Well, it’s Election Day and whether or not your favorite candidates win, we can all be thankful for the end of political ads for a while, no? And that’s the theme here, one of appreciation. For what and who else are you thankful? Here’s one for me: All of the books reviewed in this space are ones that were suggested by friends, and I have a list of a dozen more (and growing all the time) to get to. I greatly appreciate all of you for faithfully reading this blog and for suggesting some terrific books, many I’d never heard of before. The latest such book is The Thank You Economy by Gary Vaynerchuk, recommended by two trusted advisors. If you’re trying to crack the code on using social media to help you properly manage your business relationships, well this is the only book you’ll need on that topic. Last month, we worked on brainstorming with The Idea Hunter; this month, we focus on taking a smart approach with social media, using it as an efficient, and ever more effective, way to communicate gratitude, among other messages.
Vaynerchuk admonishes that “social media requires that business leaders start thinking like small-town shop owners” and that we have to “relearn and employ the ethics and skills our great-grandparents’ generation took for granted, and that many of them put into running their own businesses.” Can we soldier on and be okay without proactively – even reactively – shaping the message we want the world to know about our businesses? Sure, for a while anyway, but the challenge is that word spreads like wild over the web, so the author says we need to be on top of what’s being said out there, thanking like crazy those who say positive things and addressing the concerns of those who don’t. He likens business health to literal health, suggesting that we can get by on one kidney but are more assured of living to a ripe old age with two. Think of this like oars in the water, one for running the business and the other for promoting it. Surely we can paddle hard (and harder) side to side with a single oar, but how much better off are we balancing our efforts with a strong force on each side of the boat? This rhetorical question has been brought to you by your humble book reviewer, not the author, so if you hate that analogy you know who to blame.
Note that The Thank You Economy is not exactly loaded with humor and knee-slapping anecdotes. Vaynerchuk beats his chest pretty hard wanting you to know that he practically invented if not the Internet itself, at least the proper use of it. Fine, it’s still an important read on this topic, and he does a good job cutting to the quick. He might cause the reader some upset when ticking off some of the biggest mistakes companies make with social media, including using it for bragging, cheap PR, and pushing product, all the while expecting an immediate payoff. He says we have to hustle as hard as Ma and Pa Kettle, providing great service and earning good word-of-mouth buzz, but we should be neither self-serving nor impatient awaiting results. Oh, and we have to embed all this in our work cultures, top to bottom. Great, you’re saying, like I don’t have enough to do. No pressure. It’s not like your Gammy’s monitoring you from above, right?