I found a puffy envelope, addressed to my wife, in our mail box. When she arrived home from her studio, she opened it to find a pair of white socks covered with red lip prints—socks neither of us had ordered, socks for which neither of us had paid.
My wife bubbled with joy and explained to me how and why this cotton footwear happened to arrive at our address. Rather than recount all of that, I’ll let you read the three tweets that say it more succinctly:
@kissbooks
“As of yesterday, ALL Christmas orders for KISS have been shipped…early! We are still working on some other orders before our break.”
Dec 17
@crystalgeorge
“I’d like to thank @kissbooks for a fantastic year of albums and service. You guys rock my socks off!”
Dec 18
@crystalgeorge
“LOL! Told @kissbooks thanks for knocking my socks off. So they sent me socks. Cracking me up. 😀 http://instagr.am/p/zLz8/”
Dec 31
This episode illustrates the power of social media: the ability to engage your clients in conversation, the medium that can humanize your brand—and make your customers and friends want to introduce you to their customers and friends. It’s both schmoozing and feedback, both customer service and brand building, both grassroots initiatives and guerrilla marketing.
Companies that treat Facebook, Twitter, etc. as broadcast channels are missing the mark. Social media is not an advertising medium—even though powerful, successful marketing can be done there. No, it’s a social environment.
Your status updates and photos, comments and likes, videos and links tell the stories that you would tell in person—if you could somehow converse with everyone in your collective social circle in one place at one time (of their respective convenience). They are the advice and anecdotes you’d share at a chamber of commercial cocktail, in the bleachers at your child’s soccer game, in the foyer of your church, and around your living room.
In this social space our lives engage and enrich each other’s lives. In this space, entrepreneurs can build rapport a friend at a time—and turn friends into followers and followers into brand evangelists.
If you look at Facebook as just a line item in an advertising budget or Twitter as a free place to paste your auction line ads, you’ll be far less likely to get this kind of online street cred:
@crystalgeorge
“Wearing my kewl socks from @kissbooks to shoot my first wedding of 2011. http://instagr.am/p/0InU/”
Jan 1
Join the conversation. Don’t spam it. You can keep your steady stream of auction announcements dripping into our news feeds, or you can contribute content and conversations that make your brand more contagious.
[tip]
Categorically, I’m an extrovert. I have to work at listening and asking questions in conversations—at reigning my narcissism and tales of adventure. I love my life and have to remind myself that others might not or might not want to hear about it, anyway.
Likewise, I have to remind myself that God likes two-sided conversations, too, even as he forebears the soliloquies I call prayers. For God to be heard, I have to ask for his voice, read his letters to me, and interact with others who are actively pursuing his voice.
Because my spiritual pathway is nature, I can enrich the exchanges by heading out into God’s handiwork or even looking at pictures and articles about it. It’s not easy to be still and listen—especially when I’m afraid of what he wants to say to me—but it’s necessary to keep our conversation and relational richness alive.
How ’bout you? Have you ever heard from God? What do you do, when it’s been a while since you heard from him?
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