I regularly talk with entrepreneurs and small businesses who are getting started with social media with their business. There’s a bit of a culture divide in understanding the application of social media and howit matters in their business.

Several people feel Twitter and Facebook are the only places to setup a social media presence for their company. There is one element you may be missing in your social media for your small business.

Here are a few questions that I’d like you to think about before I get into this meaty topic:

• When was the last time you picked up the phone and talked with a customer?
• When was the last time you hand-wrote a letter to an interested lead?
• When was the last time you attended a local event for community, not advertising?
• When was the last time you evangelized your customers, not yourself?

Many folks struggle with understanding how the heck they’re supposed to turn Twitter and Facebook into a valuable, profitable investment for their business. Despite all my advice and recommendations on social media here, I want to emphasize the core of social media – people. People make decisions, people talk, people have equity, people are great filters. People are just as much of assets as much as they are risks. Risk management professionals will cringe when I say this:  “You have to take great risks to reap great rewards.”

Being a social media ‘pro’ does not mean knowing all the ins and outs of Twitter and Facebook. Those are simply gadgets that amplify what you already are doing. There’s an often repeated phrase that is shared by social media facilitators: “Crap in, Crap Out.” Social media won’t change the response from people, other than amplify it to a larger audience. This validates a mounting case from the court of public opinion on the troubles Comcast has within their organization, even after 37 thousand posted Tweets from their executive escalations team.

While these applications and (gasp!) … communities are cool ways to connect people, our untrained, natural human instincts are still at play. People want to be heard. And now, everyone’s competing to be number one. The best thing you can do in a room where everyone is talking is to listen.

I don’t just mean brand monitoring or spying on competitors. While those activities help, that’s not the focus of this. Listen to the interests and needs of your customers. Responding is not enough, reacting with agility, speed and professionalism is something people want to see out of businesses. For examples of this, read about my piece about DPZRamon. He did it. He does it. He’s doing it.

Social media has very much to do with offline engagements as much as it does with online ones. The next campaign you plan with your customers and prospects, consider giving them a call, meeting them in public, crushing the barriers between you and them. You’ll earn great results and help you drive towards a powerful social media campaign.

Social media is not just Twitter and Facebook. It’s your attitude and role in where customers are in your organization. Listen to where you customers are and help them, embrace them and promote them – not yourself. Pick up the phone and talk to them, send them a note, meet them, wow them.

Thoughts? Discuss in the comments.

[Photo by Robert S. Donovan on Flickr]

You might also like these blog entries:

• 11 Unforgettable Marketing Moments from 2009
• Why We Love to Hate Social Media
• Facebook Marketing Week (Recap)