What is the Point of Social Media?

A few days ago, a post showed up on one of my favorite blogs, Women on Business. The blog writer, Chrysty Beverley Fortner, spoke about being Twitterfried. The gist of the post was that she was spending a lot of time and energy posting to blogs, tweeting, etc. and wasn’t sure about her return on investment (ROI).  It was an excellent question!

It got me to thinking. Perhaps the question should be turned on its head. Instead of asking what we should write on Twitter, we should ask, “As a woman small business owner, what can I learn from Twitter?” Or blogs, or Facebook, or Linked In?

So I figured I’d do an experiment.  I have a very good bookkeeper.  I found her through networking — the old-fashioned face-to-face kind. She’s always on a list of about five I send to people when they are looking for a good bookkeeper.  (There are bookkeepers I know who are not on that list.) What could I learn about good bookkeepers from the social media sites on the Internet?

By using Technorati to search blogs, I found a few people looking for bookkeeping, people in Chestertown who want an audit of their books, a few videos, including a scene from Moonstruck, and some really good information on why small businesses need a bookkeeper.

Then I turned to Twitter Search to ask the same question. What I found was a lot of people are using Twitter to get recommendations for a good bookkeeper. That would be a goldmine for an electronically-oriented bookkeeper like mine.  Also, a suggestion from Green Biz Startupabout starting a ”green” bookkeeping business.  That could be an interesting thought for my bookkeeper, too.  (And, since I liked what Green Biz Startup had to say, I opted to follow her.)

Checking out Linked in Answers gave me information about what keywords people would use to find a QuickBooks Consultant.  Saves my bookkeeper from asking the question!

All of this feedback can be used to figure out how to have the conversation with your prospective clients in a way that makes sense to THEM.  The conversation is happening out there about things that affect you.  It’s up to you whether you join it or not. And as Twitter moves beyond the early adapters (and marketers), the conversation is going to get richer and the connections and referrals will increase.

So what are people saying about you?