Leveraging My Social Network
I have to say that I have seen the light, so to speak. For years, I have heard about the power of social media; however, this past week, I truly witnessed it in action.
My 2 year old niece and her Father (my brother-in-law) were in town to get my 17 year old niece settled here in beautiful Altadena (LA adjacent). Anyway, Dad and the 17 year old had a meeting on Monday to which the 2 year old was not invited. We needed a babysitter.
Unfortunately, I could not stay home and all of my friends that I could think of work full-time. Of course, I made calls, but I was turning up a lot of dead-ends or unreturned phone calls in my search.
Finally on Sunday evening, in desperation, I posted something I never thought I would to my Facebook wall, “Okay, I didn’t think I would ever be posting this to Facebook; however, I am looking for a babysitter for tomorrow 8 am – 3 pm in Altadena. Anyone have any suggestions?”
And the wheels of the social network began churning as my 400+ friends read my desperate plea for help.
A response was posted within just a few hours suggesting/tagging another Facebook connection that lives just minutes from me and works regularly as a clown at children’s birthday parties. A phone call was made and the tagged Facebook friend came to the rescue, arriving at my house the next morning with a big bag of toys. It was probably the most fun my 2 year old niece had the whole visit.
As a side note, my sister (Mom) got to virtually “meet” the babysitter through Facebook – now knowing that her child was in good hands.
The second social networking act came about later in the week. A friend at work mentioned to me that her son needed to do a report on kinetics and needed to “shadow” a doctor. Due to HIPAA laws, and I am sure other reasons, she was not having any luck finding someone willing to help.
I thought immediately of a Facebook friend who is a chiropractor. My theory is that it never hurts to ask, so I connected my friend and the chiropractor together and he graciously offered to help. My friend is thrilled because now her son is excited about the topic – when there had previously been teenage apathy.
Finally, in taking on my own challenge to post 366 days of my pottery, I have been diligently sharing the effort onto my Facebook page – creating a greater awareness of my ceramic work.
I know there are many people on a variety of social networks and I would love to hear how you are leveraging this tool, personally and professionally.
© 2012 Heather C. Morrow. All rights reserved
WANT TO USE THIS ARTICLE IN YOUR EZINE OR WEB SITE? Of course you can, as long as you include the following with it:
Heather C. Morrow, owner of Pottery Daily, helps emerging artists express their true value and get paid what they are worth. Her products and services show you how to make more money, save more time while enjoying the freedom in your art. For your FREE audio go to www.marketandsellyourart.com.
January 17th, 2012 at 4:40 pm
I use FB frequently. It has been a boon to my family circle. I also post on it when I am working a promotion, so that if people I know are out and about, they might come by and visit during a product promotion and potentially buy product to try!