For the past 9 or 10 months I have been working the whole twitter thing! I started out having a twitter account for about a year and did absolutely nothing, accept follow a few celebrities (and of course my daughter who I wanted to keep tabs on). In fact, when starting out on twitter I was terrified. I couldn’t think of anything to tweet or who to follow. The big question was WHY TWITTER?
That’s because I didn’t understand the strategy needed for business and / or personal branding.
Then came 2010. I was attending networking groups as if it was my career and ran into Fred McMurray and thus began my discovery of social networking. He really was key in helping me understand why I needed to be involved in social media for business, and I’ll always be grateful (thanks Fred).
I began reading books out the wazoo such as the basics of Twitter from my good friend Kyle Lacy and his Twitter Marketing for Dummies and his other book co-authored by Erik Deckers entitled Branding Yourself. Both of which have been huge contributors in my online success. I highly recommend them and have become their new spokesperson (not really, but I do try and recommend them to those who can benefit from them).
Over the past ten months I have connected with so many wonderful folks online who I never would have met had I not taken the SM plunge and that to me, it totally cool.
It is especially awesome when you can then take those virtual relationships into the REAL WORLD and meet IRL (in real life). It reminds me of online virtual dating as I often refer to the experience because we connect, interact, engage and share each others interests and information and when we finally get to meet them IRL we feel as if we already have this weird connection. As if we know them already. We either greet with a hug and consummate (not literally) that online relationship, or we walk away thinking “Ew, they look and act nothing like their online persona.” The latter usually never happens.
This is exactly what took place for me recently after being asked to participate on SHRM’s blogging team for their annual conference in Vegas. In fact, it was through my connections with WEKNOWNEXT on twitter, that brought this all about. I was a total stalker to those with whom I had made connections online (especially my fellow bloggers). I won’t name them all for fear of leaving someone out but I will mention Jessica Miller-Merrell who welcomed me at SHRM with open arms and treated me like “one of the cool kids.”
In fact, I had just recently connected with her personally (although I had been following her blog and tweets) before meeting her in SHRM. I overheard something about her book and asked her “what book did you write?” She immediately handed me a copy of her book Tweet This which is a Twitter marketing for business guide. I just finished reading it by the pool one afternoon and I must say I was impressed. The book is full of helpful tips and useful information in a consolidated format. It is a MUST have manual to keep within reach and will help you in your online strategy as well as continued twitter support.
I am so privileged to have come across so many helpful folks out there, willing to give of their time to help others. I suppose that’s why I try to give back to help those on their online journey. I highly recommend all of the above books and in connecting with these fantastic experts to help grow your business within your online communities.
Thanks you guys, you ROCK my world!