... a recent survey by consumer feedback network Bizrate revealed 59 percent of users consider customer reviews to be more valuable than those from experts.

...is further reinforced by a JupiterResearch study in which 77 percent of online shoppers indicated that they rely on consumer-initiated reviews and ratings.

tap into the wisdom of the crowd made up of consumers who are "just like them" to inform their purchasing decisions.

Tip of the iceberg, tip of the iceberg.

The article is fine, though the advice is rudimentary. Essentially, it says companies should pursue blogs, and look into social networks. Okay, fine. What it leaves out are the internal activities a company has to pick up in order to be able to do anything with what they learn from getting in the conversation.

This article is not the only one to leave people with the impression that the new "social" is an external phenomenon -- something you can hire somebody to deal with, or repurpose one of the marketing guys to look into. Sometimes called enterprise 2.0, the new "social" layer transforms not only the way people make buying decisions, but offers us the possibility of redefining the way we work altogether.