Once again I was reminded of the power of twitter in both B2B and B2C relationships today.
My company (Vidcom NZ) specialises in providing audio visual services and support to conference venues and companies for events, trade shows and presentations. I have a number of different twitter searches running on tweetdeck to monitor social media traffic different competitors, prospects, customers and look for potential business opportunities. One five star hotel tweeted out a "today only" special to fill some spaces in its luxury spa for masage treatments which I promptly replied to and then booked my better half in. I then retweeted and within an hour they were fully booked for the day. A couple of friendly tweets back and forth and the next I knew my partner was given extra special treatment and an additional half hour session plus free membership to a discount club.
Over the course of the day I also came accross three leads for conferences coming up that my sales team could target and also managed to put out a SOS call to help fill a vacancy for a junior account managers position we are creating. In the evening one of my tweetdeck searches revealed someone in the UK wanting advice on conquering nerves before giving a presentation so I was able to offer some friendly advice and refer them through to a couple of helpful websites and blogs. His response ("I asked, and Twitter gave. Thank you @Glennmarvin") sums up how things really are moving.
People aren't just using Google as the almighty search engine oracle, they are asking their ever growing global network utilising social media. Social media in business is going to be even more critical in the times ahead. The relationships we grow through social media can be as powerful as the more traditional face to face business reltaionships as we have more opportunities to offer assistance freely in an online world than off. One thing that hasn't (and I hope never will) change is that people like doing business with people they know and trust. Those that take the time to build relationships online and openly and genuinely interact and help others online will benefit the most offline.
DONT TRY AND SELL TO EVERYONE YOU MEET!
Help others, offer assistance where appropriate and people will end up coming to you!
Comments