There is no doubt that web 2.0 styled 'social media' has a role to play in helping service providers raise their profile, increase their back-links and tap into/shape opinions. However, there is an element of 'be careful what you wish for' to these environments.

Site members, particularly from the UK, may remember back at the turn of century, before the web had version numbers, that NTL had more than its fair share of 'social media' attention in the form of nthellworld . The wikipedia entry, describes it as the first example of an online consumer lobby site in the UK.

In truth, NTL was receiving the attention of online lobbyists several years before the emergence of the higher profile site and it was the poor handling/lack of understanding of this emerging phenomenom by 'web illiterate' senior management that enabled sites like nthellworld to capture the imagination and gain a sizeable following amongst customers, competitors, employees and observers. In the end, NTL's only option seemed to be to turn the poacher to gamekeeper and acquired the site and its owner, lock, stock and barrel. Of course, no sooner was the original site assimilated, a new one appeared.

While it was true that Barclay Knapp's megalomania was out of step with the company's ability to deliver and the decision to offer unmetered 0800 dial-up access to the whole of the UK (except the recently acquired, and already disgruntled, C&W consumer network customers) was quite deeply flawed (history repeating itself with Talk Talk perhaps). It was the eagerness with which competitors and, particularly employees, jumped onto the bandwagon and used the comparative anonymity of the web that made this site such a potent force and provided fuel to an already raging fire. The legacy it created, particularly in terms of damage to the NTL brand, meant that the brand could never feasibly recover no matter how much effort was put in.

I must admit that this early rise in 'social media' fascinated me deeply and I studied closely what was happenning in an effort to gain a greater understanding. Whilst I won't venture into the realms of conspiracy theorists, suffice it to say that it is a good idea to approach all 'social media' environments with a healthy dose of paranoia as, quite often, not all is as it seems. Hence I find comments such as 'trust being inherent in the network' as being hopelessly optimistic and really quite laughable.

The first lesson is that if you don't provide your audiences with effective means to express opinions and their views to be heard then there is more than a chance that it will be done 'without you and about you'. However, be mindful of the approaches you use in this engagement and be prepared to resource them and use them effectively or you will be providing a wonderful environment for all manner of people to vent their spleen and turn your 'social media' efforts into something very 'anti-social'. Without suitable and skilled moderation, such environments can become easily dominated and manipulated by individuals to the extent that they can become polarised, meaningless and effectively shut down. You never know when you might attract someone who has some sort of axe to grind or point to make.

I personally fear that as 'social media' becomes more mass market it will veer much more towards being anti-social. You only have to look at a typical comment stream on youtube to see how quickly it descends into an abusive and expletive laden slanging match, or how vandelising  wikipedia entries can quickly become a popular sport.

Ratings mechanisms and feedback systems can become so subjective or insular as to become meaningless - an endless line up of people cooing and salivating over a picture of a daffodil on Flickr for example. To be honest, any image taken on a 10 megapixel camera, tweaked in Photoshop and viewed on a high res LCD display is going to look sensational, regardless of the talent of the photographer. As for 'wisdom of crowds', I am mindful of age old wisdoms - 'quot homines tot sententiae' - "there are as many opinions as there are people". Take a look at any typical feedback stream on a BBC programme or article and try to define the wisdom therein.