Brands have become more comfortable engaging with consumers directly over the course of the past year, according to 75% of marketing professionals surveyed by online shopping service operator Ciao UK.

 Some 62% of the marketers said that they have started to engage directly with their customers, and 25% of those have chosen to do so through online forums.

At the same time, 37% of advertising and e-commerce professionals said that consumer input has had a positive impact on their business. Perhaps most positively, 64% said that they had responded publically to online criticisms (a figure that had almost doubled since one year before).

The number of marketers who moderate or delete online criticisms in brand-operated internet forums also dropped significantly from 18% in 2009 to only 2% in 2010, highlighting an increased transparency in customer communications.

The survey also highlighted the value of user generated content (UGC) as 76% cited it as a key tool to improve sales, with 96% of those citing peer-to-peer recommendation as one of the most influential forms of UGC and 31% citing online reviews as the most effective form of UGC.