I was talking to my friend Todd the other day. (Todd and I collaborate on various and sundry projects at my day job—he copywriting and me designing—but he’s also a successful multipreneur on the side. We’ve worked closely together for a couple of years now.)
As we were discussing the economy he said, “You know, it’s crazy. The last year has been really slow, but lately the phones have been ringing off the hook. I’ve received more phone calls the last few weeks than I have in a long time.”
“Nice. So tell me, where do you get all your leads from? Who are all these all these people who are calling you?” I ask.
“Oh, you know, some are people that I’ve known for a while. Others are folks that I’ve worked with before. A few are people I don’t know but have heard about me from one of my contacts—we share a mutual friend.”
I know Todd: He’s crazy smart and very successful. In addition to his copywriting, he has several businesses on the side. Some small, some large.
But an online search will only yield a small amount of information. He has a small blog, no twitter presence to speak of, and only is semi-active on LinkedIn.
“But you don’t do anything with social media. Your blog isn’t even up-to-date.”
“Nope.”
As it turns out, these leads have all come from good old-fashioned networking.
In this world of micro-blogging, a world where people spend their time sharing articles, competing for followers and readership, most trying to make it big, Todd has effectively cut through all of that.
And he’s done it with what is—or rather what should be—at the heart of our social media attempts.
He’s done it through networking and simply being a mensch.
What should be at the heart of Social Media
It seems many of those who have never dipped their toes into a twitter stream have a warped idea about what the point is.
“What, am I going to be tweeting, ‘just went to the bathroom.’ five times a day? Who cares!” (That is, unless your target audience are people like dug then nobody, that’s who.)
Scott Stratten (aka @unmarketing) summed up twitter best with this tweet: “Directions for Twitter: Reply, Retweet, Tweet, Repeat”
Expanding that out, you have the heart of social media:
- Interact with people. Find opportunities to have discussions. Doesn’t matter about what. Talk. Interact. Converse. Inquire.
- Promote others. Be the connector between friend x and friend y. When you can connect two people to their benefit, it helps everyone involved. Be generous in your connections—and remember, it’s not about you.
- Promote yourself. There needs to be some horn tooting or nobody is going to have a flying clue what you do. Show off a little without going overboard. Justin Levy of New Marketing Labs suggests a 10:1 ratio of promoting other to promoting yourself. Smart, that Justin.
- Continue to network. Networking doesn’t end after the proverbial cocktail party. Touch base with those you know and see what they need, how they’re doing, and what’s new with them. Contacts need to know that you’re reaching out because you care, not because you need something.
Onward
Twitter isn’t about telling people you had too much cheese to eat last night. And it’s not about shouting from the rooftops that you just posted another article so drop everything and read it!
Social media is networking, plain and simple. It’s reaching out, connecting, promoting, and generally being a mensch.
Todd, incidentally, is an excellent copywriter specializing in sales copy. He’s done work radio spots, scads of work for hotels and resorts, Jobing.com, and a ton of work for us at Carrots. You can reach him at todd [at] toddnordstrom [dot] com
Photo “Heart of Midlothian” by Niffty..
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