Is it starting to bite?

[DeckstarDeluxe]

Which is good Neil, but you have to be realistic also and not look at things through rose tinted glasses all the time.

I wouldn't say they are rose tinted at all Darren. As I said I've seen other businesses not doing so well and its naturally "oh its the recession affecting us" when in fact chances are there are other reasons why.

I also firmly believe being positive rubs on you, how you interact with clients and other folks which can only be a good thing.

[Solitaire Events Ltd]

I wouldn't say they are rose tinted at all Darren. As I said I've seen other businesses not doing so well and its naturally "oh its the recession affecting us" when in fact chances are there are other reasons why.

I also firmly believe being positive rubs on you, how you interact with clients and other folks which can only be a good thing.

Alright then Neil. Quantify exactly what you are getting out of all this networking and meetings. How many K's worth of business are we talking? Is it giving you short term work or is it a longer term thing?

I don';t think it has anything to do with people in our industry saying about the recession, it's the people buying the services that are doing that. Completely different.

I must admit, I am getting slightly peeved with you posting about how great networking and Twitter is, but not actually posting anything of any substance when people ask you about it.

Come on then, what sort of work are you getting through this medium and how?

[DeckstarDeluxe]

Alright then Neil. Quantify exactly what you are getting out of all this networking and meetings. How many K's worth of business are we talking? Is it giving you short term work or is it a longer term thing?

I don';t think it has anything to do with people in our industry saying about the recession, it's the people buying the services that are doing that. Completely different.

I must admit, I am getting slightly peeved with you posting about how great networking and Twitter is, but not actually posting anything of any substance when people ask you about it.

Come on then, what sort of work are you getting through this medium and how?

Firstly it isn't my intention at all to rub people up the wrong way about my postings of networking and twitter (which to my knowledge I don't think I've been banging on loads about but if I have then I apologise).

Last year social media as a whole (mainly twitter but often I do point people to the facebook page) I gained just shy of 5k which is a huge figure to me in what was my first calendar year of trading and I only started social media really a year ago.

My gig last night was a referral from someone I met through twitter, my gig tonight is from someone again I met through twitter who isn't even in our industry (printer by trade)

I have a civil partnership in a couple of weeks time which has come again through a contact I made purely through twitter. They are having several add ons and is easily my best paying gig (1k+)

I'm not a huge fan of posting figures and particularly as it may be seen as willy waving but hopefully I've posted enough to make you see that A) I'm not just talking rubbish) and B) The reason I go on about it is because it works for me. I'm not going to gain anything if people take it onboard about networking and twitter. Sure they aren't instantly successful methods of gaining work but they have gained me results. It does take time and thankfully its time that a single guy in his late 20's without a family can afford.

Again my intentions are only to help people so if folks have viewed my postings as anything other than that then I'm sorry.

[Solitaire Events Ltd]

OK, so people read your ramblings on Twitter and then book you as their DJ - is that right?

[DeckstarDeluxe]

OK, so people read your ramblings on Twitter and then book you as their DJ - is that right?

No, not so much clients but other folks in the industry. As you know we are the last thing to be booked most times so if you know, interact and build relationships with photographers, cake makers, planners, and florists they will in turn recommend you to their clients (reason I mentioned these is because I've had these folks recommend me personally). While this might not bring in thousands of leads, ones with personal recommendations carry a lot of weight behind them and the conversation rate shoots up to around 80-90%.

I guess twitter is a good way to get your foot in the door with folks, you still need to either meet with them for coffee, call them or just keep in regular contact with them. I chat with folks about all sorts really, tv (usually shows involving our industry like MBFGW or the hotel that was on channel 4). I have read somewhere that only 1 in 7 tweets should be business related and its something I try and keep to.

[Shakermaker Promotions]

I'll be honest with you Neil, I tried the whole Twitter thing purely going by what you were saying about it. Saying that, I didn't know anything about it really because you never fully explained why or how it works for you but I thought I'd give it a go anyway. I didn't like it and it didn't do anything for me but I thought it was better to have a presence than none at all. I may give it another go?

I think it's easy to say that some people sit on their backsides waiting for the work to come to them and yes, that may well be true with some people.
If stuff like Twitter works for you, great! You probably haven't realised it and I am not having a dig but you have mentioned it quite regularly....again, rightly so if it works for you.

I do find it strange though (just being honest here) that there may be some people out there that are moaning and not doing anything about it or trying to find out why it isn't as great as it is or was yet somehow (and it's pretty hard to explain)....it seems ok and to sit there updating Twitter?

What happened to the days of actually going out to see people at venues to source work, calling up and arranging meetings etc? I know Social Media is there to help (or it claims to?) but I think stuff like Twitter is really (and it's only my opinion), a way of keeping the concience clear and makes you think that you are actually doing something and you're not sat there doing nothing even though all you are doing in reality is typing comments (limited ones too) into a text box to people that follow you.

[Vectis]

What happened to the days of actually going out to see people at venues to source work, calling up and arranging meetings etc? I know Social Media is there to help (or it claims to?) but I think stuff like Twitter is really (and it's only my opinion), a way of keeping the concience clear and makes you think that you are actually doing something and you're not sat there doing nothing even though all you are doing in reality is typing comments (limited ones too) into a text box to people that follow you.

To make twitter start to work for you, you need to be proactive in establishing those relationships in the first place. Don't just post random rubbish hoping that someone will happen across it when running a search; actively seek out people you'd like to work with and follow them. Retweet the stuff they write which you think might be of interest to your other followers. Make them notice you, and they might just follow you back. Once you have a merry band of followers, then you can start to work on the business to business side of the 'relationship' rather than the personal. Don't be afraid to jump in and tell people how you can help them, and don't be afraid to 'unfollow' people who clog up your timeline with spammy useless content.

[Danno13]

It's hard for me to say as I've scaled down DJing so much that it now only accounts for 10% of my turnover now. Though, I'm not entirley sure if that's down to me being less proactive about getting the work, or it's down to people cutting back.

I have a reasonable amount of work booked in for the summer and enquiries are still coming in. If they weren't then I don't think the recession would be to blame, as people are still getting married and companies are still having events.

[DeckstarDeluxe]

Ok I generally didn't know I was banging on about it so much so I'll make sure I keep it to a minimum in the future.

What I will say Gary is that I hated it the first two months or so of using it, I hardly had any followers and being so use to facebook it just didnt feel right. In fact it was Paul who got me into twitter so blame him

If your struggling (I'm talking to the forum here rather than just you) with twitter then make sure you follow people of interest to you, then use the "who to follow" feature to help build up your followers. Don't just follow anyone though.

[mattydinx]

has anyone else seen it dry up completely.

Can't say I have, It's been a year since I decided to start up DJing again and i'm pretty happy with the way things are going. Fair few bookings in the pipeline and plenty of enquiries coming in via my website and by phone.

Summer is looking quiet for me so far but there's time yet.