What’s your favorite breakfast cereal?

I’ve watched Zappos twitter posters and Zappos bloggers effectively deploy questions like that one to engage their social media tribe. I was speaking at an  event in Las Vegas today and heard a panelist offer one of the best distinctions between the lead generating benefits of a web page and the relationship building benefits of Facebook and Twitter.

The panelist used an interesting example.  Let’s say you are a financial advisor at a cocktail party.  Would it be appropriate to interrupt the party to start analyzing the investment portfolios of the people you meet in that setting?  There is a time an place for everything and it might be more fitting to ask about a favorite breakfast cereal. So I am asking, what’s your favorite breakfast cereal? (In my youth it was Quisp. I even had a Quisp stuffed toy….ok so I still have the toy)

Sometimes quirky questions allow us to connect in relaxed ways and gives us information we can later leverage for the good of the relationship…