Blogs and social networks may not be profitable, but that doesn't mean they can't take money away from brands. According to a study by the Society for New Communications Research, 72 percent of consumers use social media to research a company's reputation, and 74 percent choose to do business with companies based on the customer care experiences others share online.

Those shared experiences come from the 59 percent of respondents who said they use social media to "vent" their frustrations about poor customer service. Of the 300 people surveyed, only 33 percent said they felt online customer complaints were taken seriously.

"A customer's voice can now be global. If companies provide that care it can impact the reputation of the company itself," Julia Ochinero, director of communications at Nuance, said in an interview with ClickZ.

Consumers named Amazon and Dell as two companies that actively use social media to assuage consumer unhappiness, and ranked insurance, utilities and healthcare at the bottom of industries that use social media effectively.