Stumbled across an interesting, resonant paragraph from Vinnie Mirchandani that worked best for me out of context:

My concern with Social CRM is we will build better antennae and pick up even more… signals. But unless we have passionate (and empowered) employees who can follow up and do something about it, we will gradually turn off our advocates. And go back to traditional CRM – hope our marketing and PR dollars drown out the non-advocates.

Speaking and listening are both essential parts of a conversation.  The trick is the balance.