Frequent readers of The Chief Storyteller® blog know I’ve been spending some time on The George Washington University (GWU) campus lately, where I earned my MBA almost two decades ago. For lifelong learners like me, the opportunity to audit a graduate-level social media marketing course was simply too good to resist.

In many ways, this class is a microcosm of the social world in which we live. As participants, we are all connected – thought leaders, professors, students, clients, followers and fans – via the vast network of social media. Our connections with one another began online with a Twitter hashtag (#GWSMM), have extended to LinkedIn and are becoming closer and more personal as the semester progresses.

What role did social media play in helping to build these relationships? Some of the thought leaders who recently visited our class had these insights to share:
• Social media is peer-to-peer communication…it’s not a brand talking to people; it’s people talking to people about a brand
• Your online presence speaks both to your experience and to the experience others will have in working with you or your brand
• The measure of success with social media is not ROI: it’s ROR (return on relationship)
• The strongest relationships are built over multiple communication channels, both face-to-face and online

I’m going to make a prediction. I started the semester as a stranger to the MBA students in the room. At semester’s end, I will have over a dozen new Twitter followers, almost as many new LinkedIn connections and a handful of new personal friends – all made possible through social media #GWSMM. 

For more on social media relationship-building, please see:
• Does Your Brand Have Klout?
• How One Brand Delivered the Unexpected to Create an Unforgettable Customer Experience
• It’s Time to Engage Your Customers Through Social Media