When I start discussing work with my friends and family and they discover what I do, the conversation always turns to social media and people start to challenge me.  I get questions like: “You spend time on Twitter?  Really? Why?” and “Isn’t it a complete waste of time?” or “How do you know it’s worth it?”   When I start to explain why I am fully engaged with Social Media and what has occurred because of it, they really start to listen.  So I decided to share my ROI; what I consider to be the top 10 things that have happened to me as a result of twitter.

1)    People. Friendships and business connections.  Through Tweetups or Tweetcrawls (where local twitter people gather together to network, IRL) I have met some awesome people, incredible professionals, and gained a strong respect for the community of peers I interact with.

2)    New Places. Through my husband’s (@ScottHokunson) Horticulture twitter community we went on a Tweetup to the Innisfree Gardens in Millbrook, NY.  It was a beautiful place and I met incredibly talented horticulture and garden people.

3)    Business. Business opportunities have been referred to me by people I met through twitter and Tweetups.  Yes BUSINESS OPPORTUNITIES!!

4)    Education. Keeping ahead of my industry.  By engaging with those I follow and following those who lead this industry, I have been lead to information and resources that otherwise may have never fallen in my lap.  It has helped me to be a stronger and better professional for my clients.

5)    Resources. I have developed resources to which I can refer my clients when what they need is outside of my scope of services.

6)    Promotion. The ability to effectively promote my events and drive traffic to them.  We have had better attended seminars and webinars because of our use of Social Media.

7)    Growth. 10 months ago Site-Seeker, Inc. was a company that was completely unknown in the Connecticut / Massachusetts market – no revenue and no clients.  We are now a known competitor with a strong reputation, a significant account base, and solid revenue and we utilized social media to help introduce ourselves here.

8)    Community Service. Fundraising has been undertaken on a whole new level.  Suzi Craig and Lisa Davenport put together a significant fundraiser for Operation Home for the Holidays in under three weeks.  With the participation and support of local celebrities – Ann Nyberg & Damon Scott and the twitter community, their one day event raised 12,000 to help bring home CT National Guard troops for this coming holiday break.  It was thrilling to be a part of such an incredible event and to be of service to our community.

9)    Services. I was in need of a new head shot and avatar.  Thanks to Seshu and my interaction with him on twitter, I finally had that done.  It was an awesome experience to work with such a professional photographer and it has added a new level of professionalism to my social media profiles and my events pages for our seminars and webinars.  (By the way, if you need a good photographer check out @picseshu !)

10)    People. Okay I know this is a repeat but you always start and finish with the best.  Truly the best part of social media is the people you meet and interact with, and the caliber of these people is top notch – and yes you really do interact both in cyperspace and IRL (in real life).

When people challenge me about the time I am “wasting” on social media, it is easy to show them how it is one of the best uses of time today to promote your company and your brand, to develop authority and become a trusted name in your industry.  To me, the ROI is easy to measure.

So, what is on your top 10 social media list?