How Marketing is Like Blowing Bubbles

Pretend I made some awesome videos with pretty bubbles blowing in the air…

Today’s inspiration comes from the crazy land of Twitter and a glorious article I just read from a new Twitter friend.  I am particularly talking now about local Twitter.  By local Twitter I mean engaging with anyone in your area, metro area or however your area marks itself, no matter what they do.  In this strategy I have a “Minnesota list”, which developed into me suggesting a Minnesota Women’s Tweetup.  Next thing you know we have 85 people without much effort on our Facebook fan page, had a fantastic first meet up with about 9 or 10 of us (on a work night!)  We are planning our second one with a fashion expert who will do a broad lesson then offer personal consults.  (Note, this woman has found a spiritual coach person to offer a cool mind/body service – there’s joint venturing right there!)

Why do I do this local Twitter stuff?  The primary reason is that it’s JUST PLAIN FUN.  I’ve been meeting people online since the mid 1990′s and there is something wildly fun about meeting strangers that aren’t quite strangers because you have a “common space” to engage in daily life.  In this case the common space is Twitter, and for some of these women, Facebook friending.

You’re probably wondering, what the heck?  What does local Twitter have to do with bubbles?  And seriously, where are you going to talk about mental health therapy stuff?

Never fear.  I’m there now.

A hugely important marketing strategy is to embed yourself in the marketplace.  I talked about this a few posts back.  The key for Marketing 2.0 is to use natural tools, like social media, to connect with a wide variety of people.  In this way it is my personal and professional interest to be as connected with Minnesotans on Twitter as I humanly can.  Each of these people I meet, and here’s where the bubbles come in, has their OWN bubble, or network, of friends, colleagues, trusted allies, and followings.  Each human being has their own bubble and when bubbles come together, they either expand (the MN Women’s Tweetup is an expansion bubble as we form a bigger bubble), or they stick together on an edge of their bubble (joint ventures while maintaining their own bubbles and only touching another persons bubble in one particular area of their work.  In other words, you don’t need to have a best-friend-forever to have a joint venture.  You don’t even have to have ANYTHING in common except some shared interest to serve your audiences.)

Why am I excited about all this?  One of my new Twitter friends who I haven’t actually yet met just asked me if I read her latest post.  I’m glad she asked because it’s thrilling!  It’s about her first experience with counseling and an encouragement to her wide variety of friends who are scared of counseling (but would benefit from it.)  Read the article and hopefully you’re as excited as I am that a lay person can be so encouraging and so honest.

Now what does this mean?  Who knows.  This is where you drop your ego, open your heart, and just be available.  I told her privately that some day when I’m a therapist I’d be a trusted referral, and that I love those who are afraid of therapy.  But what else?  Perhaps she interviews me for her blog some day in the future, simply to help expand the mental health advocacy she is clearly blogging about.  Right now she’s thrilled that I’m linking to HER blog post.  Right now, in this moment, she just dramatically opened up about her private life in the hopes it helps others.  And I deeply respect that.  The future is unknown, but I’m proud to have met her online and some day hopefully soon, in person.

And that, my awesome blog readers, is Web Marketing 2.0.  Notice there are no business card exchanges, no brochures?  Just two human beings connecting.  And it’s not even “marketing” per se.  It’s building relationships and seeing where things go.   Her post makes me excited as nerves build for my graduate school interview tomorrow.  She inspires me to go into the interview, confident of why I’m entering this wild land of mental health…to help awesome people like her when life gets rough.