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I am exactly 111 pages into Gary Vaynerchuck’s new book The Thank You Economy. The book talks about the role that social media plays in corporations. Usually a good business book gets my juices going on page 1. This one took me awhile to find a new thought. Nevertheless, I would say that the book is a must read.

As the earlier post suggests (I was Linkedin user 153,000-ish) I am bullish on social media. My passion dates back to my first electronic rolodex, then to my first Palm PDA, and so on and so forth. I like to stay connected to people – not obsessively, but I think managing contacts is a reasonably important personal and professional virtue. Meeting new people would also fall under that virtue – and social media helps with that. I also like social media for research. We are constantly recruiting and working with new clients on new projects. We uncover a lot of information from social media.

Gary Vaynerchuck has not told me anything about social media that I did not already know. But I like him, and we agree completely. I especially like the passion that he puts into his speaking gigs. He has that great speaking quality that can only be born into someone – I envy him for that.

When I first met Gary, it was at a party. Our neighbor invites his friends – mostly winemakers – over to his house for a party after the World of Pinot, an annual event here in Pismo Beach. This was Gary before Social Media, when he was more about wine than being Gary Vaynerchuck. He was interesting then, too.

To me, social media is just something you do; something everyone does. It is not a fad or something that someone becomes an expert at. It is just another form of communication, like having a meeting, sending an email, or making a phone call. Social Networking is fundamental to friendship or businessship.

Given this perspective, knowing that corporations block social media sites from their office network to prevent their employees from screwing around is absurd. If employees are not engaged in their work, it’s not social media’s fault. Either you have a crappy company or a crappy employee. And where do you stop? Do you monitor their inbound and outbound calls too? Do you have policies regarding the use of the cell phone in their pocket? Give up trying to stop the avalanche and build a better team.

WAV Group takes the opposite perspective on corporate social media. We insist upon it. If you don’t know how to write a blog post and Tweet it, Facebook it, and post to LinkedIn, you are incompetent in today’s economy; you cannot communicate.

So here is my point: If everyone in your company is not into social media, get into it. It's not a big deal, it's not hard. Your company will grow as a result.

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