This story is how SMB Collective came to be, and there’s no easier way than to provide the sequential order of happenstance that began on Twitter with two passionate women business owners, Jayme Soulati and Neicole Crepeau.
Twitter’s hidden gems spawn ideas like this; the missing link is the forward movement to bring ideas to fruition with a go-to-market strategy.
For anyone in creative fields, this story is wonderful; it provides proof to the power of social media, engagement and community development.
Jayme and Neicole spent 20 minutes on Twitter speaking to concerns about the health care reform situation fueled by Jayme’s ire over SMBs and individuals getting the raw end of the stick (again). That conversation was captured here on Jayme’s blog, Soulati-TUDE!
A healthy conversation ensued about how, whether and where to launch our SMB group — either on Facebook or a new LinkedIn group. That conversation is captured here.
Finally, after many telephone calls with Jayme’s community of Twitterers, a third post called Launching SMB Collective put the icing on the cupcake. That’s when #SMBChat was also born and registered on WTHashtag.
Whenever you see a funky set of characters preceded by a hashtag, that means it’s a Twitter trending topic. Now that Jayme formally owns #SMBChat, there are plans to launch a community of like minds in conversation on Twitter at a date in the future.
There you have it — the story behind SMB Collective in nearly real time! This just happened six weeks prior to the first post October 8, 2010. This case study shows how social media and the nimble nature of SMB leaders can make something happen in quick time.
