“As always, I enjoy our humorous and “productive” meetings together.  I want you to know how much I appreciate the way you not only “listen,” but you “hear” what I’m saying to you. You have a way of processing quickly and giving phenomenal insights.

“I always feel enriched and re-energized after our meetings. You help me see things from a different perspective and push me to step out of the box a bit.

“There are many potential distractions during our public meetings (ie. gorgeous women walking about;) however, you remain focused on our time together. I respect and appreciate that about you!”

Jeanine Calandri
Retirement plan and asset management consulting
Sacramento, CA
Nov. 12, 2011

Chris Brogan’s speech at New England XPO (excerpts):

1. Mobile matters a great deal!
2. 16pt plain-text “rules” in mobile, especially as consumers age.
3. Web-enable your store’s location: Google.com/Places (add your physical store).
4. >10% of complaints about a store experience – actually Tweeted from within the store
5. Facebook: fastest-growing segment is 31-60 year olds, mostly women (to look at other people’s grandkids and kids)
6. Email marketing: no more than 250 words in your newsletter – it’s the 140 character mentality.
7. Just “First Name” and “email addy” – that’s ALL you ask for when asking people to sign up for a newsletter.
8. Business cards are a placeholder for a relationship extension – not to add them to your free newsletter.
9. The Referral Engine by John Jantsch
10. YouTube is the #2 search engine in the world – add keywords to your videos.
11. Social media is about being there BEFORE the sale – build relationships.
12. C.R.A.P. – Connections (connect about them, not you); Referrals (The Referral Engine by John Jantsch); Awareness/Attention (pay attention to them); Presence (being where the buyer is)

A Twitter user just followed me. They’re following 1,258 people but they have NEVER tweeted. They’ve never engaged with anybody. That’s crazy!

Social media is about interaction, engagement, answering people’s/customer’s questions and concerns.

1. I Tweeted that I was considering using Mohawk paper for my next business cards.
2. Mohawk then replied to my Tweet and asked which paper I was interested in.

Social media is simply a “mind-reading” platform, which allows Mohawk to scan Twitter (using http://search.twitter.com/) for mentions of their name – and then engage with me one-on-one. Mohawk noticed that I was using their name and they responded – simple!

It’s this listening and one-on-one followup interaction that is changing the way businesses communicate with their customers.

If you are looking for a book on how social media is transforming the world around you, then Trust Agents is exactly what you are looking for.

Among other books that Steve Cunningham recommends reading is “How To Win Friends and Influence People.”

http://www.polarunlimited.com/offer/trust-agents-special-offer/

Top 5 takeaways from the book.

1. Be a part of the community first. The first step in building trust is to turn yourself into Donnie Brasco. That’s right, you have to become a member of the community. The movie Donnie Brasco is the real life story of Joe Pistone, the FBI agent who infiltrated the Mafia and brought them to their knees. Joey spent 6 months sitting on a barstool in New York, drinking, eating peanuts, and watching the scene around him. He knew that the only way to integrate himself into the mafia community was to watch and learn how it operated first.
2. Stop playing by other people’s rules. The Internet is the great “leveler”, and rules that applied to your parents no longer apply.  Instead of following the rules that were made for a world that no longer exists, make your own rules.
3. Get to the centre of MANY networks. Most people spend their time networking in their own industry or niche.  The real power lies in putting yourself in the middle of different networks and becoming a connection between them.
4. Build an army. Never before have we been able to gather such a large group of people together connected by a common goal.  Army building isn’t just for global superpowers anymore – you can build your own to achieve anything you want in your life.
5. One success should lead to two more. Everything you do should be used as leverage to get you to your next goal.  Success comes to those who are constantly in action.

By Jon Swartz, USA TODAY

A surge in social-media use by small businesses reflects a shift in how they operate and their comfort with increasingly easy-to-use technology.

In growing numbers, small-business owners are adopting social-networking services, location-based services, Twitter and online video to promote products and services, according to a new study by MerchantCircle, a social network for small businesses. It polled a fraction of its more than 1.3 million members.

The survey results are the strongest evidence yet that small businesses — which account for more than 90% of all U.S. companies and fuel the economy — are accelerating their use of social media at the expense of traditional media such as newspapers, the Yellow Pages and radio. Even e-mail messages have taken a beating.

Read full article: More small businesses use Twitter, Facebook to promote – USATODAY.com.

This week we saw two days that shook the viral marketing world. Old Spice, a long-neglected–if not forgotten–Procter & Gamble brand unleashed a social media blitz that may have changed the rules of social network marketing.

“Holy sh*t, best get-well video EVER from Old Spice.”

Key to the effort was the response to Kevin Rose, the founder of social network Digg.com. Rose tweeted the Old Spice Man about his own illness that day. Old Spice Man made a custom-response video. Rose was enamored. He tweeted, “Holy sh*t, best get-well video EVER from Old Spice.” That message went out to his million-plus Twitter followers. A viral phenomenon was born.

Entrepreneur.com Daily Dose – Lessons From The Old Spice Man.