Joel Libava
Is it just me, or does time seem to be speeding up? (I don’t mean to get you depressed)
I’ve been a very active (42,000+ Tweets) Twitter user for 5 years, now. Amazing. Twitter has been the most useful tool in my social media toolbox, and one of the reasons for it is that I’m afflicted (?) with this disease. Twitter’s rapid-fire pace and style is a perfect fit for me. It allows me to use one of my top skills; speed. I get to think on my feet, and respond to other Tweets, and even comments and questions, quickly.
Twitter has been an amazing networking tool for me.
It’s enabled me to get to know people all over the world. It’s also made it easier-and less awkward, to connect face to face.
(That’s me with Guy Kawasaki)
About a year after I created my @FranchiseKing account on Twitter, I connected with Guy. He had just started his Alltop.com site, and I had an idea for him that I felt he should hear.
I had been following him for a while, and we had shared a few Tweets back and forth. I sent him a DM, and told him that I wanted to talk to him about an idea that I had to help Alltop.com grow. Guy said okay, and we arranged a phone call. A week later, I called him, and we had a 20 minute conversation. He kind of liked my idea, but he wasn’t overly excited by it. He never ended up using it, but I was okay with his decision. The point is that without Twitter-and without my activity on it, our phone conversation would have never been possible.
Before Twitter, getting hold of an entrepreneur…a venture capitalist like Guy Kawasaki would have been next to impossible. Guy obviously felt that I was credible; otherwise he would not have given me his private phone number. On Twitter, credibility consists of sharing quality content, and Re-Tweeting others high-quality content, too.
Even though Guy didn’t use my idea, he did allow me to help NEENZ create the Franchising Page on Alltop. That was really cool!
On Sharing
Now, I do tend to share my own stuff on Twitter too much. Another person I was able to meet because of Twitter seems to have the use of Twitter down to a science.
(Chris Brogan interviewing me about local franchise marketing) Watch The Interview
I met Chris, (after getting to know him a bit on Twitter) at BlogWorld in Vegas, and we’ve been friends ever since. He’s very helpful.
I don’t want you to feel that I’m bragging. I’m not. I’m just showing you how Twitter has enabled me to meet people…good people.
Too Many To Mention
Here are just a few of the people that I’ve been able to meet face-to-face because I’m so active on Twitter. (Not only am I active-I spend the time necessary to get to know people. Sharing their content doesn’t hurt, either!)
Rieva Lesonsky
Jason Falls
Jim Kukral
Anita Campbell
Lisa Barone
Shashi Bellamkonda
Brian Clark
Ann Handley
Melinda Emerson
NEENZ
Shonali Burke
Suzanne Vara
Anita Cohen-Williams
John Jantsch
Carol Roth
Carol Tice
Eve Lopez
Gini Dietrch
Ramon De Leon
Denise Wakeman
Thursday Bram
Tim Ferriss
Derek Halpern
Rohit Bhargava
Devin Cleary
Jonathan Fields
If I didn’t list you here-I’m sorry; please leave your Twitter handle in the comment section, and tell me that I suck.
Twitter is my favorite social media tool, and it’s helped my business a lot!
Please follow me on Twitter. Just click the Crown on that cute little bird, below…
Thank you, Jack Dorsey and Biz Stone for having a vision and making it happen.
