The ways in which social networking tools are used continues to expand. As usage changes, the opportunities and benefits to the members within these communities also grows.

Perfect example. Michael Banovsky hatched an awesome idea which brought together an instant community of car consumers, fanatics and professionals.  Some people even fell into all three categories; myself included – its just another easy way to get Auction Direct involved with the community.

Michael became the pied-piper of a popular twitter conversation known as #carchat. (the hashtag is the icon used to easily identify popular search terms within twitter search.)

For two hours, he lobbed thought provoking, automotive-related, open-ended questions to the community.

The questions, comments and re-tweets flowed. Very quickly.

Michael had the group firing on all 12-cylinders – how did he do it and what were the lessons learned?

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• Leverage your passion to engage others.
• Put others before yourself and any motives.
• Spread the word among your closest connections; when they believe in you, they’ll tell others. Knowing other power users is key.
• Invest time. Michael blocked out two hours of his time for this. He also invested his time leading up to this point – enabling him to put this event into motion.
• Know when to reach out. It would have been impossible to pull this off with only 47 followers.  Having a couple thousand followers helps.

The final result?

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• Automotive consumers and professionals participating and sharing – putting the group on cruise control; only subtle nudges of the wheel needed by Michael.
• Participants within #carchat building their networks.
• Michael’s personal stock gets a boost – all done so unselfishly.
• The opportunity to interact with a diverse group – including long time familiar faces like @ScottMonty and newer faces such as @HermanP
• A ton of good karma.

Stop by next week’s #carchat. And of course, be sure to follow @michaelbanovsky

In Search of a Midnight Kiss rip Check out Michael’s #carchat article on vLane.com as well.

How effectively are you providing opportunities to engage and discover?

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