The message to companies from their customers is now clear: if you want to speak to us in social media, you better be prepared for us to speak back... If your company is on Facebook or Twitter, be prepared to treat these social networks as serious customer service channels. If not, you risk losing not just your current customers communicating with you via posts and tweets, but the vast number of potential customers who now have a window to see how you respond to (or ignore) your customers in full public view.

Three co-sponsors of the SOPA and PIPA antipiracy bills have publicly withdrawn their support as Wikipedia and thousands of other websites blacked out their pages Wednesday to protest the legislation. Sen. Marco Rubio (R-Fla.) withdrew as a co-sponsor of the Protect IP Act in the Senate, while Reps. Lee Terry (R-Neb.) and Ben Quayle (R-Ariz.) said they were pulling their names from the companion House bill, the Stop Online Piracy Act. read more