The Thank You Economy - Are you part of it? The Next Move After Social Media is your Context

So much of what we call Social Media is based on PUSH. We are PUSHING our agenda to others.  We log in and sell our ideas.  How many of you are actually listening to your customer and responding on a human level? It is unfortunate that online social interactions are called "social media".  This implies a PUSH model where we are as we used to say in a sales call "showing up and throwing up".  Not taking in the context of our relationships is totally missing the point.  OK we are here to do business, I get that - me too.  I want customers, I want YOUR business, but the real opportunity in the Social Context is to connect with people who I may never meet but where our interaction can actually benefit both of us.  Because after all, the reader at the other end of this blog post can stop coming to read this at any time.

If you have been reading my blogs over the last few years you will find that most of my posts are wrapped around something I found useful or interesting that we are now doing for our clients.  We are trying to help others and create a place for all of us to understand what is and what is not the right way to use Social Context with our clients to encourage them to take the relationship / trust paradigm to the next level... OK great.  The question is, this cannot all be PUSH.  There has to be the interaction, the connection. the interplay.  The Business has to do more than just show up and throw up on their customer with brochures, coupons and ads. Businesses need to take into account the needs, wishes and interests of their customers.

I listen to a number of podcasts on my Droid on Stitcher (a great way to listen to all your favorite news and business and tech stories) and one of my favorite shows is Jason Calacanis and his This Week In Startups.  Recently he had Gary Vaynerchuck on who just wrote a great book,  "The Thank You Economy".  Get it, read it, listen to this 55 minute video and prepare for a paradigm shift from the Social Media to Social Context.  This is going to be a fundamental shift and it is going to happen.  Some companies will get it and others are going to crash.

Watch This
http://thisweekin.com/thisweekin-startups/gary-vaynerchuk-of-vaynermedia-on-this-week-in-startups-126

Gary Vaynerchuk of VaynerMedia on This Week in Startups #126

What is your position on this?  Write to me and tell me your thoughts on this idea and how you are going to implement these ideas.

Torrey Russell can be reached at torreyrusell@gmail.com