Branding and Positioning

I'm reading an article by Nick Parrish of Contagious. In it he discusses the need for modern brands to provide Exceptional Social Media Customer Service. In the article he quotes Glen Parker, research director at Universal McCann as conducting research that led him to the conclusion:
'Most (brands) inherently aren’t social, but users are expecting to see them in the same places [the users] are in. For all customers, the one thing they all want is good service, but in all other aspects they are completely different'.
All well and good. But you know, in my day job I had a senior manager that has now gone onto an extremely senior position in Europe who could talk sound bites (or even lengthy speeches) about information and technology - without really saying anything. It seems to me that his fast rising career has been based around using generic words and ambiguous sentences. Anyway, enough about my bitterness with the unwarranted success of some people the point of my example is that Glen Parker seems to being saying much the same thing to me. I'd have liked something specific. Some advice on practical action marketers could take. I'll have to read Glen's full article and learn if it's mor helpful.