There are a lot of books out there that claim to hold the secret of entrepreneurial success: Ability to sell, ability to deliver, ability to produce, customer service, the list goes on and on.
I think the secret is adding value. If you can add value to relationships, then the relationships will flourish. If you can add value to your clients, (and it’s something they perceive value in) then they will stick around and refer other people. If you can take an idea and add value to it, you have created an innovation that can create a business.
Over the past few weeks, I’ve talked to a lot of people about Twitter. There seem to be three schools of thought: (1) Never heard of it (2) Love it (3) Hate it.
Never heard of it. Okay, Twitter is for early adapters at this point, moving more into mainstream. It makes sense that there are people who never heard of it, or actually have heard of it but have no idea what it is.
I’ll skip to #3. Hate it. Here are the things I hear that are wrong with Twitter:
- Tweets are just self-absorbed comments about what the person is doing. (no connection made)
- Well-known people hire others to tweet for them. (not real)
- Spam. (agreed - I hate spam)
-Waste of time. (not seeing any purpose in Twitter)
And then there is the other group: People who love it. I’m one of them. Here’s what I’ve been able to do:
- Connect with accountants around the world. I now have resources in Australia and UK, as well as forensic accountant specialists, IRS resolution specialists, QB trainers, bookkeepers, auditors, basically every speciality i can think of. I’d have never met them without Twitter or something like it.
- More quickly built virtual resources than ever before. This adds on to the other above - I used that connection to increase capacity very quickly and am now networking with CPAs who are advising in specialty areas directly to Capitol Hill.
- Gotten customer service issues handled with big companies faster than I thought possible. After spending days on the phone, having everything resolved within 15 min of a tweet.
- Got mentioned by Twitter CEO @ev. OK, that’s just ego, but I thought it was really cool. I’ll be in his timeline on Twitter forever. :-)
- Picked up clients who had never heard of me outside of Twitter. That one blew me away. I didn’t think that I would be getting clients so quickly. I’ve only been doing this for about 4 months now. And these guys had never heard of me, my website, my books, nothing - it all came from Twitter.
- Incredible resources. I hired @ScottBradley (by the way, if you’re wondering what the @ signs mean, that’s how you refer to people on Twitter. To find Scott, go to www.Twitter.com/ScottBradley, or if you’re on Twitter, type @ScottBradley in a tweet and he’ll get notified of your tweet) Scott is a rock star of social media networking. He worked with the Toilet Paper Entrepreneur - a guy with zero database and no social media presence, and with no outside PR or publicity, turned his first published book into a best seller. Plus he got him as many as 70K unique visits per month to his site. I never would have even known about Scott without Twitter.
So, where am I going with all this? Participation = Value (Thank you Clinton Swaine of www.FrontierTrainings.com for that great saying) I am choosing to participate fully in Twitter and so it has value for me. It’s not just creating value for customers that equals success, it’s also creating value for your own time and involvement.
This isn’t a plug for everyone to go out and join Twitter. The point is if you’re doing something, do it so it adds value. In or out, either way. But if you’re in, go ALL IN!
August 7th, 2009 at 1:33 pm
I admit I’m one of the ones who “hates” Twitter. And a number of well known IM people on Twitter DO have other people write a lot of their tweets for them. How do I know? Because it’s part of what they teach “how to hire and train college students or virtual assistants to tweet in ‘your voice’” - I admit Twitter has its place for all of the reasons you mention…
August 7th, 2009 at 5:38 pm
Interesting point Mary. There are many well-known business authors who use ghost writers for their books. Some people that have admitted it or it’s been wildly speculated about: Mark Victor Hansen, Robert Kiyosaki, Suze Orman and of course Donald Trump.
Would you apply the same standard for a book? Or is because the Twitter is more personal (which I agree, by the way) and so it feels more offensive to have someone ghosting that?
August 8th, 2009 at 10:46 am
Diane,
I love the fact you wrote this article. Thank you for the plug, it is so appreciated.
Secondly…I think this post brings up a great point about the importance of adding value in every situation you can. Too many people are using social networks to “take take take, without giving value first” and then wonder why they are not getting the results they are seeking.
I have learned over the years that…
For every giver there has to be a receiver…and for every receiver there has to be a giver. When your inner core is out of balance with this universal law…you will not get the results you are seeking no matter where you focus your time.
By giving value to others it does two things…
1) Establishes trust with those you are communicating/sharing with
2) Positions you as a trusted “go-to” source for future information about certain topics you specialize in.
By synergizing this mindset with your activities in social media…the returns for your life and your business can be virtually infinite.
I am a firm believer that you receive what you put out, and as long as you put out good stuff and focus on creating valuable two-way conversations, which what makes social media the best form of media in my opinion, you will thrive using these powerful tools everyone is now starting to know and love.
-Scott
August 9th, 2009 at 12:04 pm
Diane, yes, absolutely the fact that Twitter/Facebook, et al. are supposedly “personal” communications between people is what makes knowing some people don’t write all of their own tweets, etc. so appalling to me. Especially when they are direct responses to someone. If you got on a phone conversation with a person and later found out it wasn’t really that person you talked with but someone trained to “be them” wouldn’t you be upset?
As with anything, the concept is good but it is the mis-use of it that ruins it in many ways.
August 9th, 2009 at 7:47 pm
Agreed Mary. Funny on the analogy of talking to someone on the phone and then finding out it wasn’t them. I wonder if that does happen in real life….
I think the take-away from my blog post for me anyway is the concept of being “all in”. If you’re going to do something, do it fully. If it’s not worth the time to do it with full commitment, then it’s a waste of your time and energy.
So is Twitter a waste of time? Maybe. Is it fantastic for your business? Maybe.
Depends on what you’re doing with it. And, of course, it depends on your market. I see some people trying to market through Twitter to a market segment that would never be on Twitter. Just cause it’s good in one case, doesn’t mean it’s good for everything.
August 10th, 2009 at 5:17 am
You hit the nail on the head for me, Diane…”trying to market through Twitter to a market segment that would never be on Twitter.”
Your post intrigues me from that standpoint. I personally have never found a use for ’social media’, and generally have thought of it as a waste of time…sort of like a video game…or spending all day texting.
From a business standpoint, it’s always been my view that it would serve no purpose for me. My business is alternative investments (investment group management, strategies, education, and sponsoring) where I deal primarily with accredited investors across the country. It’s always been my assumption that the type of market segment I work with would never be reachable on Twitter.
The experiences you refer to in your post have me re-thinking this possiblity. After all, if you’ve been able to use Twitter to reach the type of market and resources you noted, maybe Twitter isn’t just for kids and internet marketers after all. Maybe it isn’t a fad.
Most importantly, maybe using Twitter would not seem gimicky, unprofessional, and juvenile to my target audience as I had always thought it would.
Your post has given me some things to think about, research, and reconsider.
August 10th, 2009 at 8:28 am
Diane-
Thank you for this post! I am also a newer user of Twitter and absolutely love it! I have met colleagues here also, and am doing some work with one who lives in my state, but not real close.
I’m amazed at what I’ve gotten out of it. I look to Twitter before Linked In or Plaxo to stay up to date on the things I need to know.
I am writing a “beginner twitter guide” for my newsletter this month, since so many I know in my community aren’t on twitter yet.
Thanks again!
-Rebecca
August 10th, 2009 at 12:43 pm
Rebecca, let me know when the guide is done. I’d love to promote it to my group.