Imagine being homeless, walking miles and miles on sore and exhausted feet, and then stopping to wash said feet in the river. Then, imagine accidentally kicking a discarded bag on your way to do so and hearing the familiar clink …

Social media will be adopted by more than 60 percent of Fortune 1,000 companies with a Web site by 2010, according to research firm Gartner.

"A key benefit of establishing a community is the amount of information an organization can gain about its customer base, which can be used for short-and long-term customer relationships," said Adam Sarner, principal research analyst at Gartner.