Nokia have recently started to move into social media by providing a 'mash-up' (user generated mix and match content) platform. Now it is looking for a 'customer communication' champion. Someone who blogs and interfaces with the community. With a claimed 2 million participants on its 'mash-up' platform it is not hard to see that this is a very important move.

If I was one of the big publishers or list managers I would be very worried now. What value is my contact lists if a company can build its own community or interface to the likes of Facebook and other social media networking sites?

Do you have to be an massive company like Nokia to do this? No. There are many micro brands that have very successfully used social media and community marketing to grow their businesses.