You hear that? You are being listened to on Twitter.

Earlier today, I was giving a former co-worker (@mlsamuelson) a hard time on Twitter about the contents of the whiteboard that he left behind. Like the true good friend he is, he immediately gave me a hard time back! In response to his counterstrike, I took matters in my own hands and took the whiteboard hostage with my weapon of choice, a copy of today's newspaper to prove what day it was, and sent him the photo:

However, the unexpected happened: my picture was retweeted by @ExpoMarkers. Apparently, the folks at Sanford, makers of Expo Markers, watch Twitter for certain keywords to see what their customers are saying about their products (smart!).

At first, I thought that it might be an automated bot that automatically resends out these keyword searches. To test my hypothesis and to let my Twitter followers (tweeps) know about it, I sent out a follow up message. To my surprise, I got another followup message that was personalized enough to show me that it was a human behind the tweets (see conversation below). Not only was it directed at me individually, the sender has a sense of humor too!

Clearly Sanford has somebody that "gets it." People will continue to talk about the products they use and their interactions with companies. These companies shouldn't be afraid of social media... the conversation is going to happen whether they are there or not.

Twitter Conversation:

@ejhildreth: Note to Self: Find the inventor of white board cleaner and ask them why they thought the product should smell they way it does. Yuck!

@mlsamuelson: but you said you were going to leave up my half of the whiteboard for posterity! (and perhaps sentimentality was implied, too).

@ejhildreth: Not your side, my side! My plans for world domination are flowing today and I need to write 'em down!

@ejhildreth: http://twitpic.com/2pzyt - Holding @mlsamuelson 's former whiteboard hostage... The whiteboard will live in exchange for 1 Flying M cookie

@ExpoMarkers: RT @ejhildreth: http://twitpic.com/2pzyt - Holding @mlsamuelson 's former whiteboard hostage... The whiteboard will live in exchange for ...

@ejhildreth: Erasable tweets? Apparently Expo Markers follows the keyword 'whiteboard' on Twitter

@ExpoMarkers: I was called in to negotiate your hostage situation

@ejhildreth: I don't know if I can be talked down... got a 4 pack of expo markers and not afraid to use them! :-)

@ExpoMarkers: no one wants to see this end with a pool of red dry erase ink

@ejhildreth: Well played sir, well played!