Customers can be some of your best promoters, and it’s up to you to give them a high five when they help you out. The way in which customers interact with your business and each other is constantly changing, not to mention, they have several social media devices at their fingertips (literally, their keyboard; figuratively, Twitter, Facebook, Foursquare, the blogosphere, etc.). Information is traveling faster and faster in the social media sphere as customers garner more ways to namedrop, whether it be mentioning you in a Tweet, commenting on your Facebook page, or checking in via Foursquare.

However, with all of this communication comes increased responsibility. It’s up to your business to maintain two-way communication and encourage them to keep talking.

Most social media programs have existed for less than two years within a company. Companies that have been strategizing for over five years began with a blog, but with the advent of Facebook, more and more companies are hopping on the bandwagon. Now, the real question is, are you a reactive or proactive? Do you simply respond to customers or do you probe and encourage them to interact with your business using your social media outlets? Avoid being a helpdesk. Engage with customers. Start the conversation.

First, centralize. Have someone leading the social media efforts to avoid fragmenting your campaign and leading customers astray. Educate this leader in the consumer graphics of your company so he or she understands the audience. Set policies and standards for professional, yet approachable social media interactions.

It’s also important to utilize multiple methods of two-way communication. Create a Facebook page. Interact with the customer base that’s already on Facebook. But also consider creating your own social community to drive people to your website. You already spend money on encouraging customers to visit, why be so quick to send them away to Facebook? Allow them to socialize on your own site as well.

Think reviews. You trust your friends, right? Customers see other customers as a subset of friends because they’re patrons of the same product or service. Give customers an outlet to post reviews on your site and social media. They know you think your service is great, but they want to know what their pseudo-friends think, too.

Ford launched a 6-month campaign in which 100 “Agents” used a Ford Fiesta and uploaded a video to fiestamovement.com chronicling anything and everything about their experience. Risky? Maybe, but nearly all of Ford’s 100 Agents provided useful and appropriate video footage. Other customers see this as a genuine source of information, because it’s being delivered by people who are just like them.

Remember, it’s not enough to let the consumer do the talking. They’re not going to look at your social media pages if there’s nothing to see. Be the leading participant in the social media sphere. Answer questions, ask questions and encourage them to engage with your website and other pages, because after all, socializing is what brought them there in the first place. And you’re going to capitalize off of it.

Microsoft was a company that was known for taking ideas, small entrepreneurial businesses had, copying them and scaling them. That business doesn’t work quite as well as it used to. Apple might lift ideas some of the popular apps, but will it kill those apps or merely give them more exposure, as Facebook Places did for Foursquare?

Smaller companies are more mobile and adaptable than ever. Look at Instagram. That app is managed by 4 people with over 5 million users. Over one million users per employee. Not a bad ratio at all.

The reality is that is has never been easier to start and scale a business. Not to say that it’s easy, but it has never been easier for a small group of people to challenge the establishment.

Smaller companies are quicker to adapt to change, more likely to lean in to shifts in business, and push updates live without a bureaucracy to run things through. The power balance between small and big business is shifting to whoever has the most creative ideas and can execute well. With advancements in technology, small business is not only not ruled out, but might often have an advantage.

Again, this isn’t a theory, it’s reality. Ask people who they would rather use for project management: Microsoft or Basecamp? With a small team, built from the ground up Basecamp has become one of the most successful project management systems available.

We live in a world where to do something remarkable, you don’t need permission, you don’t need a massive budget, you don’t need a giant team, you just need to Go. Do.

This is a very smart way to organize discussion around a single topic that I assume will only become more popular. It’s an easy way to build a community and conversation around a single interest.

Hashtags are even spreading to books (see here and here). You can think of Twitter as a worldwide bookclub where you can connect with anyone around the same book just by using a simple hashtag. I’m sure official hashtags will be used for upcoming movies, albums, concerts, and much more.

While hashtags have long been used for different events, look for more “Official Hashtags” in the future.

– Enchantment, Pg. 100

Guy Kawasaki uses this example to tell us that money is not necessarily an effective enchanter. Money isn’t everything.

—–

Jimmy Whales, previously a futures and options trader founded Wikipedia. Wikipedia is a charity, a non-profit. Fewer than 35 volunteers, including Jimmy, worldwide. A budget of 10 million. It’s the 5^th most popular website on the Internet, and working in over 175 different languages. Community and collaboration. It’s about letting go of control and allowing people to come together. A group of people who agree with the mission, interested in building an encyclopedia.

The lesson is: the power is with the people.

People coming together and being a part of something great. Technology has made this more possible than ever.

What are some ways to use the power of people for your small business?

One example of this is ScotteVest, a travel clothing online business. On Facebook, they post potential new product styles and have their fans like/vote/comment on which ones they like best and why. This allows fans to have a part in the company and allows the company to better service their true fans. Something like this was unfathomable a couple decades ago. Community and collaboration. Dig into your customer’s brain! What do they love about your business? What do they want more of? What do they not care for? Be in dialogue. And because of the social media platforms, this is more possible than ever!

