The Bella Buzz welcomes SBBuzz Twitter chat creator Pamela O'Hara to the podcast. Hosts Desiree Scales and Joe Magennis were excited to have her join on this week's episode, to provide some details regarding the concept of the weekly discussions that take place as small businesses talk tech on Twitter. As well as, what it takes to participate in this recurring dialogue among small business owners worldwide.
Pamela is from BatchBlue Software which is a company dedicated to building software solutions for small businesses.
The idea for conducting the chat came about at a company staff meeting one morning as discussions revolved around existing clients who were having some challenges distinguishing ways to take advantage of different online communities such as LinkedIn, Twitter, and Facebook. Having already participated in the #journchat Twitter chat, Pamela felt that directing one towards the small business owner could be very effective.
By networking at a small business event in New York, plus reaching out to their existing contacts with invitations via email and tweets, about 40 people joined in the very first conversation including Pamela's partner Michelle Riggin-Ransom as a co-moderator.
The process begins by developing a batch of questions that will pose as guides for each week's chat. Pamela solicits questions via Twitter earlier in the day, plus she receives direct messages and emails from participants with specific requests of the guest speaker. It becomes a very collaborative conversation.
Desiree informed us that she will be hosting a webinar during the Twitter Chat on Tuesday April 28, 2009 with guest speaker Tim Berry. She is inviting others to join her via online desktop collaboration and on conference call, to watch her participate in the chat. Anyone can decide to jump off at any time to participate directly in SBBuzz themselves at any time. If you would like to join in on the webinar email Desiree for conference login information.
The scheduled time for the weekly SBBuzz chat is from 8:00 pm to 10:00 pm ET every Tuesday, and although some have expressed challenges with attending during the evening due to other conflicts, many in the participating audience have responded that it works better than trying to chat during the workday hours. Pamela is however thinking about finding some other moderators for hosting daytime chats.
A great new offshoot at the SBbuzz.biz blog is a guest post series called "Continuing the Conversation" in which extended versions of the chat are written by participants who had more to say than 140 characters would allow. As we have mentioned here on the Bella Buzz podcast, this elevates the importance of using the comments section to expand upon the topic as well.
In the long run, gaining an understanding of businesses who are using social media … meeting people, getting good ideas, learning and networking are the benefits of participating in the chats. It is a relationship building tool that anyone can feel comfortable joining and participating in.
And if you can believe it … Pamela is originally from Rome Georgia, now living in New England (and does not like sweet tea), while Joe and Desiree are from Boston and Chicago respectively, both now living in Georgia!
Please let us know in the comments what you think about the concept of Twitter chats and if you think you might be participating in some yourself.
Great interview. I have been taking part in these chats since the beginning. Pamela has set the gold standard for Twitter Chats, in my opinion. Very organized and full of great info. Definitely worth 2 hours on Tuesday night!
Thanks for the fun interview Desiree and Joe. Just when I start to feel overwhelmed by all of the social media sandboxes I play in, I get a chance to really connect with great people doing great things like you are and I remember again that it is so worth it.
And hi to Bradford, as well. He’s also on my “will never ever unfollow his tweets because I just keep learning so much from him” list. Yes, I have one.
I know social networking is creating a buzz at the moment but for the average small business that is time poor, is it a viable marketing option. Without investing a lot of time building relationships can you hope to generate business.
Steve, social media allows you to connect with people you wouldn’t otherwise have a chance to connect with in a very short period of time. I spend no more than an hour a day with social media, 5 minutes here, 5 there and so on. I’ve met more people who have become clients and business partners in the past year than in the last 10 years of being in business.
This isn’t to say that offline connections aren’t valuable. In fact, most online connections lead to even better relationships offline. Please read my latest blog post at http://techlifepost.com/2009/04/30/the-great-social-media-myth/ for more information about that and greater detail. Thanks for your comment!
Glad to hear I’m on your list! I can’t tell you how invaluable your Tweet Chat is each Tuesday night. You’ve really set a precedent on how to do this with style and you’re on my list too!
This article literally came across my desk: From Business Week, Time Management in the Age of Social Media http://www.businessweek.com/managing/content/mar2009/ca20090310_589525.htm
Steve .. I want to chime in with my thoughts on this as well (great article find Desiree!)..
One aspect of social media that often gets overlooked, especially in the early stages of establishing an online presence, is the ability to (capital L) Listen!
It takes no time at all to set up some RSS feeds from search.twitter.com or at Google Alerts which will automatically appear in your feedreader, providing you with a tremendous amount of intel about your industry, your competition, your customers, your target audience … Every morning I scan through the feedreader to see what people are talking about, and if it makes sense to respond I will reach out to make a contact.
Try it as a first step, once you see how much you can hear through these feeds, you can begin to adjust your time commitments to accommodate more active networking practices.
Your information is really useful to people who like to do online business.
Your information about Small Business Twitter Chat is really helpful to all who like to do business without investing more time and money!!!!!!
Thanks for sharing this info post.