What success have you had using Social Media?
I am working on a series of e-books about using social media for small business, job searching and network marketing. I would love to hear your success stories, lessons learned and suggestions for newcomers to the social medica scene.
Good Answers (10)
I've had good fortune using social media to promote my books. I was an early adopter on Twitter, and met Chris Brogan online two years ago.
When I was writing a self-help guide, I asked Chris if he would read the book prior to publishing. He enjoyed it and agreed to write the foreword for me and has been so kind in helping me promote it, even mentioning me in a recent newsletter. I'm sure his promotion and my interaction with others on Facebook and twitter has spurred many of my sales.
I built a Squidoo page for the book as I was a former writer for Squidoo, and was familiar with the format. It was easy for me to build a free web page to share information about the book such as where to buy the print and electronic versions, show links to the contributors, and add links to reviews.
So I would say I owe most of my success as an author to social media.
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Marti L. also suggests this expert on this topic:
Wallace J.
Multimedia Producer, i3D Programmer, Acrobat 3D PDF, Android App, Virtual World & iTV Design, Kindle, Nook & Sony eBooks
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I've had incredible success using social media and during an economic recession to boot. The real fruits of SMO will show themselves during the economic recovery, however, so I can't really speak saliently to this quite yet. Cheers. Walls.
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Jimmy K.
Jimmy Kibble is CEO of Beyond Sports Network, fluent: Social Media | Web Design | HS sports | college sports| pro sports
I have seen great returns on using the social media platforms for promotions and just making announcements available. I have also developed social media platforms and having your own network is even more rewarding if you have a niche to fill. Having player pro football in four different leagues, it wasn't hard to see the need for athletes and coaches which lead me to develop and create Beyond Sports Network. My advice is to use the social media platforms in a way that you would want to receive information... which is easier said than done!
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Steven M.
Senior Training Specialist at Capital Group
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When I first signed up with LinkedIn a few years ago, I enjoyed using it, but was never contacted for any job opportunities - although I had heard of people who did. I think it was still "up and coming" at the time.
Since early 2009, I've been contacted by numerous companies and recruiters with employment opportunities through LinkedIn (I'm working on one right now). It's been around long enough that potential employees and employers are aware of it and are now using it as a critical tool for finding one another.
I always politely ask those who I have worked for to write me a recommendation on LinkedIn once I'm finished with their contract. It's become part of my business process.
I'm on Facebook, Twitter, and LinkedIn since they are considered the "big three" of social networking. LinkedIn has so far yielded the most opportunities. For me, Facebook and Twitter are still more "social" tools, and have not yet yielded any job opportunities.
Richard S.
Founder of Critical Connections • 30+ Years of Technology and 8+ Years of Social Media Integration Expertise (LION)
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After years of experimenting with Social Media platforms and how I can benefit from them, I thought that I had seen and done it all. Over the past several months I have been receiving requests from various special interests groups throughout the State of Colorado to speak about the business value of today’s Social Media tools.
So when several professional acquaintances of a small mountain resort community asked me to help out with this subject matter, I was interested. The one caveat was that the town claims to be “broke”. Having visited this small mountain community many times over the years, I thought of another approach; Bartering. I extended an offer to speak and demonstrate the virtues of Social Media at the local Library for a complimentary one hour session in exchange for lodging and a pass to a local event at the time of my visit.
Within one week, several locals came back to me with an offer to accommodate my request. They exceeded my expectations; 1. They set me up for a week in an exclusive multi-million mountain estate, 2. The provided me a four-day pass to my event of choice and, 3. Treated me to unique dining experiences during my stay.
Value doesn’t always result in $$$, but unique and memorable experiences that keep on giving.
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Mel A.
I transform live training for delivery on the web: screencasting, Camtasia, Articulate(tm), web video. Yeah, I do that.
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Hi Ed, you have some great testimonials already from colleagues above on successes with social media. So, here I'll respond to your questions about lessons learned and suggestions for newcomers.
Two observations that immediately come to mind for your ebook readers are: that they approach social media with the spirit of *listening* and *helping*; and secondly, that they view social media as a *system* of bridged communities as opposed to individual networks.
On the first point, it's an unfortunate fact that many more people today than yesterday have joined social networks with a "push" mentality. That is, to use communities as channels through which to broadcast content/media about products and services they'd like to sell. Well, that's really a model that's more suited for the one-to-many characteristic of broadcast media channels (i.e., TV, radio, newspapers, and so on.) In contrast, social media has more of a many-to-many characteristic. In that regard, it should be entered into with the intent of allowing the voice of individuals to help shape the evolution of content.
All the above isn't to say that selling can't and shouldn't happen. In fact, social networks do allow members of a community to transact business. The stip being that they do so with those whom they've established *relationships*, or with those associated with products and services they've had an opportunity to "sample" before the point of purchase. They do this sampling by virtue of the feedback (social content) given by others in the community about those products and services. Or, at the very least, by having "sampled" the social reputation of the person associated with those products and services.
On the second point, I guess to put it in a nutshell: my view is that it would help newcomers to see right up front that social networks shouldn't be viewed as closed communities with their own brand of social media. That is, LinkedIn isn't really separate from FaceBook, nor should either of those be viewed as separate from Twitter or YouTube. Rather, all of those networks should be viewed, together, as a larger social system.
By way of the finesse we each give to sharing media/content across community boundaries (i.e., YouTube video link placed on my Facebook wall, for example), we are each able to give our online personas color and personality in a landscape that would otherwise have us all look very... similar.
I hope that helps. Please let us know when you're ebook comes out. I, for one, would love to read it.
Social Media
1. Way more important and influential than I first thought; a lot of people are involved and willing to add their support to your cause
2. Allows you to be involved in Groups and Discussions- putting your name out for others to see you as involved and/or as a resource
3. Contacts available for specific companies during a Job Search; opportunity to gather information about the company
4. Be involved. If someone request information, a referral, an invitation or an introduction- take action and always answer the requester.
Some good, some bad. We have been testing the waters recently on Facebook. Our new step by step program SOCIAL MEDIA UNLEASHED is almost ready. We have a 30 day success plan for any business. getbusinessrich.com
Social media sucess stories in one word cheers !
I'm having a good deal of success.
More Answers (1)
Tamara B.
Online Business Manager & Digital Marketing Expert: social media marketing, SEO, digital marketing strategy
