I am relatively new to Facebook and Twitter, but have been blogging on and off for several years. Very recently, however, I’ve seen how spending time to tweet and comment and read others communications has helped my business.
I follow Abbie Lundberg, a friend and former Editor-in-Chief of CIO magazine, who recently started her own business. By following Abbie’s tweets I became aware of and registered for a couple of online courses in Social Media, learned of some new sites about business and strategy, and kept up with the adventures and discoveries she’s had while getting her business off the ground (many of which I can relate to from the past couple years). I follow Abbie’s tweets and her comments on FaceBook.
I also follow Chris Koch, also from CIO, who now writes for ITSMA. Chris offers very thought-provoking and engaging marketing research and commentary and usually provides sources that are valuable reads. I like how he ends most of his posts with “What do you think”? I can find his announcements of newly published posts on FaceBook.
Yet another former CIO colleague, Meredith Levinson, recently contacted me to help her author-husband design and develop a new web site to highlight and build community around his work. I doubt that Meredith would have thought of me if it were not for my visibility (and hers) on FaceBook.
In my own case, I recently sent out a tweet mentioning that I am now putting up sites on cloud computing platforms. I need to write something more about this experience soon, but just sending that out brought followers to my Twitter stream and also a couple of inquiries for more information and my insights. That’s powerful stuff!
What I have found, of necessity, is that I need some simple and efficient way to manage this activity. And with the tools at hand (WordPress, FaceBook, and Twitter) I have found that. I have my “channel” set now so that if I Tweet something, it ends up not only on Twitter, but also (and most importantly, automatically) on FaceBook and the sidebar of my blog. Equally, if I write a new blog post, it shows up as a new status item on FaceBook and as a new Tweet. This is where the power lies: the ability to create items of interest and distribute them efficiently, and in the best case, cheaply.
Sure, once in a while I tweet about the dog getting loose or running through a FastLane, but for me these platforms are not just about keeping in touch; they are about keeping people connected and informed.
David Churbuck recently tweeted a quote from Mark Cahill to the affect that “Personal Branding is an artificial edifice that is antithetical to the …. authenticity expected in Social Media Marketing.” This generated a very passionate discussion, mostly because of the definition of Personal Branding. Mark was referring to the bad kind (people who hire others to blog and tweet for them); but several commentors were quick to point out that for many of us (especially those with our owns businesses) social media is a perfect place to inform and communicate with an audience of supporters and potential clients.
That’s why I’m here: to promote the work I do, to encourage people to engage my services, and to learn from my highly respected friends and colleagues. I also like to see where Al Sacco is drinking this weekend.
