For Mr. Kimball, who conceded that he “hadn’t really understood the purpose of Twitter,” the beauty of digital word-of-mouth marketing was immediately clear. He signed up for an account and has more than 5,400 followers who wait for him to post the current location of his itinerant cart and list the flavors of the day, like lavender and orange creamsicle.

“I would love to say that I just had a really good idea and strategy, but Twitter has been pretty essential to my success,” he said.

When was the last time you were in a business meeting pitching an idea and, without data or statistics, a decision maker simply said, “Let’s give it a try”

Do you think guy-with-a-cart-flogging-creme-brulees did some mad ROI calculations on his social media investment? Or did he just have faith that it seemed like the right thing to do?