Tweet for more leads

Back during the dot.com boom, lots of Internet start ups rushed online and spent a great deal of time and other people's money looking for a way to make a profit, any profit, from the net. A company that actually found a way to make the web profitable was huge, huge news circa 2000.

Social media (Facebook, Twitter, Youtube, etc.) is much the same way. Everyone is telling you to establish your business's social media presence or profile because, umm, just because.

Think of social media like web addresses back in the mid-1990s. Even companies like McDonald's couldn't really understand why they wanted to register a web address. At a minimum, lock up your company or personal name before someone else does. Just as you began to find new ways to incorporate the Internet itself into business, you will slowly begin to find ways to incorporate your social media sites into your business.

Twitter, I think, offers one of the best ways to generate contacts and leads. And it's pretty simple. Get Twitter running on your smartphone. Next time you're at a tradeshow or conference just start tweeting about your experiences there from your smartphone. But first figure out the "hashtag" for the tradeshow or conference you're at. For example, at the Consumer Electronics Show the hashtag is #CES. Any tweet anyone makes at the show they'd append #CES at the end of their tweet.

Hashtags provide a quick way for people to tap into the "buzz". If you're like a lot of businesses you're probably making more solo trips to these things. And there are probably a lot of solo people there. So why not find these other solo people and invite them to join you at lunch or a drink? Tweet your whereabouts:

Having beer at Diablo's Cantina after show. Join me! Strangers welcome. Wearing white vendor polo and khakis #ces

Assuming your description helps narrow you down and your Twitter profile photo is recent and accurate, odds are other single attendees looking for some human contact will seek you out.

Bottom line, you're might land some new leads this way. But wait. There's more. Any lead information you collect from your new Twitter pal, you can get into the BlueCamroo system using the email gateway. Fire up your smartphone's email client.

In the email's To: input task@clientdomain.bluecamroo.com.

Replace "clientdomain" with your unique Bluecamroo domain. For example, if you access Bluecamroo with the browser address http://GeneralSupply.bluecamroo.com, then use GeneralSupply instead of clientdomain.

In the Subject: field enter a task description. For example "CES lead"

In the body of the email enter a description for the task including the lead details you'll input into a lead details page.

It's quick, it's easy, and you don't have to waste valuable conference time trying to do data input on a smart phone screen via a web browser. Save that for when you get back.