Is The Influence of Social Media Overrated?

Here's a good case study on whether the influence of Social Media is overrated?

Word of mouth will make or break a brand in the social media space. All it takes are a few tweets. Consumers have more power than ever, and that power grows with every follower, fan page and blog. Not so fast. Social media may have influence, but before we get ahead of ourselves, consider that it took a bad review by Consumer Reports, not kvetching by consumers online, to get Apple to substantively address the perceived problems with its iPhone 4.

http://biznik.com/articles/is-the-influence-of-social-media-overrated?