There are still a number of people who are not convinced that social media works and I often get asked “how does it work,?” “How do you use social media and how do you use Twitter”.

A key aspect of what I do for my business and for some of my clients is to monitor conversations on a daily basis.  I would surf the net every day and also spend some time on Twitter just listening and reading what people have to say, but not all day.

Now Twitter is just one aspect of social media but this shows you just how powerful Twitter can be.

For the sceptics who are not convinced about the benefit of using social media and for those who think that Twitter is a waste of time.  Here is an example of how two businesses and one freelancer benefitted from a microblogging tool like Twitter.

A while back while monitoring conversations on Twitter, I spotted a tweet which read:

“Anyone know someone they can recommend who creates professional-looking copy

in pdf format (like e-books, e-brochures, etc.)?”

“Hell yeh, of course I do”, and so what did I do, I responded saying:  “What do you need help with? I’m sure there is something I can do for you” and I immediately sent Bev Toogood a DM with my email address.

A few minutes later I received an email from Bev with her requirements.  I sent her a quote, she agreed and I got the ball rolling immediately.  I got in touch with my graphics person in Cape Town who got started with some ideas.

The result being that to date we have completed 5 jobs for Little Sunflowers and yes social media does work for business.

So what do you have to do?

• Monitor and participate in conversations but don’t do it all day you won’t get any work done.
• See the right tweet at the right time.
• Respond immediately

This is what Beverley Toogood of Littlesunflowers said when I spoke to her about the Tweet on Twitter when I asked her permission to share this with you:

I put a note out on Twitter which you responded to, as did someone else.  They recommended a third party, I tweeted that third party & got no reply.  I found the third party’s website, filled in an online enquiry form, then got a weird automated response which accused me of spamming. I then tweeted them again and explained that this had happened.  Over a day later they replied, by which time you were getting the first draft of the magnet together.

A real lesson for us all in how fast things move these days, and how important it is to respond to potential and existing customers quickly because, if you don’t, someone else will!

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