Social media - it's great when it works

Swimming around in the vast ocean of information that is social media, it's easy to feel lonely and wonder whether all the time and effort you put in is really worth it.

That's what makes all the little, real life triumphs, all the sweeter. The other night I was at a Glasgow Chamber of Commerce search engine optimisation seminar where the speaker was Brian Mathers of ICT Advisor.com - one of the world's genuine SEO gurus. Before the talk, I was chatting with a woman called Jacqueline Morrison who was looking at the list of attendees and asked if I know anyone on it. One or two, I replied.

"I only know one - Stephen Breen," she said. "That's me! How do you know me?" It turns out she has been reading my blogs on various of the Glasgow and Scottish entrepreneur groups on LinkedIn I've joined, and she said how much she enjoyed the last one Social Media - how much faster can it get?

It turns out Jacqueline runs a very interesting reusable nappy business called Nappy Makers. What on earth was someone in the nappy business doing reading my blog, which mainly concerns itself with public relations, social media and business? Well, first of all she found it interesting, which a relief, since there's no point posting any content on social media if it is poor quality and doesn't give any value to readers.

Secondly, she, like many other business people, is trying to get their heads around social media, which is why she is on LinkedIn.

This little episode has demonstrated nicely the value of putting in the time to blog, but also, the importance of being active on the social media sites where your potential clients and customers are also likely to be. By posting useful information on these influential digital platforms, not only have I raised the awareness of what Breen Media does, but I've gotten into a dialogue with people who may, at some point, want to use our services.

Later in the evening, I met another woman, Adriana Dunlay of Glasgow-based Trumpet Design, who picked my brains on how I use platforms such as Twitter.

The next morning, I received a Tweet from Adriana, her very first, saying 'Joining Twitter as a result of last night's Chamber meeting at the Corinthian. Now what do I do?'

I was able to give her a few simple steps to get started. I like it when that happens.

www.breenmedia.co.uk