One example: one of our customers, a heavy social media type…asked to use our facility to run a charity fundraiser — and could we mention it in our facebook fan page (not even our newsletter). When I agreed, she posted a compelling video on You Tube that ended up on our facebook page and got a number of other customers heavily involved. Further the local cable channel saw the post, as did the local paper and both want to do stories. The thing is still spiraling in various ways as others pick it up and my Google “alert” for our business name has popped up a number of times in the past few days.

A few observations. First, all this is still exploratory and the best practices are far from well defined —– but it doesn’t take much time (or money) to explore and there is more than enough anecdotal stuff happening to make me feel it is worth it. Second not ALL my customers are into this stuff……not even MOST of my customers and prospects are into it. But a small, passionate and fast growing group ARE into this. And those people are disproportionately important because they are those key “connectors” or “engagers” or whatever it was that Malcom Gladwell called them in Tipping Point. The ones who ARE into social media often can turn into obsessive evangelists for your busines. Evangelists armed with amazing networking tools.