A new book from the Advertising Research Foundation (ARF) bemoans, at least in part, marketers’ continued reliance on traditional consumer surveys (termed “asking”) in spite of the ready abundance of relatively inexpensive consumer buzz tracking (called “listening”). Written by Steve Rappaport, The ARF Listening Playbook (ARF Press, January 2010) is an outgrowth of an ARF workshop that focused on various methods of monitoring customer comments, chats, and tweets.

Consumers aren’t answering the phones, or at least some of them aren’t. They’re tweeting, blogging, and buzzing. But why?

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