You know what I love about Scott Stratten’s new book (affiliate link)? It’s that he writes it in a very conversational, matter-of-fact style. It feels like he’s sitting right there talking to you while you’re reading it. And if you’ve ever head Scott speak, you know he’s passionate, funny and right on point with everything he delivers! Scott was kind enough to join us late last evening for another great LinkedOC event with Bryan Elliott. Here is a short collection of notes from what I thought were some great takeaways…

Key Takeaways:

• “Marketing is not a task! It isn’t a job, it isn’t a title… It’s every single time you choose to engage with somebody…” – I think too often people get caught up in ‘social media’ as something they need to do. Just another medium to push-market their stuff. Sometimes, they treat it with no sense of passion or interest and care for the consumer and this affects business on every level from Custom Service to Sales. Stop treating it like just another task and be passionate it about it in everything that you do.
• “People don’t spread mediocre content. They spread awesome content!” – Don’t write a blog post just to write a blog post. Here’s an idea, submit everything you blog, post and tweet through the “Who gives a sh*t test?” In other words, if I write this post, is anyone going to care and why? If you don’t have an answer, it’s probably not content worth spreading.
• “We can’t stop screw-ups, we can only change how we respond and recover.” Technical issues are going to occur. Customers are going to vent passive-aggressively. What social media does is it presents an opportunity for us to respond to those situations and address issues before they escalate. What are you doing to listen and respond to your clients?
• “To be great at Customer Service you only gotta be average because everyone else sucks!” Here’s an idea. Create a Twitter List of all of your existing customers (I do this for some of our Diverse Solution’s clients). Then, check in on them daily and interact with them to see how they’re doing. Again, it’s about taking the extra bit of effort to show people that you care.
• “We’ve never changed why we spread messages, we’ve only changed how we spread messages.” You need to focus more on your message, not the technology. Twitter or [insert shiny new network name here] isn’t going to help spread your message better and further if your story still sucks. We spread messages and stories because we connect with them emotionally.
• “If your product or service sucks, social media makes it suck harder!” I don’t know what to tell you, if you’re business sucks, social media isn’t the magic bullet that’s going to solve your problems. Instead, it’s going to magnify the problems that are already there.
• “People do business with people they Know, Like and Trust. What are you doing to increase your ‘Know, Like and Trust’ factor?” Social media presents an opportunity for you to connect with your closest and most loyal fans in a personal way. What are you doing to leave a good lasting impression on them? What are you doing to make them feel good about your product and to make them feel like you care? Are you just broadcasting and push-marketing? Or are you truly taking the time to connect with people and be a valuable resource to increase your ‘Know, Like and Trust’ factor?
• “If you wouldn’t do it at a live networking event, don’t do it in social media.” This comes down to etiquette. You wouldn’t throw a hard-pitch at someone at a live-networking event after having just met them would you? Don’t do it on Twitter and Facebook either. Let me get to know you first.

What were some of your favorite takeaways from the event? What are some of your tips and techniques for how to be better and building relationships and delivering better customer service through social media?

And if you haven’t read Scott’s book yet, what are you waiting for? Pick up a copy:

PHOTO CREDIT: Calvin Lee