Twitter and The Kindness of Strangers


I should have known better:
It was New Year’s Day and my family was occupied with their own diversions. I didn’t feel like packing up the holiday decorations and laundry didn’t sound too inviting, so I took advantage of the peace and quiet.  I decided to work on the copy for a social networking service I offer.

I’ve found that I can get a lot done on slow days since most people are not online. No emails, no phone calls, and very little noise on Facebook and Twitter.

It was really just one tiny tweak I wanted to make on the web page, adding the value of a couple bonuses to the product description. How much harm could I do by inserting a dollar value in parentheses?

I even used the “Nancy proof” WYSIWYG editor my webmaster installed so I didn’t “accidentally” remove my logo from every web page and incur hundreds of dollars of repair costs. (Oh yeah, that’s happened!)

Quick little edit, a sip of tea, and I hit the SAVE button.  Feeling proud, I clicked the View Page button and… oh crap! The entire page went BOLD!

I let out a good old string of cuss words and buried my face in my hands. “I never even touched the BOLD button, wtf!?!!” The reason why this sucked even more so was that a promotional email to my list had just gone out directing everyone to this page.

So not only did I feel foolish, I looked foolish in front of thousands of subscribers. My “oh crap, oh crap, oh crap” mantra ensued.

I couldn’t find the cause of the bold. Obviously a bold tag was unclosed, but it didn’t show up anywhere in the WYSIWYG editor. Mantra continues.

After hyperventilating for a moment or two, I thought I’d do the equivalent of pulling over to the side of the road and flagging down a motorist for help: I went on Twitter.

Twitter Crisis

I wasn’t really asking for help at this moment, but just putting my problem out there as I thought it out. Even a smiley face or a cyber ((((hug)))) would have felt good.

The first person who came to mind was my friend Jesse Luna. Jesse is a blog pro, he has always been super supportive and kind, and we met in person recently. He’s a good guy and I’d trust him to glance at the html code, much as I’d trust a mechanic to look at my car. So as I put out this cry for help, I sent him a direct message. Hoping that football didn’t have him too consumed, I waited anxiously.

As I waited to hear back from Jesse, offers of help began pouring in!

Thank you so much to the following Tweeple for offering to help me, to look at the code, to troubleshoot and yes, to breathe! Please visit these Twitter folks and follow them, they’re good peeps!

@ConnieGreen, @DebbyeCannon, @JustTheFAQs, @RichardSession, @TheVeggieQueen, @PeterLunn, @Amoxcalli, @Unmarketing

And since my mother always taught me to send thank you notes, I put up this Tweet while feeling the love:

twittercrisisthanks

Jesse and I finally connected  He took a look at the code and helped me identify a random bold tag that somehow got in the way and created so much havoc on my page (not to mention shatter my nerves!)

I can’t keep Jesse all to myself, I must share him so here is his info:

Jesse Luna: www.BuildYourFanBase.com

He’s brilliant.

So what are the lessons learned here folks?

1. If you’re having a problem, don’t keep it all to yourself. Tap into the expertise of your connections.

2. Twitter is a hub of information and answers. You can be having a problem with corn flakes and tweet about it, and chances are someone will be online with the solution to your problem.

3. Creating community and building relationships pays off. Not only did these kind Tweeps help me out, but in my gratitude I got to share their goodness with others.

4. Make friends with smart people. There are many smart people on Twitter. Stick with the winners. Put them in your bundle of helpful people.

5. Always express your gratitude. I’ve done my part with this blog post and continue to feel it afterward.

My hope is that you use your expertise (your “medicine” as I call it) to enhance the online connections you make and show real value.

What ways have you offered or received help from online contacts? I’d love to hear your stories too. Drop me a comment below.


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About Nancy Marmolejo

I'm a soul-driven strategist who teaches entrepreneurs how to turn followers into fans and fans into clients using social media and heart based marketing. My approach integrates proven strategies and intuitive hits so each client finds her special way to stand out and sizzle in the spotlight.

  • http://www.divamarketingblog.com Toby

    Nancy – I know exactly what you mean. Twitter save my life on a Sunday morning when I was working on a project that had to be delivered to a client Monday am. The people on my team were no where to be found .. it was the weekend after all and some people do have lives (smile). But the Tweets were online and within minutes they had solved my problem.

  • http://kabai33.com Yemoonyah

    I know exactly what you are talking about. I installed a new theme on my blog and it made my page load time go up to 13 seconds. No one is gonna wait that long for a page to load, so I tried to fix it… to no avail. I had no clue what could cause this so I asked for help on Twitter. @milo317 a theme developer helped me out and invested several HOURS to fix my blog although the theme causing the trouble wasn't even his! I just send out my thank you tweet.

    So if anyone is thinking about getting a new theme make sure to check out this site: http://3oneseven.com/

    <abbr>Yemoonyahs last blog post..10 WordPress Themes for Artists</abbr>

  • http://www.buildyourfanbase.com Jesse Luna

    Thanks for the mad props Nancy! It was a pleasure helping you. I received a lot of great Sizzle tips from you at the Social Media Simplified seminar here in Ventura. I'm also going through and following your other great volunteers! Thanks again! ~Jesse

    <abbr>Jesse Lunas last blog post..User Generated Healing on Twitter</abbr>

  • http://www.julietjohnsonstaging.com Juliet Johnson

    Totally second the shout-out to @ConnieGreen. A nobler, kinder spirit would be hard to find. She knows so much, too, and most of it self-taught. A real inspiration!

    As are you. Thank you for sharing a very real circumstance – Been there many times, myself – with good advice to keep in mind.

    Happy New Year!

    Juliet

  • http://www.automateyourbizvideos.com Jennifer Haubein

    Hi Nancy,

    Thanks for this great post! I had awesome help from @unmarketing the other night and wanted to share that with everyone. If you're not following @unmarketing you should, because he offers encouragement and help as well. We had gotten into a little fake fight over twitter about virtual assistants and work at home moms, but it was all really just a misunderstanding and was really just kidding around :) And then the next night I asked him a question about creating viral movies and he answered me right away via email!

    I love this aspect of Twitter so much and I try to payback as well for anyone with technology questions.

    I think this is why social networking is so great!

  • http://melaniekissell.gojiteam.com Melanie Kissell

    Nancy,

    Given my personality (smile), I'm more apt to offer help through social networking sites than to ask for help.

    The majority of "help tickets" I get are concerning article marketing, lead generating, and blogging.

    It's great to know that if someone sends out a cyberspace "S.O.S." …

    You can be assured that an online contact (or 2 or 3) will come to your rescue!

    ~Melanie

  • http://www.VisionForSuccess.biz Ali

    When gratitude shows up in a deep, authentic, meaningful way….(and you always do, Nancy) there's a huge outburst of growth, all the way around, and everybody wins! – More than advice giving and receiving, the bigger message is of always showing appreciation for the kindness of strangers, which in Twitterverse, no one is a stranger anymore.