What Has Social Media Ever Done for You?: Lurkers, Listeners and Planets- Lining-Up Kind of Stuff

Someone might be listening. I'm not being paranoid here. But, really. 

Someone might be listening.

The first rule of social media (and sometimes we forget this rule) is:

People are listening.

My friend, Sonia Simone, who is now assistant editor at Copyblogger, called them The Imaginary Friends Who Live in Your Typewriter. 

And, though they aren't always your friends, still, they are reading your words. 

Thinking. Listening. Sometimes even responding. 

My social media story

I love blogging. I love reading other people's blog posts. And yes, from time to time I even leave a comment. 

But mostly, I am a listener. 

I skim and scan and when I have something relevant to say, I'll click on the submit comment.

Last Saturday I landed on a friend's blog. Don't even remember how I got there. How's that for randomness? I met him on biznik. I've seen him only twice in person, but we have chatted online quite a bit. 

In my comment to his post, I mentioned an online reputation management tool I like a lot, called StepRep. 

Five days later he called me out of the blue. I could feel his smile over the phone line.

"I just wanted to thank you, " he said.

"For what?" I said.

"For leaving that comment about StepRep on my blog."

Okay, now I was puzzled. It was a great tool, but a phone call?

Turns out my friend went in and registered, did a search for "social media" and "media buyer." Up came a company looking for someone with those exact skills. He called, interviewed and three days later, he had a new job.

Yeah, it was random. A crazy coincidence. I mean, I didn’t even know he was looking for a job. 

But, still. He had a blog. I read a post. I offered a resource. He checked it out. And bam. He has a job.

Okay, so what's the point?

I think sometimes we forget about the power of social media. We're there. We're talking. It's fun. We don't always know if people are listening. 

Or when they will have something to say.

If it is your blog, or twitter, or Facebook, I would say, just keep putting your stuff out there. Yeah, it's work and sometimes we get discouraged. And it can seem random and pointless at times.

But things can happen in an instant.

Things that will change your life.