The Power of Twitter Relationships

Today, I am reminded of the power of Twitter.  I have established some great relationships with people who I met on Twitter.  The first person I can say that I met via Twitter and then later in person was @MJCarter (Mark Carter).   When I met Mark for the first time in person, we both felt like old friends so it was natural for us to hug and boy he gives great hugs.

Today, I was just tweeting about how I love PopChips and wished I had them for an event that I am running tonight.  Low and behold, @PopChipsChicago emailed us and then called to say the PopChips were on their way.  AND….I was able to get some for @SMCChicago also.

Then I saw my connection @Wildfire tweeting. I have a friend who is putting on a big social media conference here in Chicago and she needs food sponsors.  So I decided to reach out to Wildfire and see if they would be interesting in helping my friend.  Well, dah!  Of course, they are interested.

There are my stories about @EASActiveGirl and @3MCleanerWorld. I met these 2 fabulous ladies at a social media promotional event and now we have become fast friends even though they live a directly opposite sides of the coast.  Both of them represent amazing products and they could be pushing out messages about their products, but do they, no.  They are seriously trying to develop online relationships via social media.

Need I mention the amazing @Ramon_DeLeon of Dominos pizza.  He sells pizza in the pizza town, but all of his followers buy pizza from him because of their relationship with him.  He never pushes or sells pizza via his tweets.  He lets others tweet about his pizza and service and then he just responds to their tweets.  Mind you he also looks for people who are not happy and again he immediately jumps on the situation and turns unhappy customers into loyal fans of his restaurants.

So before you say “I don’t see the value of Twitter” or “I don’t get it”, remember Twitter is an online tool which allows you to meet lots of people, connect with them and establish real friendships in the same way that you might at your neighborhood bar or restaurant.  If you use Twitter for pushing out messages about your product or service, you are missing the real opportunities to get to know people and establish people who spread the word about you and your products/services.