Not everyone is convinced that social media is beneficial to their organisation, whereas I am constantly delighted by the connections made by the various platforms, but then I would say that wouldn’t I! So today’s blog is me sharing a very simple snapshot of a range of last week’s little social media successes.
Monday. @carolnewmarch, a friend I haven’t seen for over 10 years, who had found me on facebook, called me and we made a lunch date. We chatted for hours about our current enterprises, met each other’s daughters and her granddaughter and have cemented a continued collaboration.
Also my oldest friend’s daughter had her baby. I haven’t seen Gemma during her pregnancy, but by posting about her pregnancy on facebook throughout, I felt very connected and involved. So I was very excited when I read she had gone into labour and the pictures of her little girl appeared within hours. Beautiful.
Tuesday. I tweeted about a lunch time meeting for Lancaster Ethical Small Traders Association the following day. Maya of @suriyaarts saw the tweet and asked me about the group. ESTA got a new member as a direct response of that tweet.
I also tweeted about my lovely new bathroom and Richard Bradshaw the fantastic Galgate plumber who fitted it for me and about a Steve a Galgate handyman who is doing some jobs for me.
Wednesday. Was my first @LDCoC Chamber members evening. As I was able to take a guest I tweeted an open invitation 2 weeks previously. Phil Keenan of @FoodyPhil, who I’d never met, took me up on it. So I got to meet Phil and the people he knew, and because I tweet with other members that were there, I got to put bodies to faces and already had a connection with people, which is so much easier than going into a room of unknowns. As a knock on, Phil also invited me to another networking event in Preston.
On my way to the Chamber I gave a lift to a young single mom I’ve known since she was a girl. She told me things aren’t good with her landlord and how hard it is to find a rental property. I remembered a twitter direct message I had received a few weeks previous from a Galgate woman, who again I have never met, asking if I knew anyone looking to rent. You can guess the rest!
On May 4th I posted about an amazing opportunity from the charity Operation New World,
for unemployed young people to apply for a free, week’s course in environmental management skills in Corsica. A woman, who lives hundreds of miles away and whom I’ve never met, saw it and passed it on to her son who was starting to lack direction. When I got home on Wed evening I found a great message…he had been accepted for the course and is feeling very excited about flying out early June. Boy am I jealous!
Thursday. Richard Gibbens of Proud to Ride Classic Bicycles invested some of his hard earned money in a social media coaching session with me and became @proudride . He totally embraced the concept and in less than 24 hours he had an enquiry from a potential customer (while he was on a mountain.) Of course he then also wrote a very nice post about me on my facebook page! Thanks Richard!
Friday. I posted a query on the facebook page for the Dyspraxia Foundation and got some invaluable advice and support within minutes. I did the same for a techie query I had to one of my facebook groups and again got the answer I needed in minutes.
In the meantime @BluelotusYogaUK discovered @GrowingWNature on twitter, followed them and put in an order for an organic vegetable delivery. Despite the fact that they had been delivering to Lancaster for over a decade she only discovered them when they followed her on Twitter.
Social media platforms are just another way of networking with a wider audience, and you pretty much only get from networking what you put into it. It complements, not replaces, face to face networking. I am really happy with how social media worked for me last week. Are you?
I’d really love to hear some of your social media success stories so please post your comments below and have a great week.
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