I recently spoke at a conference hosted by the Women’s Leadership Exchange. During my presentation, by using personal experiences, I single-handedly debunked the myth that real business is not done by using social media and social networks like Twitter, LinkedIn and Facebook.

I used personal experiences for several reasons:

·    Most people who know me or hear me speak have the correct impression that while I love social media and what it can do for your business, I don’t think business-owners should live their lives online. They appreciate my balance in perspective.
·    Statistics are OK but, what works best when trying to communicate real-life value are personal stories.

I’ll share a couple with you:

·    Someone who was writing a book, reached out to me on LinkedIn to arrange an interview with me for her book.  We really connected over the interview and she mentioned to me that her publisher was looking for someone to write a book about social media. A brief introduction and a few days later, I had my first book contract in my email inbox. Does a book deal count as sales? Heck yeah! And, residual sales once the book is printed. Thanks to a LinkedIn connection, at the very least, I created an additional revenue stream for my business. Could this deal have happened offline, sure; but it didn’t, it happened online.

And, now for an example that’s not about sales for my business, but about sales for another company:

·    Mother’s Day is a big deal in my family; in addition to that, I don’t live near my parents so it’s even more important for me to get my Mother a gift that really let’s her know I’m thinking about her. So, I went to the FTD.com website and ordered the Laura Ashley Deluxe with extra roses.

The flowers were delivered, my Mom called to thank me and rave about them. I asked her to describe the flowers and what she described was NOT what I had paid for. I paid for roses, they sent carnations. No go. I called FTD’s customer service line 8 times. Each time I stayed on hold so long their call center hold time ran out and I had to call back. I sent them an email and the next day, I sent a certified, return-receipt letter to the company CEO. I never heard a peep from them.

I wound up having to go to my credit card company to file a complaint and ask for a refund. What do you think I was doing all this time? I was Twittering about my horrible experience with FTD. FTD wasn’t paying attention, but 1-800-FLOWERS was. They sent me a direct message via Twitter and offered me a 15% off coupon with no expiration date, no blackout dates and I could share the coupon with as many people as I wanted! They even offered to send my Mother flowers on my behalf.

So, what does that have to do with sales? 1-800-FLOWERS came to my rescue by using Twitter. They made a generous offer and upped the ante by sweetening the deal. Which company do you think I use when I need to order flowers? Who do you think I recommend to my family and friends? How many times do you think I’ve told that story as I travel all across the country speaking about the power of social media?

The point is, you might not be able to use social media and social networking for direct sales – in fact, I highly recommend that you don’t – but, if you are consistent with your social media efforts and you’re paying attention, the link to increased sales is quite obvious.

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Lena L. West is the CEO of xynoMedia Technology http://www.xynoMedia.com a company that helps growing companies profit from the power of social media & the Internet.