Abogados

For P&G, on the other hand, it's more about tapping into existing communities or providing people with the tools to connect with one another. (The company operates word-of-mouth networks Tremor and Vocalpoint.) This is partly because the products P&G offers aren't as conducive to brand enthusiasm. "Buying toilet paper or Metamucil is a different level of involvement," said Stan Joosten of P&G. "Who the heck would want to go to charmin.com? And the fact is, people don't."

Stan pointed to online moms' groups like Southern California's Peachhead, profiled in the New York Times recently (registration required), as an example. "Those are the kinds of discussions that we'd like to look into. [Consumer-generated videos like the Diet Coke/Mentos clip], those are one-offs," he said. "You need to be agile enough to jump on it when it happens, but you can't count on it to forge your relationship with consumers. It's underestimated how important these [online communities] are in people's daily lives."