Saying hello doesn't have an ROI. It's about building relationships.

There is no sale without the story; no knockout without the setup.

Social media requires that business leaders start thinking like small-town shop owners. This means taking the long view and avoiding short-term benchmarks to gauge progress. It means allowing the personality, heart and soul of the people who run all levels of the business to show.

The chef that grew up with the grandma who cooks tends to always beat the chef that went to the culinary institute. It's in the blood.

Publicly, they claim to be thrilled to have the opportunity to engage directly with their customers; privately, they suspect, maybe even fervently hope, that Facebook and its spawn are fads.

More contact means more sharing of information, gossiping, exchanging, engaging - in short, more word of mouth.

When people are using their devices, it's probable that almost half are networking on social media.