I’m specifically talking about branding right now. But this could be any aspect of small business – customer service, marketing, social media, newsletters, meetings…

And I believe the answer is, it only matters what you call it if what you’re doing doesn’t match what you’re saying that you’re doing. For example, you can’t call it customer service if you’re listening but not responding.

Actually let’s tangent onto that. I have an experience to share. One of my affiliates had over 257 sales over the 36 hours.

(That’s what I get for offering 100% commission on a page that converts at 17%. LOL, just kidding. Why I’m deliriously happy about paying out on that is a discussion for another day.)

Anyway, the point is, about 4 emails an hour came in with customer support questions or issues. They were mostly three issues – not getting one of the three confirmation emails with the download, not seeing that the videos were in one of the delivered files, or they had a compliment/question.

Now, when you’re handling an uptick in emails at that rate, you can certainly fall back on the excuse that you’re swamped, especially if you’re doing it yourself. Put it in an autoresponder and you’re covered for a little bit. Most people will be understanding.

Or you can deliver the best possible service you can, and give such a great customer service experience that will leave a memorable impression.

You can send three delivery confirmations instead of one.

You can offer a second way to get the videos.

You can call people on the phone to make sure they got what they needed.

You can send an extra message wishing them a good day when they confirm that they were helped.

It just takes a little extra to make a big difference.

For another example, let’s look at branding. That’s what made me write this article today.

I was reading Do People Really Want a Relationship with a Brand?

Here’s a quote:

In human-land, we don’t have relationships with brands; we have expectations of them.

My Mazda is in the shop right now. And while I don’t think of having a “relationship” with Mazda – my car’s brand – I definitely have expectations of what Mazda as a whole brand should be doing for me.

And in a sense, the article is right.

I don’t want my roofer to spoon me. I expect my friggin roof fixed. Now. Properly the first time. Not cheaply but certainly at a good price.

But that’s still a relationship.

People want relationships with people, of course — and yet, the whole idea of relationships with brands is that these are subconscious connections. No one could care less about a company selling some stuff. But people have died for their passions and hobbies.

Who sells the equipment to enhance their passions? Who creates the material for their hobbies? Companies.

For evidence of brand relationships, watch the documentary “The Corporation” [ official site trailer | full movie on Hulu].

Now, I don’t believe corporations are evil, but skip forward to the part about branding. People describe companies like Coca-Cola with *personalities*. It’s scary that branding is that deeply entrenched, but it’s also interesting that it’s at that level.

I *do* believe smaller companies need to focus on  connecting human to human though – that’s our strength.

You can call it relationship marketing, branding, or hickory-dickory-dock but we need to do it if we want to distinguish ourselves from the next guy. Expectations come from relationships. So do being receptive, responsive and respectful.

Intriguing topic for an article and warrants a lot of discussion. Be sure to read the entire article. The larger topic of the site is talking about branding in human terms, which Is very important to businesses of all sizes.

The more I think about what some people are doing wrong with social media, the more it occurs to me what other people are doing right, and how it can be emulated. I’m also realizing that I’m assuming that people know how to relate to each other, but that’s not necessarily true either.

Think about it – often, not always but quite a bit, people are congregating online to avoid offline encounter. It’s not always because they are shy or anti-social. Sometimes being online is more efficient than, say, having ten people fly out or conference call for a meeting.

Allan Cockerill started discussing what he says is the central issue to social media interactions:

These are social networking sites that we are talking about, and networking means relationship!.

If I don’t know you, why should I bookmark something for you?

And if we are friends in the online sense of the word, a string of links via instant message isn’t a friendship, it’s a dictatorship!

I would agree. You really have to think about what builds a relationship when you’re entering into these interactions, because if you enter into real connections with people, in the long run, this is what will work in your favor the most.

The difficult piece of the puzzle is two-fold.

1- We all have our idea about  the acceptable parameters of relating, on or offline, and,

2- Some elements of even a casual relationship akin to friendship are more difficult to imitate in an online-only connection.

Even if you don’t feel  that an ongoing link with another person in the online world is a friendship, by definition it is a type of relationship. The key to building better social media relationships then, is in remembering how certain types of casual relationships are formed, duplicating that in a suitable way online, and then show how they continue.

And we’ll ponder that next.