Here's a real life of example of why it's important for Corporations/Brands/Service businesses to hire PR experts who live and breathe social media.

Last October, I bought the Verizon Wireless PC Card. I had just moved from out of state and even though I made arrangements a few weeks prior to moving, the local cable provider scheduled my hook-up for their earliest available date, about 2 weeks after my relocation. I was prepared to suck up a TV-less life, but no Internet access for 2-weeks???? Not an option. So I decided to try the PC Card.

Verizon Wireless offered the card with a 10-day free trial. The deal was that if I didn't like the product and returned it within 10 days, I would be fully refunded. Sounded great.

Unfortunately, the card wasn't compatible with my laptop. I returned it within the 10 day timespan, the store stamped my receipt as returned, I didn't have a second thought about it.

Until 6 or 7 months later when the calls started on my cell. I was getting calls from credit agencies, which I ignored, thinking it was a mistake. I've had mix ups before because of a duplicate name. I assumed it was an error.

Then my parents called me. They were getting calls at their home, a residence I haven't resided at for 15 years. Now I was annoyed.

I called the debt collector to find out what this was about. After an hour long conversation, we realized that it was a mistake. He had me call Verizon. I spent another 45 minutes on the phone with Verizon. They saw the error in their system and told me it was corrected. They said the credit agencies would be alerted. I called back the credit agency and relayed the information.

For the next two months, this cycle was repeated. Two different agencies continued to harrass me via cell phone. I would call Verizon and they would tell me the error was corrected in their system and the agencies were alerted.

Today, I lost it. I spoke with the credit agency at the end of last week! At that time, I called them yet again, explained that the debt was erroneous and Verizon had cleared the account and alerted the agency. Two separate agencies called me twice this morning. Then I checked my credit report and saw that my score was still low, showing this false claim. I grew irate.

I called Verizon and I demanded action. This time they told me that the paperwork had been sent to the collection agencies on June 27th, so the account should be deleted any day now. The rep explained that it took a week or so after the notice was sent for it to show in the collection agency system. "July 27th?" I repeated several times to him. "Yes" he confirmed over and over. I started to laugh. "Today is AUGUST 8TH. IT'S BEEN ALMOST 6 WEEKS SINCE THIS LETTER WAS SENT. WHEN IS THIS GOING TO HAPPEN?"

There was plenty more to this conversation, but we don't need to get into it. That's not the important part here. This isn't Dell Hell.

What happened next is that I was royally ticked and I wanted to tell someone, so I started to Twitter about my war with Verizon. I even went so far to say that I was so angry, I was going to digitally record the calls with Verizon customer service and start posting the mp3's of the stagnant, frustrating conversations online for my readers to listen to. Then I said I was going to pitch the whole terrible story to consumer reporters on TV.

Here's where it gets interesting.

You see, Verizon Wireless, while ticking me off, had the foresight to hire a smart PR team. Immediately after my twitters, I was directly contacted by Jeremy Pepper, one of the smartest blogger/social media professionals in the business. First he asked me what happened and then he empathized with my experience and noted that if this round of calls didn't resolve the problem (it sounded like it will - finally!), he'd be happy to lend help from his side. I was impressed. If Verizon Wireless hadn't aligned with Jeremy Pepper (Disclosure: we've met via industry conferences) and if he hadn't be visible to me as a blogger and someone to follow online...if he hadn't been paying attention on Twitter, I would have launched a debilitating campaign against the company and it may have been too late for him to manage it.

It's not enough in this day and age of citizen journalism and microblogging to have a online monitoring program. Marketers need to acknowledge that the model has changed and the consumer now has a greater share of voice than ever before. Broadband and mobile have enabled huge groups of global consumers to speak to each other like never before. For marketers who don't have the time or the desire to handle this massive communication task internally, this means finding PR partners who live and breathe in this world to handle it for you.

Although my experience with Verizon has been frustrating, I will continue to be their mobile customer, not just because I think their mobile coverage is the best but also because they've invested in a PR team who "gets it" and "engaged me."