Enterprises cannot ignore the voices in the Web2.0 world.

Target Corp recently found itself at the center of a blogosphere storm when an organization that monitors children's advertising posted a critique on its blog without receiving a response. Meanwhile, in the U.S., when people searched for "Dell service" on Google, a profanity-laden blog post about Dell service appeared on the first page of search results, even ranking higher than Google's official service site.

These were two examples cited during an online event hosted by Forrester Research and Dow Jones, which focused on why companies should pay attention to voices about them and their products in the Web 2.0 world. Glenn Fannick, product research manager at Dow Jones, mentioned two more cases: First, when HSBC planned to charge fees for overdrafts, 6,000 HSBC users protested on Facebook, leading HSBC to ultimately cancel its overdraft fee plan. In another case, Cadbury intended to discontinue one of its chocolate bars, but after 14,000 people protested on Facebook, the company decided to keep the product on the shelves.

Fannick said these cases illustrate that paying attention to and respecting these social media is a simple way to avoid crises. He added that the use of social networks is becoming increasingly widespread, with people using them to unite in protesting things they dislike.