In addition, the online customer feedback about FirstGov is widely supportive: of roughly 700 messages received by FirstGov in its first week, the vast majority were both supportive of the site and excited about the opportunity to help make the site better through their comments.

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"In return we wanted to to give the fans a place to interact with their favourite artist through comments, podcasts, lots of photos etc, " he adds.

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In the Nestles incident, support grew to over a million people who participated in the campaign and voiced their opinions vociferously through blogs, tweets and comments.

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Through comments on social media, the creators began to learn their viewers' habits: Some had to stop watching when they were interrupted at home or simply didn't have time to finish.

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The challenge is whether consumers are able to find a reflection of their comments on social media pages in the new products presented through online and offline sales channels.

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Clinton just stepped through a racial minefield and just didn't understand that where they were stepping and how their comments would resonate in the black community?

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As an added benefit, the service generates traffic: by default the comments of Facebook users can be seen by their friends, who are then able to click through to the original webpage.

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Laurence Toney was running Ebay's collectibles category in 2005 and tried to push through a plan to let fans of collectibles display their stuff free of charge on Ebay and then chat and post comments.

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