1) Asking the big questions - "Where would a view of consumer behavior and sentiment that is closer, faster, cross-channel, and forward-looking impact your business most positively?"

2) Pursuing the best opportunities - "Find consumer conversations that will solve specific problems and deliver value" (for example, new product launches, competitive threats and events that negatively impact reputation)

3) Creating a consumer intelligence unit and breaking down silos - "The insights may be applied to many functions so that a company can react to early warnings of adverse issues quickly enough to lessen their impacts."

4) Improving operations according to real-time insight - "produce a granular, forward-looking, real-time and unfiltered view of (your) customers" in order to gain "speed, agility, focus and prescience."

The Internet Retailer article gives a specific example of how retailers are starting to work with bloggers, who can be "helpful guides to public opinion and important individuals with whom they can establish productive relationships." Companies who tap into blogs and other forums can "really see what these people are into and build (/supply) products based on that interest."

While some retailers think the value of blogs is too small to invest in (only 2.6% of U.S. shoppers using blogs when researching purchases), some have already found success with blogger experiments. For example, a wine e-commerce site published a deep discount coupon for one product on an influential food and wine blog. The result - significantly boosted sales the next day.