A few weeks ago I wrote about a few people I’ve connected through various social networking sites, and today, in response to a post in Valeria Maltoni’s Conversation Agent blog, I will tell one of my own social media success stories.
This story started when I noticed that one of my Twitter friends, Sue, was a trained Organizer Coach. Since I wasn’t familiar with that particular training program, I asked her about it, and we had a brief conversation about the possibility of her writing a guest post about it in the future for Your Organizing Business. One of us had to leave before the conversation was finished, so it was left on the back burner for the time being.
A couple of weeks later, I received a telephone call from a prospective new client, Shelly. She explained that she is also an Organizer Coach, and that she’d received my name from Sue. We hit it off right away and began working together almost immediately. Shelly is exactly the type of client I enjoy working with, and I know she’s pleased with me as well. She can give me a general idea, and I’m able to come up with something that’s exactly what she had in mind. That’s what most people hope for when working with a virtual assistant, but the synergy isn’t always there.
In addition, we’re both focused on helping professional organizers achieve success, Shelly through her coaching services, and me through providing online marketing support, so we can see lots of potential for mutual benefits in this relationship over the long term.
In the meantime, Sue has agreed to write something about the Organizer Coach Certification Program, which will provide me with some interesting content for my blog while giving her an opportunity to promote her coaching services.
This is just one example of the type of valuable connections I’ve made since I started actively using Twitter a few months ago. I’ve also been offered speaking engagements, books to review, link exchanges with sites of interest to the same target audience, answers to technical problems, and so much more.
In some ways, I think the fact that Twitter restricts messages to 140 characters makes it easier to approach people, because instead of sending a formal email, you can just get right to the point. Of course I would never recommend sending someone a tweet trying to sell your services, but to suggest any type of joint venture, it’s perfect. People get so many messages that are self-promotional, or even outright spam, that they are genuinely delighted to receive a message that shows you’re sincerely interested in getting to know them, and especially if you’re offering them a chance to do something to get their own message out there.
To generate ideas, go beyond the tweets and take the time to read people’s profiles, and even click through to their websites when your schedule allows it. Using Twitter is like any other form of networking – use it to build relationships, and you’ll be remembered. Use it to try and get sales, and you’ll be avoided like the plague.
If you’re interested in connecting with the people in this story, feel free to follow us on Twitter.
Sue West – http://twitter.com/Space4U
Shelly Anderson – http://twitter.com/shellylifecoach
Janet Barclay – http://twitter.com/JanetBarclay
