Businesses that ignore the call to be “social”–that is, to abide by a social contract with their constituents (customers, partners, resellers, employees)–run the risk of appearing pathological. I see “social” business as an inherently healthy change. Social contracts generally involve listening and talking, give and take, and trust–built over time through honest engagement.

From the department of tooting your own horn, allow myself to reference myself:

I think a firm’s success will come from it being able to act human enough to engage in [those collective affinities].

Which I wrote way back in August 2007, Friending the Corporation. I took the idea further and sketched out some possibilities in TIVO BFF!!!1.

Why am I bringing this up now? Facebook is making it real!

Last night Facebook turned on a feature which will surely build some buzz: the recommendation of brands as friends.

From the article Facebook Starts Recommending Branded Public Profiles.

Sure I might not use phrases like “crucible of collective agreement” but I definitely have better looking visuals. Ok I did use the phrase “collective affinities” but that was me re-quoting. And my pics are better.

But its finally clicking with me. Twitter is an excellent “you to me” service. And the reasons why? The enforced brevity of each message and the simple controls for following/not following. Simple. Twitter wins over the traditional vendor email update subscription hands down.

Here are a few of my favorites.

amazonmp3 describes itself as “DRM-free Music Downloads from Amazon. Tweets on our Daily Deal and Friday 5.” Which means you get a tweet everyday that looks something like this:

8/20 Daily Deal: Smile by Brian Wilson. Everyday low price $9.99, today’s price $3.99. http://snurl.com/34×4m

All you have to do is click the url and buy.

99rental‘s bio is “Keeping you up-to-date on the weekly 99 cent movie rental on iTunes.” With a typical tweet looking like:

99¢ Movie: El Mariachi http://tinyurl.com/68b4h8

Again, simple, to the point, easy to act on.

Lastly, timoreilly is my personal Twitter aggregator. He “retweets” pertinent, useful and informative tweets from other folks using Twitter. A recent tweet:

Retweet @allennoren: A round-up of books about Darfur. If you don’t have time to read them, but want to know, read http://tinyurl.com/5zxp4z

Always fascinating how a service evolves. A lot can happen in two years. I’m not a prolific Twitter user by any means but I’m definitely benefiting from it.

Topspin is founded on the principle that while costs of production and distribution in the music industry are dropping, unlimited choice for consumers only increases the importance of efficient marketing. Marketing means both connecting and cultivating relationships with your existing fans (much of what Seth Godin describes as “Permission Marketing” applies) as well as discovering new fans. Topspin is building software tools to help artists market efficiently.

Topspin’s an answer to a question I’ve been thinking about off and on. The music biz isn’t about records, Sam Goody and Top 40 radio anymore. (And if it is for you still, be ready—things are changing fast!) To succeed as a musician you need to embrace the web, digital distribution, blogs, twitter, social networks, satellite radio and seamlessly transition from hyperlocal to global. How do you measure success? Is your marketing paying off? What counts? Radio plays? Downloads? Do you have the tools to even begin measuring success? How do you cultivate relationships with your fans? Touring sure. But where are you fans? Kevin Kelly had a great intro to this new world with his 1,000 True Fans scenario.

Madonna’s been making her own rules from early on and so it continues–she ditched the traditional music industry in 2007 and signed up with a concert promotion company:

“The paradigm in the music business has shifted and as an artist and a business woman, I have to move with that shift,” Madonna said. “For the first time in my career, the way that my music can reach my fans is unlimited. I’ve never wanted to think in a limited way and with this new partnership, the possibilities are endless.”

Topspin is going in a similar direction:

One point I want to make clear: we are not just another digital distribution company. Our belief is there are some very good digital distribution solutions out there already, and digital distribution is quickly becoming a commodity. What’s not anywhere near commodity status is marketing, and we are a marketing tools software company. We are about demand creation, not demand fulfillment.

Not to overstate things but the unstoppable shift from Old World music industry to New World could very well start here with Topspin. One to watch for sure.

The companies I have a relationship with are in my friend list. Look at all the great info I have instantly available: what’s on sale, similar companies, communication. If I get fed up with them, I hit the “Remove Friend” link and they’re gone!

If a company needs to talk to me, I decide on what terms. Gap’s been really needy lately so I’ll divert all incoming messages to a throwaway email address. TiVO, on the other hand, gave me a great deal on an HD box—text me as soon as it ships!

The history of my interactions with companies is recorded in either a credit card statement, a piece of forgotten email or worse, something printed and mailed. Who can remember when you last flashed a device? Installed an update? I’d sure like having a single aggregated view, available anywhere and safely stored at some remote secure location.

Pretty much always have an IM client going. Most companies will send some sort of email notification, but why not IM too? There’s a little bit of IM use among Yahoo, AOL, etc. But it feels disjointed, robotic and more focused on marketing. If I no longer want the Gap sending me stuff it’s gone from my “buddy” list. More control for me!

And frankly any “customer support solution” is a failure if it’s designed to keep you from speaking to a real human being. (Then again, that’s not always a good thing.) Why the 5-10 minute delay? The diligent customer service rep is looking through the chat history, getting up to speed regarding my problem.

So Big Corps, these collective affinities aren’t going to stand around and wait for you. Accept my invite or say goodbye.