I came across something tonight while catching up on RSS feeds that stuck out (for obvious reasons).

This post by Susan Merrit, who was recently laid off from Yahoo, demonstrates how rapidly consumers take information and disseminate it across the social graph. Trying to harness this power for the advancement of a product or service to accomplish a business goal is one of the things we work with clients on. That said, it’s a slippery slope and any attempts at artificial manipulation of the social graph will most likely end with a result you won’t be happy with. Consumers are saavy and in control. Speak to them instead of trying to control them.