Results of Twitter experiment & next steps

Thank you to all of my readers who elected to “follow” me on www.twitter.com during the recent High Point Market. (If you haven’t done it yet, just join and go to tkpleslie and click on “follow”)

The results surprised me! I really didn’t think I would get more than 10 or so of you to opt in to follow, but within the week, over 50 of you opted in. This is still only a small portion of the universe of people who read this blog, but it’s a great start and shows that with just ONE tiny blog post-during a time when most people are not paying attention due to being busy at market or pre-occupied with business/family-any of us can gain a lot of marketing traction for free. (For pictures of what I liked at market, please follow this link to my Picasa web album. Click here. )

What I noticed is that, for those of you who did opt in, very few of you uploaded your photo or wrote anything yourselves. The idea with twitter is to SHARE information that adds value to each person “following” you so please go back in and add your photos and write a “tweet” that adds value to someone else. Make sure and invite your friends to “follow” you on twitter.

Twitter does this automatically for you from your own address books that you have online. All you have to do is put a check mark next to the names of your business associates whom you would like to have “follow” you. This can be your customers, your potential customers, your dealers, your suppliers..anyone you think might find value in what you have to say.

Twitter is a CONSCIOUS marketing strategy so you must think carefully about what your “followers” would find useful to know about what’s important to them-ways to save money, new ideas, new products, videos they should see, websites that will educate or inform them about important business issues, design tips that are REALLY useful and not found elsewhere, etc.

What I want to do now is to start a conversation and find out what your experiences are. Remember, all of this is free.

So, the next step in the experiment is to have everyone join the LinkedIn group I’ve started. A lot of you are already on LinkedIn(more than were on twitter) but, if you’re not, go to www.linkedin.com. This is the premier business social networking site in the world. It is for BUSINESS to BUSINESS communication. Just during market, I got three requests for proposals which were serious. If you are not on LinkedIn, PLEASE, do yourself a favor, and get on NOW.

LinkedIn is a VERY powerful connector of people and facilitates business connections in a way that is astounding. If you’re not there, seriously, again-get on it and start exploring.

I am asking all of you to join my group so you can see for yourselves-easily-the power of a group dialogue and how it can grow into business opportunities that you might never have had otherwise.

The group is called “Social Networking for Furniture Retailers, Manufacturers and Suppliers.”

When you create your business profile on LinkedIn, just do a “search” under Social Networking Furniture” and you will find the group. Click on “request to join” and I will add you in. What will happen is that we will all end up having so many more connections and access to people that can help us grow our businesses than we ever would have had otherwise.

So, let the experiment grow and thank you for your willingness to be part of it. I hope by my example that you will be able to “connect the dots” for yourselves and see ways to use it within your own organizations.

However, if you need help and need to survive through marketing budget cuts in 2009 and maintain your “top of mind” positioning with your potential customers, social networking strategies are the most important tool you will have in your tool kit.

Call me and let me drill down with you and set up a comprehensive social networking strategy for your company for 2009. You can reach me at leslie@tkpartnership.com or 713.705.2482.  Let’s work together to make our industry stronger.