In the communications industry, hyperbole is always abound. Having admitted that, I will now make the following statement with absolutely no intention of embellishment: We are now in the business of empowering consumers. Where as our predecessors may have focused on less than ethical means of driving sales by preying on the consumers fears and desires, today we are creating new and better ways to grant consumers power in terms of encouraging brand-ownership, striving for transparency and cultivating relationships.

Now, this was not an internal, altruistic revolution within our ranks. I'd be giving us too much credit to claim that. Consumer empowerment was not the product of any effort on our part, but rather the opposite. The World Wide Web opened up the floodgates of information and social media has connected consumers in an unprecedented manner, the cumulative result being an ever-increasingly savvy consumer. In today's marketplace, our old smoke and mirrors magic has been rendered impotent.

As the colloquial saying goes, "If you can't beat'em, join'em!" So we have. And why shouldn't we? Who needs focus groups when one can just spend some time on Twitter and Facebook to get candid feedback from real consumers? Why should we continue to push the 30-second spot when digital campaigns are so much more effective? Why pursue traditional, top-down communications when we can have direct dialogue with the consumer? Why am I asking so many obvious, rhetorical questions?

The one trend that I am most excited about, and the one that is most illustrative of my argument, is the use of crowdsourcing. Several big name brands have launched crowdsourcing campaigns recently, Starbucks being the one of the biggest. Starbucks launched the site "My Starbucks Idea" and encouraged visitors to post their own ideas on how to improve Starbucks service and products. Visitors where also encouraged to vote on the user-generated suggestions that they thought were the best. Starbucks has pledged to put the top-ranked ideas into action. Also, check out what Dell has been doing in this same vein over at www.ideastorm.com.

Today and moving forward, our job as communicators is to create the platforms and campaigns that drive consumer participation. I for one, find this an exciting era our industry is entering and I am genuinely proud to be a part of it. Too be honest, in my youth I used to idolize the spin doctors and admen who could sell snake oil to cure syphilis, but I find myself embracing their obsolescence. I'm sure that I sleep better at night than they did.