I've always had a knack for branding, so even with the lemonade stands, it was "Gary's Lemonade Stand." I worked on the signs all day, more so than on the lemonade itself. Then I learned you had to make good lemonade to build an actual business, so that taught me about lifetime value and quality.

Content is king, but marketing is queen, and runs the household.

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.

The reason I was able to grow my business was that every day, after producing 30 minutes of wine television, I spent 15 hours a day replying to every single person's e-mail and every single person's Twitter @ reply.

The reason I became successful is because I touched. I touched my community.

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

While companies were getting comfy cozy with the idea of being on social media platforms, social media transcended those platforms, and few businesses have followed.