Correspondence: John Hingley, Andiamo Systems, Inc., 501 2nd Street, Suite 700, San Francisco, CA 94107, USA. Tel: 415 819 0489; E-mail: john@andiamosystems.com

¹is the CEO and Founder of Andiamo Systems, a leading word-of-mouth and social media analysis provider to businesses of all sizes. John brings over 20 years of experience leading direct, brand and internet marketing programs for leading companies in technology, media and online retail industries. John served as Chief Operating Officer for wine.com, the world's largest online wine retailer. Before to wine.com, John was General Manager of Yaga, one of the first peer-to-peer content distribution networks. He was also Vice President of Direct Response and Ecommerce for The Learning Company and Mattel Interactive. Prior to starting Andiamo Systems in 2006, John was the Founder of Crush Direct, a boutique brand and direct marketing agency for the wine and spirits industries. It was his experience launching social media programs at Crush that motivated him to start a business to monitor and measure the impact consumers have on brand perception and purchase intent. Hence, Andiamo Systems was born. John holds a degree from the University of Oregon in Finance and Marketing. John is also a board member of VerticalResponse, a leading self-service direct marketing provider to over 40,000 businesses worldwide and an Inc. 500 fastest-growing company.

Abstract

Social media is changing the way today's companies do business. Savvy businesses — and their agencies — are now able to use online consumer-generated content in the form of blogs, forums and social networks to their competitive advantage. The ease at which consumers can express their opinions online provides businesses continual and real-time insights they can use to develop more effective products, services, and marketing and advertising strategies.