Are you scared of  this new Web 2.0 world?  Or do you find it exciting, and empowering?

We now live in a world where review sites are rampant. A world where consumers have the power to voice their views about you, me or any other business or product to potentially millions of others consumers.

A world where consumers ask the Web powerhouses like Google and Yahoo! to check in before they make purchasing decisions and show them what they should be doing, who they should be hiring, and who they should be avoiding. Web 2.0 has taken transparency to a whole new level with self publishing made easy. The most popular sites today are those like YouTube and My Space.

People have embraced self expression, blogging is growing in popularity, and social networks are growing everywhere. People are "friending" each other all over the place, and sharing their personal opinions. No longer is word of mouth limited to a few friends and work mates. RSS feeds a bad experience that infuriates a consumer can now easily be transmitted to multiple networks and potentially millions of consumers.

The Power of Word of Mouth Online is Staggering. And it can can be used to empower or destroy? The key as i see it is participation, not perfection. Learning to invite honest feedback from your customers, setting that up from the beginning of your relationship. Learning to really listen during your client/business relationship and opening up the lines of communication is what transparency is all about. Success in a Web 2.0 World is not about control but about true communication between businesses and customers, and learning to respond to feedback promptly and use it to help you build a better product or service , using it so that your customers will rave about you because they loved you and want to help their networks and friends find you amongst the masses.

So how do you stop being scared and start feeling empowered? How do you kick start this revolution to empower you and make it easier for other consumers to know, like and trust you? And more importantly find you?

Well start by accepting you can always get better? And decide you want to , and  invite and welcome feedback from your customers as a starting point.

Secondly realize the most important measure of how you are doing is what your customers are saying during and post their transaction with you. You need to  start asking them and listening even if its not quite what you wanted to hear- with the view of continual improvement.

You need to let them know from the beginning your intention is not only to do everything in your power as a professional to get them the result they want but also to be recommendation worthy. To let them know from the beginning of your relationship that you will be asking for feedback from them and that it matters to you as much if not more than the final transaction.

Your customers are talking about you whether you like it or not, and they always have. But now its more important than ever to tap in and use these conversations to learn and help grow your business. It's time to be proactive about enlisting your customers and learning to transform them into powerful advocates for you. Are you ready to join in and start the conversations rather than running scared and waiting for damage control?