This awesome addition to the Your Social  Media Journey is by my friend (and one of my mentors), Lisa Petrilli. Lisa’s bio and contact info are at the bottom of the post.

I was born a Twitter Brand.

You see, my first foray into the world of Twitter was on behalf of a client that, like many companies and organizations interested in social media today, wanted to “just try it out.”

It seemed like a great way to generate awareness for a brand that was virtually invisible to its target market.  So, with a little guidance from a member of this organization who was already an active Twitterer, I created a profile with the company’s name, my photo, and a bio focused on the company that stated I was tweeting on its behalf.

Sounds great, right?

Here’s where the company went wrong:

1.  I was authorized to broadcast but not to engage

We all know that the word “social” when placed before the word “media” is being used as an adjective.  The organization wanted to use a form of media that was meant to be used socially solely for broadcasting purposes.

Good example of the extent of this? I sent a, “Happy Birthday and thanks for all you do” tweet from the organization to a very active member of the organization who is also quite active on Twitter and was told it was “inappropriate…”

2. I wasn’t given adequate resources (read: time) to support the account

I am not the kind of person who will tweet something without reading it, nor without believing it holds value to my followers and represents my own – or the organization’s – values and brand.  Thus, it takes time to read through items to post and determine what is worthy of broadcasting.

Given my allocation of approximately 8 minutes per day for Twitter, to say this was challenging would be an understatement.

On the flipside, here’s what I know I did right to counter-balance:

1. I broadcasted others’ information much more often than the organization’s

I learned over time the importance of this, but I believe I knew it intrinsically because I see Twitter as a powerful enabler of networking.  A key tenet of networking has always been to give freely without expecting anything in return.

Thus, I made sure to post important items that members wrote and to retweet them whenever possible and appropriate for the brand.  My commitment to this was key to member engagement with the organization’s Twitter account.

2. I sought out important and highly relevant industry news and insights

I fully believe that one reason the account did gain followers with a broadcast-only strategy was my commitment to post news, information and insights that represented the intellectualism and business discipline of the brand.  These tweets were valuable to followers.

3. I created a hash tag for the brand

By creating a brand hash tag and encouraging members to use it, a vehicle was developed that enabled members to track conversations and easily identify information that fellow members were posting.

The harsh reality hits home

When the importance of engaging on Twitter in a genuinely social way became clear to me, I created my own personal profile (@Lisa Petrilli), loaded my photo and personal bio, and replaced my photo in the organization’s profile with its logo.  I had simply come to realize that without the “ok” to infuse a bit of myself into the organization’s account, I didn’t feel comfortable having my photo aligned with it.

It was at that point that I felt I was “truly born” on Twitter because I was on it, finally, as the real me – opinions, insights, introverted observations, birthday messages and all!  And I was finally creating real relationships.

Since that time I’ve developed friendships solely because of Twitter; friendships I’m thankful for each and every day.  And my Twitter relationships have led to new business and new opportunities for me and my Twitter connectors. They have also been a source of great inspiration that I have shared with my clients!

Moral of the Story

To engage or not to engage? Brands will reap the most fruitful harvest by engaging as their “real selves” every single time.

~

Lisa Petrilli is Chief Executive Officer of C-Level Strategies, Inc.  She works with clients as an Executive Marketing Strategist, Leadership Consultant and Social Media Concierge.  She has vast experience working with C-level executives, creating business visions, leading teams, running million-dollar businesses, providing executive leadership training and implementing Herculean initiatives.

Lisa is Co-Founder and Co-Host of #LeadershipChat which occurs every Tuesday evening at 8:00 pm Eastern Time, the Creator and Former Executive Editor of the 18-blogger MENG Blend Blog, a Contributing Blogger and Key Advisor to the Content Marketing Institute,  a Contributing Author to MarketingProfs and a Guest Blogger at Blue Focus Marketing, LeadSwag and more.

She is open to considering new consulting engagements working directly with executives and the C-Suite across industries in the areas of marketing, leadership and social media.  You can email her at Lisa@CLevel Strategies.com and connect with her on Twitter @LisaPetrilli.  To subscribe to her blog via email Subscribe Here and to receive posts via reader Subscribe Here.

Photo is Blooming Lily by suchitra prints.

My friendship with Maya Paveza began on Twitter a few months ago. I was going through my stream and saw that she was watching Monty Python and the Holy Grail, so I chipped in and started quoting lines. Up until that time, I had kept my Twitter presence pretty button-down (read boring) and hadn’t really understood that you could actually interact with people as yourself.