When companies first get involved with social media, it generally takes a while before it really “clicks.”  It’s understandable. The only type of promotion most companies are used to is advertising. Companies are approaching social media with an advertising mindset which is far from being the most effective way to engage in social media.

They also forget how savvy customers are. You don’t need to add a “Give me a call so I can help you!” to the end of every Facebook status. We know you can help because we know who you are. We can see who you are from Facebook, Twitter, and your blog. We know what you’re passionate about, what you’re an expert in, and what you can help us with.With the advertising mindset, you approach the ad as if people don’t know who you are and what you do. You cram in your idea into a 30 second push advertisement that is generally something that interupts the media the consumer wants.

Push, push, push is great for advertising. It’s what you have to do to get noticed.

Social media doesn’t work by that rule.

It’s 90% pull, 10% push.

What your company does online should pull people in. You should constantly look to build not just impressions, like you would with advertisements, but build an audience. And to do that you have to approach social media differently than advertising.

(photo from Gapingvoid.com)

You are a brand. Build it. Relentlessly.

The days of investing 30+ years at a company are largely over. In an unpredictable economy, the best thing you can do is have a strong personal brand. It’s a foundation that you carry with you wherever you go. Think of a personal brand like a social bank account. You keep making small deposits which accrue to an influential amount that you own. It’s leverage in attaining a dream job and quickly separates you from a stack of 500 resumes for the same position.

When it comes to social networking, students today are largely taught what not to do. Which is partly a good thing. You should be reminded that you’ll regret posting pictures of Boozefest ’11. The conversation generally seems to stop there though. Students generally aren’t taught what they should do.

While I had a few classes that walked us through blogging, not a single professor actively encouraged blogging. No one said “Hey, when you graduate, instead of having a dead resume like every single other graduate, you should actively publish great content. You should build an audience and a following. It might not sound fun and exciting, but there is infinitely more value in an audience than just a resume.”

I can’t think of anyone who shouldn’t be trying to build their personal brand. No matter what you want to do with your life and career, you should look to build your personal brand. Whether your desire is to be a scientist, politician, doctor, or even stay-at-home Mom (video), you should actively work on building your brand. It’s your legacy.

Whether you love the thought of building your personal brand or reject the idea, the truth remains the same – you are brand. You can ignore the idea or you can actively work on building it. Either way you look at it doesn’t change reality.

(photo from Gapingvoid.com)

An example of what it looks like:

Google +1

Why it’s important:

Ranking high in search engines will have less and less to with with having the specific key words and finely tweaked content. It’s going to be your companies ability to get recommended. Peer recommendations are the new economy. Every Facebook Like, Tweeted link, and +1 on Google, helps your company. It’s word of mouth scaled.

How to get recommended:

It’s not just social media. What you do offline is just as important as social media. Often it is what you do offline that gets talked about on Facebook and Twitter. You have to play ping pong with your marketing efforts. Do things offline that are worth talking about, then further the conversation online. It goes back and forth. Simply put-do things worthy of recommending.

You can experiment with Google +1 here.

This is a great example of how a business can utilize Twitter Search. I sent out a tweet and within 15 minutes, right before I booked a different hotel, I received a tweet from @resideo, a Twitter travel agent. They were able to use Twitter Search to find someone like myself who was looking for a hotel in Chicago.

If your business isn’t active online, take note. I’m not the only person to have these transactions and it will only become increasingly popular in the coming years. The best time for your business to start using social media was five years ago. The second best time is today.

It’s easy to see all of the noise online and think that you can’t make a difference. There are millions of conversations going on, how can myself or my company make a difference?  Making a difference is somewhat like building a house. You can look at the complexity of the entire house, all the amenities, and thousands of  pieces to put into place until you stress out and become overwhelmed. Or you can start with a 2×4 and go. Each individual part contributes to the larger house. This is how you should think about your efforts online.

Online, you start making a difference by connecting with a single person. It might not mean that much to you or require much effort, but if you can provide them value, you’ve made an impact. Eventually your caring can add up and scale, but it only takes that one starfish to make a difference.

Quite simply, this is essential knowledge for everyone in business. If you run a small business, it’s especially important. You need to know how to compete in the online world, even if you just have a single location and don’t sell anything online. If you work for a large business, you’re going to get left behind if you ignore the Thank You Economy. The core audience for this book seems to be the person who has an interest in social media, but isn’t quite sure how to utilize the social tools and is hesitant to break out of the advertising mold.

The most important takeaway from the book is the culture shift. If you don’t understand the culture shift of push to pull marketing, you’re company’s days are numbered. You can’t ignore the shift in culture without your business eventually hurting. Gary has the great example of B.Dalton’s initially resisting the internet and rejecting Amazon as a competitor:

“Like the guy who quits smoking only after being diagnosed with lung cancer, by the time B.Dalton realized that Amazon was a force to be reckoned with, it was too late.”

Social media is something that businesses can’t really ignore without consequence. Competitors are only one tweet or Facebook update from reaching out to their customers. You can ignore it, but your competition won’t.