In a recent post on The CMO Site, Editor In Chief, Mitch Wagner talks about the many marketing blunders made by Netflix over the past month and asks the question at the end, “can they be saved”?

I certainly hope they do as I hate seeing any business tank – but one hopes that if they are saved, they’ve learned some important lessons – most of which is to keep an ear (and an eye) on the pulse of the digital and social space.

A lot is being said about a lot of different brands out on the social space.  I’m guessing had Netflix had its ear to the ground, they would have seen and heard consumers talking about the value of Netflix versus other offerings.

Here is a snippet from a Netflix user post in June of this year that talks about the “fair” value – not “great” – value of Netflix.  I assume there are plenty of others like this out there, that if heard sooner could have saved Netflix a ton of pain (and money – and valuation!):

My wife knows that spending $100 a piece on two theater tickets is not something that fits very easily in our budget.  When watching the movie, she often laments, “the play is always better.”  If you look at it from that perspective, Netflix has saved us hundreds of dollars.  However, I try to look at it as the value that I get for a dollar spent at Blockbuster or Redbox.  In that comparison, we don’t watch enough movies to get a great value out of Netflix – it feels very fairly priced for what you get.

We recently brought an agency on board that is in the business of social media – Media Logic (www.mlinc.com).  They focus exclusively on helping clients amplify their social presence and help clients keep tabs on what’s being said in the space.  They have groups of “Conversation Managers” that keep tabs on activity and react to it, report it, post about it….all designed to keep the client steps ahead of the goings on socially.

What’s being said about you?   Want to find out?  Here are two ways to do it:

Twitter Search:  http://twitter.com/#!/search-home

Google Blog Search: http://www.google.com/blogsearch?hl=en

I wouldn’t expect you, as the busy marketer to stay on top of this stuff.  But your agency should be well equiped to help you stay abreast of what’s going on and what’s being said.  The more you know, the faster you react, the better your relationship with your consumers and the more likely you are to start building up “networks of passion” and not a disaster like Netflix.