You used the tools to make very human connections, and that’s the core power that a lot of the social media hype seems to neglect. Best of luck with the book, and I’d love to hear more about your exploits in Social Mediasville!

I even recently booked a job through Yelp.com! I wrote a review of a business I really liked, someone went to that business based on my review, mentioned to the owner that she came to her based on my review and the owner said, oh yes, she’s a really good photographer, the girl did not know that, she went home, emailed me and we got a job from that!

I’m really excited to see your book! The book signing is this Saturday. I will try to make it. I enjoy meeting other local photographers. I have two wedding albums to create this weekend and some postcards to make but this might be a nice break in my day!

Every time we photograph a wedding we find out if they are on myspace or flickr or twitter and we add them and because we’re able to keep in touch with them that way, we’ve had numerous referrals!

It’s all pretty exciting!

This type of connectedness and openness about who I am and what I do allows people to connect with me faster once we do meet face to face. People I meet know who I am and what I do, which allows us to cut straight to the heart of why we should communicate more (a possible job lead, a common interest, etc).

Not only can you create viable leads, you can form and keep a community of listeners. These listeners are a great group of people to have, they’re opt in instead of cold call, so you know they already want to hear what you have to say. A reminder of who you are comes to them daily, and they’re more likely to A.) remember who you are and B.) think of you when something comes along their way that may be of service to you.

I’m glad that you’re making these connections, and I think that we’re going to continue building a great connected community that will allow all of us to be successful at what we aspire to do. :)