Twitter For Business & Pleasure

What’s the point of Twitter?

I’ve been asked that more times than I can count. When I signed up in August, I thought it was a waste. However, around Thanksgiving, I decided that in order to doom the product, a more honest interaction with it was in order. Over that weekend, I followed multiple interesting people, immersed myself…and was hooked.

But what have I gained? Besides making good friends who have translated into real life–phone calls, in-person meetings, etc., I’ve had more business help than I have ever received using Facebook, MySpace or even the business social network LinkedIn.

Here are some examples:

I needed someone to do a logo design tweak for me. The value of the work was around $50. Not bad for probably less than an hour of time. I put it on Twitter and within five minutes had three offers from great people. The winner ended up being the wife of Robbie Cooper a blog-friend in Austin.

I needed business cards and fast. I also needed design advice. CPAC was three days away–should I get patriotic cards or hip cards? Republicans can seem kinda traditional, right? So, everyone said “hip! go hip!” My intention was to go to the local shop. Instead, a Twitter friend @AliAkbar recommended that I use a printer Faulkner Strategies (contact Sarah Romero) in Indiana. They gave the best service!

I hated my Tweetback. A new friend on Twitter @JasonTryfon had an awesome Twitterback and I told him so. He generously had his gifted graphic artist modify Jason’s to suit me and it’s awesome. More than that, now, I have a great connection in the customer service industry. He’s phenomenal and I can highly recommend his services.

I made a friend of a friend named @museumcurator on Twitter. Sometimes I pick people who seem interesting in industries totally unrelated to mine because I like learning new things. Turns out, he DM’d [direct rather than public message] me saying that he was having a contest and that each month, he’d pick out the best <140 character story about why I should get a Free Angel (he does angel art reproductions). Should do this? Well, did. He immediately responded and said, forget the contest, I'm sending you an angel. We then connected through email yesterday, talked on phone. This was human, real connection. Jeff Cane (that's his name) is ex-pat Brit artist living in Los Angeles who owns company doing beautiful reproductions. have two friends collect angels will buy something from him for them. ships everywhere. What could be easier?

Perhaps most concrete way Twitter has helped me been ideas. Not only connect to great writing–I’m connecting writers. Some of my favorites become friends–Steve Green aka @VodkaPundit and James Lileks aka @Lileks and Fausta Wertz aka @Fausta come to mind. I suspected through their writing that I would like them. It’s turned out to be true. They are wonderful writers and interesting people.

Don’t you like doing business with people you like? Through Twitter, I have done just that. And really, it’s only the beginning. Join me on Twitter at @MelissaTweets

Posted in Nerd Stuff
Tags: Technology • Twitter