Participatory Marketing at eBay

Great example of participatory marketing - that's having two-way conversations with customers to help guide your direction in a continuous feedback loop - from eBay. How can you leverage the collective mind of your customers and stakeholders? Marty Abbott, eBay's senior vice president of technology, in a Q&A with eWeek reveals:

Q: Looking ahead, as the year progresses, is there any big project that really stands out for you?

We're in a continual improvement process, where our community tells us in real time what's working and what isn't. We've got 114 million people working in our behalf, telling us what to do. We're the heart, the brain, the soul. The greatest thing about this place is that we get real-time feedback from everyone. That's why we have the community boards and our engineers go out and talk to the community.

Q: Is there one example that has been a result of this process?

My eBay 2.0, which started up this past spring, is a great example. But just about everything we build comes from the community.