The first question is often ‘how can this help us?’ but it should be ‘how can we help our customers?’

That is the best explanation I have heard of the benefits of social media in the commercial sector in a while.

I understand why so many businesses can’t see why they should use social media, and you can draw parallels to the newspaper business as well. But accepting this answer requires a shift of mindset which is why, I think, so many businesses fail at the social media game. They simply don’t understand that this is not about them, it’s about their users.