ZDNet series on how Fortune 500's use social media

Jennifer Leggio at ZDNet is doing a series on how Fortune 500s are using social media. Her latest entry on Newell Rubbermaid features an interview with Bert DuMars, VP of of e-business and interactive marketing.

Our strategy is to listen to our consumers first, understand how they would like to engage with us and/or how they would like us to engage with them... This has led us to start small, experiment and see what works. We then expand the particular tactic based on consumer feedback that they are receptive and that we have developed a level of trust with them in the conversation.

Applied theory: two-way conversation leads to trust as a relational outcome, which leads to more conversation. It's also analogue to social penetration theory.