“If you had to choose social media* or 100% engaged employees for your brand, which would you choose?”

I recently asked that on Twitter and the responses were pretty interesting. The question forces a choice, which many of the people who responded had a hard time making. One person even called it down-right ’silly.’ Generally, people wanted both - engaged employees who use social media. Fair enough, but not a singular answer the question begs.

If you’re having a hard time with the answer, this might be a good gut-check.

You see, the answer gets at a deeper question - what is the most valuable asset that your business has?

We’re not denying that social media can have massive influence for a brand, or even that it can add to a brand’s bottom line if wielded correctly. But I am saying that we would bet on a business with engaged employees and no communication through social media over a business with mountains of online ‘influence’ any day of the week.

Why?

It’s pretty simple: one of the foundations of a good business is an amazing customer experience. And employees provide that experience to customers. And 100% engaged, passionate employees do that in a way that turns customers into loyal fans. So if we had to choose between an online communication tool and people who’s hearts beat to turn customers into loyal fans, the choice is clear.

Don't miss the most important thing.

I’ve been been on the road with a band the past week-and-a-half. And that means lots of coffee. And lots of coffee means lots of local coffee shops.

We stopped at a really neat shop in Ypsilanti, Michigan called the “Ugly Mug.” Yes, they serve cups of coffee in an assortment of hideous, garage-sale style mugs. When I went up to the counter to get my fix, I noticed something that caught my attention and made me smile.

They had this little sign on the register that said: “Get off your phone! Thank you!”

On first glance it seemed like all of the other notes taped on registers by employees that are annoyed with phone-distracted customers not ordering and slowing traffic down in the morning caffeine rush.

Or maybe it was getting at something deeper. Either way, it made me think.

You see, the Ugly Mug takes a lot of pride in their coffee, but they take even more pride in their baristas. I had a chance to meet one of them - he knew incredible amounts about coffee, matching tastes, roasting, tasting, testing and crafting incredible beverages. They don’t just pour coffee and make lattes - they’re experts. And they want to do everything they can to match a drink to your palette that will blow you away.

I think sometimes we get so busy staying connected to other people we know through the electronic devices that have become necessary in our lives that oftentimes we miss the people right in front of us. In fact, we don’t only miss them - we miss out on them. Bad customer service aside, face-to-face interactions are one of the most powerful things we can experience - personally or when we’re interacting with a brand. If I had been calling, texting, emailing, tweeting, etc. while I was ordering coffee, I might have missed out on one of the coolest baristas I’ve met - and consequently his guidance to one of the best espressos that I’ve ever had.

I think my goal this week will be to keep my phone in my pocket whenever I’m about to interact with someone face-to-face. There are lots of things worth missing out on, people aren’t one of them.

A tribute to old Jeeps.

A few weeks ago, our friend Kim Banks down at Full Circle PR asked me if I could help her figure out how to install a Sirius / XM radio in her husband’s Jeep. After signing up for the service and buying a unit on sale, she planned to borrow her husband’s car and return it to him with the satellite service to surprise him. After hearing rumors that I had tinkered with Jeeps she wanted to know if I could help her surprise her husband with the gift.

After some research I determined that in order for her to get it back to her husband on time she would probably need to take it to a professional. A few weeks passed and I didn’t hear anything more about it.

One morning when Kim was in the Dead Dog Diner I asked her how things had turned out with the surprise and where she had taken the car. I was shocked - she said that she had actually given up on it, but through a turn of events, was now a fully devoted fan of Sirius / XM. Here’s what happened.

When Kim found out what it would take to get the unit installed and how much it would cost, she realized that it would take too long and she wouldn’t be able to surprise her husband. She was also frustrated that the cost of installation was a lot more than she had bargained for. So she decided to scrap the whole thing.

She called Sirius / XM and told them she wanted to cancel the service. When they asked her why, she told them the story. She thought it would be a great gift for her husband, who loves sports and news radio, but the frustration of actually getting it up and running was too much, even if she admittedly should have done more research. She was going to find another gift for her husband.

And Sirius / XM stepped up to the plate and seized the opportunity to stand by their service and remove the barriers that had turned a potential customer away.

They told her:

“You know what - we think you’ll really, really like Sirius, and we’re sorry for the confusion about the installation. If you’re still willing to give it a shot, we’ll send you a free-installation voucher so you can take it to an authorized dealer to get taken care of. Also, we don’t want you to be paying for something you’re not using - so we just won’t charge you for the first month of your service.”

Kim said,

“They treated me like a customer before I was a customer, and now we’re huge fans. They were confident that we’d like the service, and they were right - and when they found out we were having trouble, they just made everything so easy.”

Kim’s husband swears by satellite radio now - it really was the perfect gift for him. So perfect, in fact, that he’s giving all of this CDs to Kim because he doesn’t use them much any more. And Sirius won them by treating them as the valuable customers they had the potential to be, even though they hadn’t even used their satellite radio yet.

*Sirius / XM is a pretty interesting company. Their history has been rocky to say the least, including a near-brush with bankruptcy, a controversial merger and a poorly-received iPhone app launch. And when you have a rough history, it’s not surprising that you’ll bend over backwards to gain more subscribers. Or maybe they’re starting to figure things out.

Invest in vocabulary?

Yes.

Kyle Bylin, the associate editor at hypebot, wrote a very interesting article on “True Fans and Outsiders” as they relate to bands and the music industry. Kyle points out that language is a vital component of community - committed cores of fans

…use language to help create their culture, but if you take away or change their sacred words, over time the tribe’s sense of identity slowly starts to erode.

We experience this every day, much of the time without even noticing it. We have a certain vernacular with our loved ones, our friend groups and our co-workers. But lots of companies see the importance in it as well - Starbucks refers to employees as “partners” because they want their workers to take ownership in the success of the company. Chick-fil-A employees make constant use of the phrase “my pleasure” because they want customer service to be at the top of their minds.

So it got me thinking - if some of this happens naturally among employees and customers - what would happen if a company not only listened to the vocabulary being use by those groups, but invested in it? Intentionally gave the people who interact with them a sense of belonging, simply in the language they use?

Are there any stories you know of companies making this type of vocabulary-investment?

Who’s heard of Robin Dunbar? For those of you who haven’t, his most widely known work as an anthropologist is called “Dunbar’s Number,” which proposes that the ceiling of ’stable interpersonal relationships’ that the average person can maintain is 150. Though his initial work studied groups of people offline, he has recently moved his research online to study the same principle in social networks.

Aside from being thought-provoking in and of itself, the variety of responses that Dunbar’s research has drawn is also interesting. Some people use the measure to decry the online frenzy of friends and followers, others use their idea of the massive influence of social media to discredit it. Many people approach their interpretation of the number through personal networking experience and some have even made it their goal to ‘beat’ the number.

One thing, however, seems to be consistent among both supporters and critics: the number of deep, meaningful, trusting relationships that you can have, either online or offline, is a much smaller figure than gigantic number of acquaintances you can achieve.

And I think many people (and companies for that matter) could be missing one of the most important lessons in the conversation. On some level, it doesn’t matter as much whether Dunbar’s number validates or invalidates connections in social networking, it’s a reminder that you can cultivate a core group of fans that have a vested interest in you.

It begs the question, what are you doing to fascinate, inspire, reward and engage that smaller number of people who have the closest connection to your company or brand?