How Twitter Search Changed the Life of a Stranger in a Coffee Shop
This post started out as a how-to but I decided to scrap it to get to the story of how twitter search changed a strangers life in a coffee shop. If you want to know more about real time conversational search just subscribe to my feed as I will cover it more in depth in the coming days.
The Coffee Shop Chronicles
About a month and a half ago I visited a great little coffee shop and lunch destination in a small town just outside of mine. I began to work away on the computer as usual when a very well dressed gentleman sat next to me presumably stopping for lunch. After I finished banging out an email he seemed to get transfixed by my laptop screen as I opened up tweetdeck and asked me if that was twitter. I told him that it was a third party application but for all intents an purposes, “Yes it is Twitter” I answered. He went on to say that he had heard a lot about the service, but really had no idea why he would want to use it. And that my friends was the beginning of his love affair with twitter.
The Job
I went on to ask this gentleman what type of work he did. He told me that he was a pharmaceutical rep and that he was trying to get established with some local doctors. He had been at it for about six months and had regular calls, but most of his accounts were on the smallish side. I decided to do an experiment with him and run a twitter search on the name of some of the companies he repped for as well as names of some of the key drugs he was selling. So we went forth and created a real time conversational search using my tweetdeck client and he was amazed at what he saw.
The Search
The search immediately revealed that one of the drugs that he was told to push by his company was possibly going to be pulled from the shelves by the government due to complications of taking the drug. He was flabbergasted and honestly didn’t believe what he was reading. I mean you can’t believe everything you read on twitter….right? Well, like any other source you must look into the facts deeper. We clicked a few links and checked a few websites and sure enough this drug was in danger of being pulled. At that point this guys mind was thoughroughly blown and he left the coffee shop in a bit of a daze.
The Follow-Up
Two days after our first encounter I saw this gentleman again at the coffee shop and he approached me with a glow on his face that had not been there two days before. He proceeded to tell me that he called on a doctor the afternoon after we had spoken and that he was going to be making a fairly large purchase of the drug that we found was in question. He mentioned to the doctor that he might want to hold off and that he had done some research during lunch that indicated problems with this drug and that it may get pulled. The doctor thanked him and he went on to his next customer. The real magic came the next day when the doctor called him back and thanked him for alerting him to the news before it officially broke. The drug did get pulled from the shelves and the doctor was thankful for his insights. On his next visit to that doctor he was not only given a larger chunk of his daily orders, but was given three referrals of whom that doctor called personally in front of him.
A Month Later
About a month has passed and I have seen this salesman since. He is a regular user of twitter for it’s search and monitoring capabilities and he told me that his income has increased significantly due to the referrals that stemmed from this early information. He bought me lunch last time I saw him and I was happy to let him.
How have you seen social media tools change someone perspective? Share your stories in the comments.
Keith Burtis is a social media and digital marketing professional. If you or your company are looking to REV THE ENGINE on your digital efforts contact Keith today! Specialties include: Blog design/Integration, Custom Facebook Pages, Social, Digital and Interactive Content strategies.
Comments
Keith, I love this story. I love the fact that you took the time to show someone the power of social media without any real or preceived financial benefit to you.
We are most afraid of those things we don’t know and most people (despite our perception) have yet to discover the magic of networking online with other humans.
As Dave says – pay it forward, baby!
Love it!
@knealemann
This is a great case study of how the social web can touch all aspects of our lives and industries we suspect may not benefit from these tools. Looks like you had a great “pay it forward” moment Keith!