As our friendship grew, Maya began telling me about her dream – a site by and for Real Estate Agents. Now, after much blood, sweat, tears, and help from Human Business Works, the site is just hours away from hard launch. As a proud contributor to the new site as well as an
affiliate, I thought I would give Maya an opportunity to explain her vision in her own words here. I hope you enjoy!

To learn more about Maya, visit the about section of The Hip Roof!

1. What do you feel is the biggest challenge facing REALTORS right now?

Great question Margie, first off though I want to clairfy something, a REALTOR is a member of the National Association of REALTORS(tm), a real estate licensee is not required to be a member of NAR, most states have their own licensing standards and laws governing the real estate licensee and the real estate broker, there might be other categories that fall into a
similar mold like associate broker, and so on.

The bigggest challenge is probably the current market conditions and the
media spin on the situation. Rates are low, prices are low, it is an amazing
time to buy a house, but if you are buying for the right reasons. With
regard to this site the biggest challenge for real estate agents is to
understand why they need to be in the social media spaces and the essence of
the community and interactions. It is tough to try to do something without
having an idea about the reasons and philosophy behind it. That is one of the
main goals of THR.

2. How will The Hip Roof assist Real Estate agents with these challenges?

The site isn’t here to address the current challenges in the market, as the
market will shift, historically it always does, to only be here for that
would really be a limited reason for existence. We are here to help real
estate agents be better at all times, no matter the market condition. To
learn new skills and techniques, to improve on what they are already doing,
to work on time management – which is a huge problem for many real estate
agents. To share systems that work, as well as other successes and idea. We
offer the agents an amazing educational community website with the premiere
collection of real estate experts in a variety of the social spaces, as well
as regular business development and coaching for real estate.

There are constantly events going on around the world for real estate agents
to attend to learn and expand their business, but travel isn’t always an
option, or affordable, so THR brings all those resources, and many of the
experts directly to you. The difference is that almost all of our
contributors are working real estate professionals, I truly believe you
can’t help an agent succeed if you aren’t doing it yourself.

3. How will you measure the success of The Hip Roof?

I think it is tough to measure success as a metric most of the time, to me success is that each member gets some benefit from the site, they learn something, share something or make a connection for a referral network. Yes I will also be introducing my eBooks shortly with corresponding courses, and if they follow what I suggest they will see success in lead generation and new business. We will also have coaching, and some amazing interviews. It
will be difficult not to succeed since everyone is contributing as a member,
there are no “right ways” to do anything, there are just a lot of different
ways to do them successfully. It will be a very useful mastermind community
too.

4. How do you envision The Hip Roof a year from now? Five years from now?

A year from now I hope we are growing still, offering value, and evolving to
meet the needs of the community. The software platforms the site is built on
are incredible and nearly limitless in what can be done. I would love it to
be the default “go-to” for real estate agents, and industry partners, who
want to learn and share. I hope we will be keeping up with all the latest
innovations and technologies, that is part of the benefit of the many
contributors, the aggregation of experience and expertise is powerful, and
diverse.

Five years? Probably more of the same, just continuous growth and expansion
to meet the members needs. Perhaps we will have added a consumer facing side
to field questions of our expert members. Maybe even add some continuing
education for some areas if they need it.

5. What is included in a membership to the site?

The membership includes full access to all the site content, including three
weekly webinars – the Sunday Night Open forum, Monday “Experts Interview
Series” which kicks off with Ben Kinney on 2/28, and the “Hot Topic” weekly
learning webinar on Thursdays. That is available to all our agent members,
and partner members. Beyond that the partner members each have their own
private forums, what an office leader might need to talk about has little to
do with the agents, the lending partners can talk amongst themselves, and so
on.

What many people don’t realize is that real estate agents (and brokers)
exist behind a “cone of silence” as I call it. We can’t talk with the
consumer about a variety of things, those things are included in state
license laws, Federal fair housing guidelines and for REALTORS the code of
ethics. So this gives the community a safe place to interact and talk
through a variety of daily challenges we might have.

6. Why a site just for Real Estate Agents?

It is a site for real estate professionals and our industry partners, the
people we work with on a regular basis, who also have some of the same
guidelines and limitations on what they can talk about.

