I'm going to share some stuff without going into details. You heard about how blogging can be a source for business? I don't mean stuff like professional blogging, stuff that people like Amit do. To solely live off advertising via the blog would mean I increase my readership 10x. Erm, isn't going to happen in a hurry.
So what is the ROI of blogging and Twitter that I am talking about?
Am going to share with you two instances that happened in the recent past:
Sometime in Feb I got an email from a person whom I had never contacted me. He introduced himself as the head of Talent Development of a manufacturing concern in India and said that he had read my posts and wanted to explore if my firm could help in their competency development efforts. I said sure, and over the next couple of months we communicated via email and phone with the firm's Talent Development team and we have the deal now. We're going to help them in implementing competency development interventions over this year for a significant part of their leadership and management levels.
Oh, and did I tell you that we've never interacted face to face?
The business came in purely because of this blog.
Story No. 2
There's a blogger I've interacted with earlier via both our blogs. Recently when we both started Twittering (find it much easier than saying "micro-blogging") he twittered that he had got an internal transfer into the HR group of his firm and was having trouble with thinking through a HR intervention.
I twittered that if he could pay me enough I could help him with him. I was only half-joking.
He messaged me directly on Twitter that I could call him and his boss on a certain day. The conversation started, we sent a sort of proposal. Then we didn't hear something for a couple of weeks and he messaged me that they were busy with something else.
So a couple of months passed and last week he Twittered me again. Could we restart the conversation, he asked?
So the story hasn't yet ended and yet both these examples offer a glimpse into what could be a ROI for using blogging and Twitter for business purposes.
Yes there are caveats.
One: Both you and your prospective client would need to be on that social media platform.
That is why, as a prospective rainmaker, I need to be visible across various social media. So, I take care to have a profile every imaginable place. From blogging here, to having pages on Google Pages, the newly launched Google Sites, to trying out Linkedin ( I was amongst the first 20,000 people to sign on), having a profile on Orkut, a page on Facebook (Go ahead, check it out, and become a fan if you want to), Twittering, starting a community on MyBlogLog and now linking my lifestreams on FriendFeed. I also follow tonnes of Business, HR and Recruiting related blogs.
Oh, and did I forget to mention, that building networks virtually is something I have been doing from a long time? From HR and KM related groups to now HR groups on Ning ?
Yes, Blogging and Twittering are just tools. One probably needs to have a mindset to utilise them?
So what is the ROI of blogging and Twitter that I am talking about?
Am going to share with you two instances that happened in the recent past:
Sometime in Feb I got an email from a person whom I had never contacted me. He introduced himself as the head of Talent Development of a manufacturing concern in India and said that he had read my posts and wanted to explore if my firm could help in their competency development efforts. I said sure, and over the next couple of months we communicated via email and phone with the firm's Talent Development team and we have the deal now. We're going to help them in implementing competency development interventions over this year for a significant part of their leadership and management levels.
Oh, and did I tell you that we've never interacted face to face?
The business came in purely because of this blog.
Story No. 2
There's a blogger I've interacted with earlier via both our blogs. Recently when we both started Twittering (find it much easier than saying "micro-blogging") he twittered that he had got an internal transfer into the HR group of his firm and was having trouble with thinking through a HR intervention.
I twittered that if he could pay me enough I could help him with him. I was only half-joking.
He messaged me directly on Twitter that I could call him and his boss on a certain day. The conversation started, we sent a sort of proposal. Then we didn't hear something for a couple of weeks and he messaged me that they were busy with something else.
So a couple of months passed and last week he Twittered me again. Could we restart the conversation, he asked?
So the story hasn't yet ended and yet both these examples offer a glimpse into what could be a ROI for using blogging and Twitter for business purposes.
Yes there are caveats.
One: Both you and your prospective client would need to be on that social media platform.
That is why, as a prospective rainmaker, I need to be visible across various social media. So, I take care to have a profile every imaginable place. From blogging here, to having pages on Google Pages, the newly launched Google Sites, to trying out Linkedin ( I was amongst the first 20,000 people to sign on), having a profile on Orkut, a page on Facebook (Go ahead, check it out, and become a fan if you want to), Twittering, starting a community on MyBlogLog and now linking my lifestreams on FriendFeed. I also follow tonnes of Business, HR and Recruiting related blogs.
Oh, and did I forget to mention, that building networks virtually is something I have been doing from a long time? From HR and KM related groups to now HR groups on Ning ?
Yes, Blogging and Twittering are just tools. One probably needs to have a mindset to utilise them?
Gautam - Great post and congrats on drumming up some business through FREE resources like blogs, Twitter, etc.
ReplyDeleteHi Gautam,
ReplyDeleteUndoubtely great post!
You have been honest in writing & admitting that you got business from Blogs/Twitter.
I am also among one of them, way back I also cracked my first client from Twitter only.
Want to appreciate your efforts & admit that I started reading your blog post few mnths back only (thanks to Twitter again), at last today commented on your blog post. I am feeling good :-){I donno why...must be sharing my views with you for first time}
Keep writing!