In that golden age of broadcasting that ‘nostalgists’ are so fond of referring to, the communication between broadcaster and audience was a simple one: we made the programme, you, the audience watched them. And that was it.

For other non-media brands the same was true: product was made, product was consumed, and the nearest the consumer would get would be writing a letter of praise or, more likely complaint.

But apply that model today and you’ll be trending at the wrong end of Twitter faster than you can say Trafigua. Woe beyond the company who ignores or, worse still, patronises their online audience.

But at the same time, what if the audience doesn’t expect them to pop up in the space where they’re having a private conversation about what they watched on TV last night? The danger of getting social media wrong is just as fraught as ignoring social media completely.

For brands such as ITV, it’s a challenge to move into online spaces where we wouldn’t necessarily be expected to turn up, let along be active on. It’s a challenge for any brand that’s established in the offline world, be that a broadcaster or a box manufacturer.

But the important thing to realise is that conversations about your brand will take place online whether you’re there or not, so not engaging is not an option. You can either put your fingers in your ears and ignore the social media space, or you can dive in and engage.

That may well mean going into spaces where your company isn’t necessarily expected to be a natural fit. For ITV, we’ve always known that people will want to talk about our shows with or without us, which is why we’ve always made a concerted effort to go into online spaces, even if we’re not the coolest kid in the room when we arrive.

That can mean experimenting if new social media tools and spaces. In a sense, you have nothing to lose. Back in 2007, we decided to set up the ITVInsider Twitter feed, even though Twitter was much smaller and more niche back in those days.

We didn’t need to be on Twitter back then – our feed only had a few hundred followers for a long time – but it was a space where people were talking about our shows, and we gradually started engaging and even engaging in a spot of banter with our regular followers. Back then, we had no idea Philip Schofield would kick-start a Twitter rush for ITV viewers.

Similarly, we’ve played around with more social tools than we’d care to remember. We may not always decide they’re the way to go forward, but at least we’re willing to give them a go.

What’s more, it provides another way to respond from a PR perspective. We know that we occasionally make mistakes or decisions not everybody agrees with, but increasingly services such as Twitter, Facebook and FriendFeed are proving to be some of our most useful outlets. Even if we haven’t been early adopters, there is always value in a company being engaged in a social space, regardless of how late you come to the game.

Sometimes it’s a case of being the quickest way to put out a quick statement but, more importantly, it’s a place where we can engage and reply to our audience. If there’s something they disagree with, we’ll always make the effort to reply or speak to them. We may not always part agreeing, but at least there’s an appreciation that we’re willing to answer difficult questions.

And, as said earlier, it’s something we could easily choose not to do. We could easily choose to ignore the social media spaces and continue to deal with the press in the way we always have done.

But, by doing that, we’re not engaging with a large portion of our users – and that would be true regardless of our industry.

ITV happens to be a company that’s in the communications industry and produces programmes people will be talking about, even if we may well be considered ‘old media’. But the lessons we’ve learned in engaging in a social space can be applied to any company, even if they’re not in the media business.

But it’s clear that any form of online communication is no different from doing communication well offline. Listening and replying to audience’s concerns is probably one of the most important things we do on Twitter.

We know not everybody will be complementary about us, but this criticisms are probably no different than people, say, letting off steam to their friend in the pub, except this time it’s a slightly more public medium. But that doesn’t mean we shouldn’t listen and respond.

Engaging in the social media space combines bits and pieces of traditional PR, marketing, and customer service but is a different discipline from all of these and applying offline tactics online won’t always work.

But what brands really need to realise is that any online engagement requires giving up a degree control. It may cause some uncomfortable moments, but it’s ultimately far more rewarding than being left out of the conversation altogether.

Gary is Communities Assistant at ITV.