"Engaging members of the news industry in conversation is always beneficial. Social media is a perfect way to enhance communication and empower our customers," said Nathan Mills, manager, Web communications, DTI. "It adds value to the relationship; questions are asked and answered with a wider range of accessibility and discussions become much more vibrant and interactive. Everyone has something to say and social media gives a voice to those that might not have been heard before."

Adds Mills, "Social media is its own ecosystem that has no office walls to confine or constrict the conversation. We are able to join in the mix of industry chatter and align ourselves with groups and partners that add an interesting element to what we do."

While social media participation is not new to DTI, the company believes deeper involvement has delivered measurable business benefits including instant customer feedback, increased web traffic and more interaction with people who have embraced social media and understand the current market.

"Our social media efforts are valuable to our business. It's like real-time market research where we can build relationships with people in our industry to let us know what they are doing every day," said Steve Nilan, vice president, DTI. "This is also a great example of ‘eating our own dog food' since we are using our own DTI Lightning software to blog and engage with our customers online."