A great article from\u00a0Practical eCommerce<\/strong>\u00a0talks about the ways social media can affect your brand and shares some great statistics and examples to boot. There was once a time where product ratings and reviews were left to the experts, but that time has long passed. Now, anyone with a keyboard and connection to the web can proclaim themselves the next Roger Ebert (I know, I know, we’re not talking about movies, but you get my point). Customer experiences, good or bad, are made public for all to see, and constant innovation is needed by retailers to stay connected to their customers. As a retailer, if you’re doing things right you can reap the benefits of seeing your products reviewed all over the Internet, but a few wrong moves, and the negative attention can put you in a choke hold.<\/p>\n According to\u00a0Nielsen and NM Incite<\/strong>, “a full 25 percent are vindictive when they write about brand-related experiences.” I’m one of those that takes everything I read with a grain of salt, just for this very reason. People feel entitled to bash retailers, sometimes for good reason, but sometimes just because they can. Whether experiencing the good, the bad, or the downright ugly, it shows that good customer service is more crucial now than ever before. People are listening, watching, and more importantly, writing at a frenzied pace about their experiences and revelations.<\/p>\n