Recently modern8 has been experimenting with social media networks Twitter and Facebook. (Subscribe/join below.) From a brand strategy point of view, the most valuable aspect of these new media is the interaction between the brand and the customer. Successful brands maintain a dialogue with their customer and social media make it easier.

Good brands have always listened to their customers, but instead of a top-down system where the brand solely determines what to provide, the customer is now helping shape the products and services.

Nike has involved the consumer in a phenomenally successful integration of running gear and technology in their Nike+ communities, where thousands of runners track and post their running statistics using their smart phones and connected Nike products.

Tucker Viemeister says the field of brand strategy needs to change, because the customer is changing. “Branding is no longer about internal focus for consistent product broadcasting—now brands are a team effort. Future brands will be more like ‘cloud computing’,… or ‘open source’, using a concurrent input of different agendas, approaches and priorities—with little centralized decision making. Brands of the future will be both more personalized and more communal. New brands will be virtual clouds of symbols, products and places, with customers using digital technology to build open source experiences.”