Talk about a simple but powerful story in the below video.  A person walks into PF Changs and tweets how much she loves the lettuce wraps.  Since PF Chang’s is active on Twitter, they see the message and decide to “be awesome” and send the girl on Twitter a free dessert and appetizer.

Now think about that for a second.  From across the country, PF Chang’s reached out and delighted a customer in a way she wasn’t expecting.  And this person wasn’t a celebrity.  They weren’t an influencer in the sense of being a food magazine editor or a restaurant reviewer.  They were just a fan of the place that was sharing how much they love lettuce wraps.

And PF Chang’s had NO expectation of getting anything more out of it.

For me, that is what sums up the benefits of Social Media.  It gives you a chance to put a human face on your company and your brand.  Hell, it gives you a chance to actually act like a human instead of just a marketer or business person.

In it’s simplest form, Social Media gives Brand Managers a chance to thank the people [ie consumers] who make their job even possible [by buying the products].

So if you are in marketing, when is the last time you actually thanked a customer?  When is the last time you tried to “Be Awesome”?  Does your company even have the systems in place to let you do so?  If not, it is time to start making a change.

Thanks to Karl Long for pointing me to this video and Andy Sernovitz for the original version of it.