Are you using any type of social media for engaging with your customers?

Do you have a great story of how some aspect of networking online brought a relationship to the door that would not have occurred otherwise?  I have included one from my recent experience and talk about why I am thankful for social media in my business development efforts.  Listen in on the last in a series of video blog post (using my handy Flip Video on a tripod) on how LinkedIn connections created an opportunity in a very virtual way.

This is Part 3 in a series of Social Media Thankfulness. Part 1 addressed family connections.  Part 2 spoke to Friend Relationships. So of course I covered my business relationships in this last video post. Note, my video camera is on a tripod and I do have two hands on the wheel.

Social Relationship Management

I am also thankful that a tool has been created to help me continue to use social media in the right way.  In my business use of social media I have extended myself to several networks for purposeful reasons and with a strategy.  I use a social relationship management tool called xeesm.com/wendysoucie to manage all my social media links and my ongoing efforts to target, touch and track my efforts.  This tool is in Beta but has recently been opened for public beta testing.  This has really helped focus my efforts and remind me when, where and how long ago I made a personal connection with one of my contacts.

What other tools am I using?

For the business to business market that I consult to, I use LinkedIn primarily.  I provide strategy for companies and training on a variety of social media tools. Even with a broad understanding of how to use many tools, I have to stay focused on where my target audience is. So LinkedIn works for that.

I am extending to Youtube with video blog posts as you can see by this weeks blog posts.  This action occurred after a great presentation by Lee Aase at the AAF Madison luncheon on the virtues of video interviews and posting using Youtube.  I have been following him for his great blog site called Social Media University Global .

One site I think may be overlooked is Slideshare for presentation posting and networking. There is a lot content there and because people are sharing presentations, you can learn alot from peers in your professional space from all over the world.   I think people may forget that networking can happen there as well. I recently saw a great presentation by Social Media Academy alumni  Walter Adamson on slideshare networking that really reinforced this for me.   Expect to see a local Madison presentation by me in the future on this unique and helpful site.

I use Twitter in a variety of ways and with two profiles.  One for me personally @wendysoucie and my focus, but I try and retweet interesting related conversations on @WIsocialmedia for anything related to technology, social media and good business news in Wisconsin. I am not a rabid twitterati fanatic but will tweet a conference or seminar, and when in the office will always have Tweetdeck open to watch the conversations. I am creating a new strategy for Twitter for January and currently are busy following various manufacturers, B2B conversations, and consultants in this space. In January, a collaborative effort I am organizing will be doing a Twitter for business workshop that will focus on strategy, public relations and blogging.  Can’t wait to put the finishing touches on that.

Facebook is growing for me and I use it for both business and social at this point. I am trying to perfect the groups involvement and activity the way I do it on LinkedIn.  It is totally different so I need to adjust my time if I want to learn some new techniques or to engage at a deeper level.  I am just not sure how I will proceed with that. Expect to see a Facebook for business in February co-presented with several people actively using that tool for promotion with a product.

Do you have a good story about social media? What tools are you using to manage the whole relationship part if you are on multiple platforms?

I hope you share

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