, you may not find your customers are even in the social media playground. So we have a long way to go from these early days.

Which brings us to Joe’s excellent question, which received only a partial answer when I raised it on your behalf this morning, Joe. Krista did say consumers are open to being approached via social media, but on their terms and at times of their choosing. I think this is actually one of the great powers of social media — we build the channels and use them to engage with our communities, whose members are self-subscribing. That means they elect to engage with us on these channels. But it also means they can elect not to. I think this changes the nature of the engagement in subtle yet potent ways.

It’s great to finally see some data to support (or refute) what may of us are hearing anecdotally.

However, I still think one measurement is lacking – perhaps because it’s so hard to measure. How open are ‘consumers’ to hearing from businesses in the social media realms?

There seems to be an inherent assumption among social media advocates that all marketers / businesses have to do is figure out where their target audiences hang out, then approach them there.

There are examples of certain companies finding a receptive audience, of course, but I’m not sure these examples are necessarily representative of a broader trend. As Kelly points out, there’s room for a leader to step up and toe those waters – and perhaps that’s the only way to really know for sure. But I think there needs to be a greater understanding of the risk inherent in doing so.

This ain’t a field of dreams. Simply building your presence in a social space doens’t mean your customers are going to come a’running, even if they’re nearby.

Was the metaphor too much? Probably.