This document discusses how social customer interactions are transforming business and provides examples of how some brands are optimizing their social media presence. It introduces a Social*ID brand index calculator to measure where brands fall on a continuum from just learning about social media to fully optimizing their operations based on customer insights from social interactions. Examples are given of how DIRECTV, UPS and others have effectively engaged customers through social media by embracing extreme users, turning outreach into standard practice, letting customers lead through sharing, and focusing on customer experience over bloggers.