In the long dark ages before Facebook and Twitter existed, the closest thing Sydney-based ex-Perth lad Stewart Dawes could find to ‘social media’ was working at X-Press Magazine, where as their full-time photographer in the 1990s he was on the door list at every gig, nightclub party or fashion pageant until such time as he burnt out body, mind and soul and retreated to a far quieter decade in the realm of natural health magazines.
But for those whose urge is social, they find a way back.
In 2008 he sniffed the wind, it was a howling gale by then, and left his job in “old media” after five years heading the Sydney office of Nova Magazine, as he realised his future lay online and it was time to exploit an inside running on Google he’d acquired from a decade developing his online guide to Sydney restaurants.
It was not hard finding small to medium-sized business people who wanted to get search engine optimisation done for their websites, but at the same time, these business people were struggling with ways to get a hook in social media.
“When I first ever jumped on Facebook, I was suspicious like a lot of people,” Stewart recounts over coffee near his office in Broadway, Sydney. “In fact I developed a fake identity so I could explore it from an anonymous distance.”
“However suddenly it hit me, using Facebook to connect with old school friends was not enthralling, instead I could use it to experiment with my curiosity about complete strangers from all over the world.”
Sourcing Talent from Around the World
At first friend-requesting strangers was a hit and miss affair, but Stewart discovered that a reasonable percentage of them turned out to be very passionate about expanding their networks and mindset beyond the psychological borders of their local towns or cities.
“Nowadays I have people who I employ overseas, or who I have business ventures with, that I entirely met randomly on Facebook. It has led to an entire rejuvenation of my life at a time when most people are vanishing into the ‘burbs.”
One of the reasons why Stewart’s social media courses are in hot demand is that his business-owner attendees relate to his message – just like his initial reluctance to get onto Facebook, he was even more recalcitrant about getting onto Twitter.
“A client nagged me for months about setting up a Twitter profile for him,” Stewart admits as he takes a sip on his second coffee. “This was in mid-2009. I kept saying I was already caught up in Facebook and didn’t want to go into Twitter at all.”
“However when I first went in there, setting up an @sydneycafes profile, I was astounded by the masses of people who were actively engaging, all spirited and positive, and also the information they were willing to share was mostly extremely advanced and professional.”
“It was instantly exciting. I got so carried away I set up seven different twitter accounts, all relating to different things I was interested in, and the bizarre thing is, all those accounts are still very active today.”
Right vs Wrong
“I now have staff developing those accounts for me and the returns on my investment in Twitter and Facebook still surprise me – it’s fantastic for business – if done the right way.”
“But the problem is when business owners try to figure it out by themselves, they pretty well never do it the right way.”
Realising that business owners either didn’t have the time to do social media at all, or simply wanted to focus on their business and not have to deal with the “social media problem” at all, Stewart asked around and within a few months he had clients who, in some examples, only wanted him to manage their Twitter account, or only their Facebook account, though often the clients wanted all their social media taken care of.
“It became fascinating as I realised I was earning a living, apart from my SEO work, by tweeting for people. It seemed some kind of joke.”
Quality in the Twitterverse
Far from being a joke, however, it was serious business. Yes a joke can “go viral” in minutes, but what Stewart delivers, from a magazine editor background, was highly articulate tweets and status updated which varied between light-hearted interaction on the one hand, through customer rapport development, to high journalistic standard postings that presents the clients in the best possible lights within their industries, as “broadcasters” of cutting edge information.
“I realised that I’d effectively begun offering something I could describe as a “social media solution”, where business people could have “the problem of social media” completely removed for an affordable monthly fee,” he says.
“They would have their social media profiles professionally grown, their numbers of contacts or followers would get into the thousands, and then after a while, they would start getting revenue from their social media profiles.”
“And because they get networked across about 30 accounts on Facebook, Twitter, Linked In, etc, they simply couldn’t develop their SM presence to the depth and also at the speed that I and my two assistants could achieve for them.”
Eventually word got around and businesses started asking Stewart to go to their offices to train their staff in social media. It wasn’t long before that turned into workshops available publicly for business owners, and then into university courses.
“The remarkable thing was that as soon as I realised I wanted to work with a co-presenter to deliver workshops publicly, I looked on Twitter and after just five minutes I found Nicole Greentree of Empower Social Media, and typically of being in this space, a good instinct turns out right so frequently, she’s been a fantastic co-presenter and teacher, and also cheerleads our attendees brilliantly long after the courses are completed.”
For more information on the social media workshops for business run by Stewart, or the social media management programs his company runs, email him directly: media@seotherapy.com.au
Hottest Social Media Links
Facebook Courses for Business in Sydney
Social Media Management Australia
Five Big Reasons CEOs Should Get Social
Most Searched Terms: Sydney Social Media Management, Social Media Training for Business, Social media Presenters in Australia.