I am often asked, “Does social media really work... for people other than online hucksters and large, established brand-name companies?”
My answer is always: “Yes... if you use the tools strategically, consistently, in conjunction with one another... and leverage each of the vehicles to full advantage.”
That is almost always met with an incredulous almost suspiciously sceptical, “Really?”
Well, to those of you who are like the people from Missouri (the “show me” state), I’ll leave it up to you to decide once you’ve read a few of things that have happened in my immediate circle of influence in the past fortnight.
As you read, please keep in mind that with the exception of our client, no one is using the tools to full advantage. I know; I know... think about the cobbler’s kids who go barefoot and you’ll understand why our own social media activities get put on a back burner in favour of client needs.
Being Hired as a Key Note Speaker
Someone who follows my tweets was intrigued enough by one of my posts to click through to my blog. Something there prompted him to subscribe to the blog. One of my blog entries led him to read related articles on our website. About a month later, when the keynote speaker for a corporate event got appendicitis, I got a call. That was last week.
Asked to Consult by a College in Colorado
I participate in a forum for marketing professors. This created a twitter follower who became a blog follower which led to someone checking out my Linked In profile. This led to a call last Wednesday for me to consult on a project.
VP Contact
One of my students used his blog to talk about something covered by a speaker we had in class recently. He mentioned the VP of Adidas and included a relevant YouTube clip. The result: The Adidas VP is now following his tweets and blog – which could be useful when the young man starts looking for a job.
Student Offered $150M Job 3 Months Before Graduation
I regularly coach people on how to get their dream job. One of my students did as instructed and integrated his Facebook, twitter, YouTube accounts and website – then used article forum participation, back links and other tools to help raise her online profile.
Her tweets caught the attention of an industry marketing board. She was asked to write their newsletter. Tweets related to the newsletter led to her being contacted by a major company in that industry. Two phone calls and one round-trip later (for the interview) and she has been offered a senior executive position.... three months before she even writes her final MBA exam.
Client Gets Two New Customers in Twelve Days
We set up an integrated online campaign for a small manufacturer of powdered metal coatings. When they wanted to get into patio furniture, we started a twitter account and blog that only talked about the use of powdered metals in the manufacturing of patio furniture.
The result: Two new clients in the past twelve days – one of which is now the company’s largest piece of business!
Don’t know about you, but these simple stories suggest that twitter works for all types of business... despite the articles we’ve all seen lately claiming otherwise.
If you have your own stories, I’d love to hear them.
Until next time, remember to tweet and don’t be afraid to go out on that proverbial limb to find the sweet fruit!
Jane-Michèle
over the last 8 weeks I've been conducting a twitter experiment - from my experience it is extremely difficult to encourage a following - even with the help of Twiends (which is fleeting in my opinion). I have come to the conclusion that Twitter is like any other tool in the IMC (integrated marketing campaign) tool box that is only as good as the sum of its parts. Twitter alone is a great challenge but Twitter with Facebook, strong online presence, aligned target, and other traditional marketing tools supporting it...now that can be powerful!
ReplyDelete