I think there needs to be a place for real estate agents with content by
real estate agents. There seems to be this uprising starting where agents
are saying “Stop telling us what to do if you haven’t done it, stop selling
to us”, they want to understand, to be taught by those who are doing it
actively.

I think The Hip Roof compliments other systems, as an educational community
without a brand affiliation it allows agents to share at the most common
level – as real estate professionals. I think if a member finds value here
they should also consider IMSD, the juxtaposition is a great one in
technique, then they should also learn to blog and become an active part of
the Active Rain community. But there are other great programs out there – we
work well with them all – from the new REALTOR ePro designation to the great
stuff that Jim Marks and Tom Ferry do.

There are a lot of people doing amazing things in real estate around the
world, this site offers them a place to share those things. And a safe place
to talk about the challenges we face everyday as commissioned sales people.
Take a peek at what The Hip Roof is all about if you are interested!

This lovely contribution to the series is by Sandra Parrotto, aka Sam. Sam is at heart, a facilitator.  As owner of Qstreet, a leadership and cultural development company, she’s worked with a diverse group of organizations over the past three decades.  Being completely inspired to put her hard-earned wisdom to work, Sam is launching a new website, morepurple.com in May, which will create a provocative online conversation about transformation, consciousness and self development.  She can be reached at sam@qstreet.com, on twitter @qstreet and fb as Sandra Parrotto

When

Sam

Met

Twitter

• Smart people, thoroughly committed to their interests and sharing their knowledge.
• Thousands of writers able to expose their work to others.
• An engaged social network of people that challenge, explore and promote any topic that is attention worthy.
• Real people who grapple with relationship and transparency issues – in an open dialogue.
• Connections with others that are unconstrained by geography, economics, status, or age.
• Potential to address the worlds’ issues with those who actively care.
• An accessible, super-powered subculture already at work shaping thought and moving the collective consciousness forward.

My journey began with a celebrity, a class reunion that was promoted through facebook, transition out of a business that I no longer wanted and a personal mission to uncover my hidden creativity.

I was a skeptic, seeking, determined to find the truth about social media and the people who participated in it.

Around the end of July, I searched leadership, self development, coaching, philanthropy and found 40 to follow.  I studied and traced their conversations.  I read and reread their blogs trying to decipher who they were, what they were attempting to do and how much they were willing to share.  How did they do twitter? What were the rules of engagement?

I Lurked! I followed with a watchful eye.  In disbelief, I scoured their words for authenticity.  I didn’t tweet much in that first month scared to engage for fear of rejection.

There were a few that I ventured into conversation with; @Thebrandbuilder who engaged in an absorbing exchange about leadership with me through dm’s, @Menwithpens not only responded to every reply, but turned every tweet into a literary work of art.  I’ve been in her apprentice writing program since September and met the “oh-so-very-extraordinary” @Realchaseadams through @Jonmorrow’s blogger program (a link that James posted).   @Melissaonline promotes women and is a delightful person who readily engaged – her lists were invaluable.   @Goodmenproject fascinated me, their mission so noble and marketing that functioned like a well-oiled machine – my 1st retweet.  @Txblond was the first to respond to an original tweet and many more since.  My firsts in twitter!

My head raced as I’d lay my head on the pillow each night:  Who are these people?  Oh no, what if I tweeted the wrong thing?  I could never write like that… nor am I witty or clever…I don’t even possess a sense of humor.  Who are these people?  This influential sub-culture has existed right under my nose?  Where have I been?  I had no idea there were so many writers in the world. (amazed)  So this is what a blog is. (duh!)

I was ripe for the emotional and intellectual treats offered by the social media smorgasbord.  In search of dormant parts of myself, I wanted to be tickled by all things magical – creative thinking, new ways of relating, unconventional perspectives and readily available discussions.

I had become Sam squared, cubed and organized to the 10th power in my business life.  Twitter became my muse.

August and September were spent learning  – 3 hours a day reading others posts and launching a few of myown.  It seemed like once every 2 weeks, I’d get a response.  I’d scream, gasp for air and call everyone in my family circle to tell them the good news!

I recently hit the 12,500 @ threshold.  I don’t jump up and down, call my friends and scream in euphoria anymore, but I can’t wait to check my Iphone to see who I’ll get to chat with when I wake.  Secret? Some nights, I just can’t wait, so I hide my Iphone under the covers and take a peek. Shhh….

One day during September, I wrote a tweet that said, “My mission is to learn how to be a great follower!”

I surrendered my ego, my role as  “leader”,  and opened my heart to the unpredictable nature of virtual relationships.

