Twitter Me This and Twitter Me That

I had the pleasure of speaking with Alyssa Gregory, President of avertua, LLC, yesterday on my talk radio program. She was there to share some of the secrets from her new e-book, "VA Secrets Revealed."

Alyssa was a very "real" and informative guest, and she sparked my mind's eye when she began talking about using social media as a way to make virtual friends with like-minded people - as a woman and as a businesswoman.

People who follow Alyssa are interested in what's she Tweeting about. As they read her updates, they come to know her as a person and will grow to trust her. Her Twittering was so effective, in fact, that it helped her land a speaking gig at the 8th Annual Live Virtual Assistants Summit next year in Montreal, Canada.

I used to think that social networking like Twitter, Plaxo, Facebook and LinkedIn could be used to get my business' name out there and in the forefront. And it can. But it wasn't until I spoke with Alyssa that I realized I needed to make "friends" with my followers first.

Some of them "know" me virtually through other online outlets, but most of them don't know me on a more personal level and none of them have met me face-to-face.

But duh! Geez! How can I expect anyone to trust me and be interested in what I have to say unless they feel comfortable with me first? That's the way it works in the real world, and cyberspace is no different.

So Twitter me this and Twitter me that and oop-oopa and away! I think I'm ready to give this whole social networking phenomena a try! Wish me luck!