Social contacts

I created a post on LinkedIn out of pure frustration: “We are not satisfied with our current cleaning company. Does anyone know of a good company in the Arnhem vicinity that provides proper cleaning services for a reasonable price?”

That set off an unprecedented chain reaction. Within no time, there were 31,858 views and 115 responses on LinkedIn and the telephone was ringing off the hook. Of these responses, most were references for no less than 70 different cleaning companies. This makes you wonder: why did this post have such an impact and why do I not typically receive more than 2500 views per post? That is not a tough question to answer. LinkedIn is a form of social media and this time, I had asked for help. Social = help. Ah, so that’s how it works. 

But how do you determine who you are going to contact? Which reference is the best one? That was also pretty obvious. The businesses who only send an email with a link or even a tender without knowing the task at hand permanently ruined their chances. However, some businesses made the effort to find my telephone number and contacted me personally. I invited the businesses that received two or more references from my LinkedIn post to submit tender . 

It was also nice to see that several responses came from former Food in Business (OSV) members, whom I had lost touch with. They have all come for coffee by now and we have caught up again. Regardless of whether we do business together again, the social contacts have been re-established.

Saskia Stender