It was oddly empowering to feel: insecure, jealous, competitive, embarrassed, inadequate.  Isolation aptly described the beginning of my twitter struggle.

My ego didn’t like “non-essential” but I knew that this experience of being “not known” and unimportant – was valuable.

With each tweet that landed in the “echoless vacuum”, my determination to understand – grew.  With each tweet that was returned by another, I became more grateful.

I saw my character growth and resulting humility as the cost of the ticket – to play.

I then discovered the #dadstalking hashtag.  @Genuine was so willing to answer questions, engage me in a way that reminded me of my “home folks”.   @ImtheQ, always outrageous, created a space where I could be “me”.  I even had a misunderstanding with @Exhausdad, apologized and made a permanent twitter friend.

Synchronicity was present everywhere. Responding to a link posted by @Geoffliving or @Dancitizen (which, I don’t recall), I enrolled @Dianamalloy, got train tickets and headed to the Mashable Social Good Conference in NYC during UN week.  We found ourselves seated across from both of those guys, which I accidentally discovered by asking, “Are you into technology?”

Shortly after Blog World in October, Chase introduced me to the #UsGuys hashtag.  What a gift! I had built one-to-one connections filled with personal tidbits, but my ability to know others was limited.  Limited because they shared only the part of themselves that was a direct response to me.  Group dialogue that included banter, conflict and individual reactions to other personalities, didn’t occur.  The #UsGuys hashtag provided a social space where a group of people could focus on a topic, simultaneously, creatively sharing and building a kind of community momentum.

Intimacy among the tribe grew exponentially as I witnessed, first-hand, people simply talking to each other.  My desire to be vulnerable within the community increased because of the #Usguys culture.

In real life, when two friends get together and the other isn’t present, the third person has no idea what they missed.  #Usguys made it possible because of the transparency, to listen in, to observe others’ communication.

The tribal community answered a social need that everyday twitter couldn’t.  One group conversation with 5 people, led to 15 more commenting throughout the next day.  It became possible to be connected to many & jump in whenever I  felt the urge.

Twitter allows me to see. And, it occurs each and every time someone tweets; it’s reflective, it’s within 140 characters and it’s like waking up with my husband each day.  A level of familiarity that typically takes years to acquire is created in 1/10th the time.

We have a daily connection and ability to observe that deepens, alters and ultimately builds a remarkably accurate picture of how we see and relate to one another.

It is an honor for me to be allowed into an aspect of modern day life that I believe will completely alter how society relates to itself.  I fantasized about living in the future with Captain James T. Kirk, social media makes that a partial reality.

I talk to @Pramitjnathan in India about human suffering and positive thinking.  I share cupcake pics & relationship dynamics with @Myagenda.

I hear about marathons and healthy living from @All_swagga and @Danenow.  @Veron is always willing to discuss “truth”.  Injustices of the world are the specialty of @Smith_blarney and @Blackrocket.  @Grit08 is my personal authenticity meter.

I giggle at @Righteousgeek and revel in his heart.  I watch as @PaulaKPorter makes a difference in children’s lives.  I get brilliant marketing insight with a hint of mischief from @Nickkellet.  I write poetry with @Seanotd.  I discover the benefits of homeschooling and engagement from @Mantywebdesigns or @Littlewys.  I watch in awe as @Josepf launches one idea after another.  I share a virtual Thanksgiving with @Solete while she lived in Barcelona and other “out on the town” events with @mikulaja.

I discuss business with @Seanmcginnis, @SMSJoe and @Fredmcclimans.  I’m told that I “rawk” by @Carlsorvino.  @Pproethe warmly shares the milestones of his life.  I’m mentored by @Margieclayman and @Sandyhubbard.  I learn about world events while sharing tv role models from That Girl and the Mary Tyler Moore Show with @Debmorello.  And I get priceless support and feedback from my real life pal @SuzyQfollower.  I would like to mention every person that I’ve had the pleasure of knowing.

For those that I adore but didn’t mention. Alas, space does not permit me to mention every person who has made a difference, intrigued and engaged with me!  I would not want this post to have you question how much each of you matter.   Thank you for making room in your hearts and sharing life with me.

Thank you for altering my squared up world, making it possible to be re-energized about living in this time and freely giving so much of your creativity to others.

So many of you have generously shared yourselves with me.  I have grown, feel like I am welcome and can’t wait to see what we accomplish together.