I get that question from many of my clients and prospects, so I thought I would start defining how I view social media for businesses. It’s not really about media, or least how most people think about media which is usually delivering the message in one direction. Social media about conversations, permission, dialogue, information, sharing, attention, engagement, participation, communication, enthusiasm, passion and being authentic — using technology as vehicle. It’s not about using a fire hose to blast your message out to an audience that never asked to be interrupted as Seth Godin is fond of saying. Social media is about actively listening to your audience to determine what they are interested in, then engaging them by providing a platform so you and your audience can converse, share, participate with each other.

Let see how some other people define social media. The Common Craft group had a nice video which told a story about a little town’s affinity for ice cream combined with new technology can spark new informational interactions. I just wish that the community had first asked more than the three flavors and the big bad ice cream company had refused. Another good example is from Peter Kim who defined social media as “Interaction between a company and individual via [digital] delivery channels, intended to share commercial content that will lead to a sale and/or be passed along to others.” To take it a step further, I would add “the opportunity to connect with like-minded individuals.” One of the best slide shows I have seen about social media is from Marta Kagan, though her title is a slightly more risque than mine. She exhibits an boatload of passion in her messages as she explains that social media is not a fad and the longer companies wait to get on board — the more business you will lose.

In the days to come, I break down some of the components of social media, best practices, my social media stories, social media implementations and maybe a little about where I see it going.

Last week, I was shopping at my local supermarket around 9pm and one of the items I needed was canned sweet potatoes so my wife could make her fantastic muffins. I looked in the canned fruit section, the baking section and the canned vegetable section — no dice. I went up to 2 cashiers and 2 baggers who were not helping anybody at the time since the store was practically deserted. I asked where were the canned sweet potatoes. I got 2 different answers, so I went back checked both locations and still no luck. As I was checking out, I remember that I still needed the sweet potatoes. I told the the cashier that I still could not find the sweet potatoes. After trying to tell me again where it was, I told them to send someone to find it and to bring it back. I compare this experience to one I get at Trader Joe’s, where I am usually led right to the item no matter what the employee is doing at the time.

Bruce Tempkin of Forrrester, talks about leadership this week on his fantastic blog, Customer Experience Matters, after reading a post on the HBS discussion board talking about the CEO of UK retail giant Testco, Sir Terry Leahy, who said recently in a speech, “Tesco doesn’t want one leader. We want thousands of leaders who take initiative to execute the strategy.”  The company has 400,000 employees so it can be difficult to keep everyone moving in the same direction. Early on they came up with a company motto,”Every Little Helps.” I agree with Bruce that the motto is incredibly powerful and simple at the same time.

Zappo’s is a online shoe retailer that delivers excellent customer service. It has a company policy, which offers employees a $1,000 bonus to quit after their first week, believing quite correctly that if you don’t feel like leading the way with superior service, they want to encourage you to leave rather than contaminate the other employees.

As I deal with companies, I see employees go out on their own to deliver good service and many times that action is neither observed or rewarded by anyone else in the company. A smile. A thank you. Calling me back. Just actually listening to my question. Unfortunately, all too often a company with a lack of leadership will suck the passion right out of their employees with conflicting, unclear or strict company mandates. These different company environments lead me to ask this question. How difficult is it to make sure there are individuals leading everyone in the right direction and empowering your employees to to make sure that everyone is a leader in their own right. How about your company? Is it run by a bunch of leaders or is everyone moving in different directions or worse no direction at all?