Mr. Cub, my friend Tom, Old Spice Man, and the power of surprise

Tom, a friend of mine, grew up in Chicago, and has always been a huge Cubs fan. His new Facebook profile picture is a shot of him with Ernie Banks, who is tagged in the photo. The year is 1977, and Mr. Banks has his arm draped around Tom, who is clearly in awe just to be in “Mr. Cub’s” presence. That was the same year Banks was elected to join the Baseball Hall of Fame. I’ll spare you all the details of his amazing career, but let’s just say that if you were a Cubs fan in Chicago in 1977, even though ’71 was his last year on the field, you were still probably in awe of Mr. Cub.

Today, I noticed that Mr. Cub himself had posted a note to Tom’s FB page: “Nice photo of me. :)  I had hair then. Thanks for sharing.”

I haven’t talked to Tom about it yet, but I can only imagine that Banks’ small act of acknowledgment made his week, and probably his year.

There’s a lesson here. With all the talk about how technology has brought us closer, I don’t see a lot of examples of people bridging the divide to do something, well, unexpected. When Steve Jobs does it, it makes the news.There’s even a blog devoted to his one-line responses to customer inquiries. Even better, the suddenly ubiquitous Old Spice campaign uses its spokesperson to directly respond to online commenters. Why is all this news? Shouldn’t this be happening all the time? Using technology to make direct contact with the people who are already talking about you is a no-brainer. And it can make them fans for life. Just ask Tom.