A Tale of Two Tweets: The Power of Listening to Others

Once upon a time there was a girl and a Guy, seriously, a guy named Guy and a girl, named Amy.

About a week ago, I read a tweet from Amy Jo Martin aka @DigitalRoyalty that she left her iPad on a US Airways Plane.
"Please help, @USAirways! Left my iPad in seat 15A on flight 544 - Vancouver to Phoenix. Plane is headed to DFW now. :("

Within an hour her iPad was safe secure and in the hands of a handsome pilot flying it back to her in Phoenix where they fell madly in love. OK I added the handsome (although he could be) and she *loved* that he brought her iPad back to her.

Here was a great opportunity for @USAirways to offer customer service...did this happen? From reading Amy's tweets and her blog case study...apparently, NOT. You have to give props to @This_Justin_ for taking the time to help someone.  He made a couple calls...got results for Amy because...he was listening!

MEET @GuyKawasaki, oh you already know him, that's ok you might not know this story--it happened a long long time ago or well in 2008, but for the Social Media world that IS a long time ago.

Amy's story reminded me of one of my favorite blog posts written from Guy Kawasaki, titled "Looking for Mr. Goodtweet: How to Pick Up Followers on Twitter".

"At 10:15 pm I discovered that I had not brought a Macbook power supply on this trip. I was in a hotel on Coronado Island, and early the next morning I was flying to an aircraft carrier off San Diego for an overnight visit. I doubted that the carrier had Macbook power supplies laying around, so I was in trouble. I posted a message to Twitter that I was in this predicament, and within ten minutes, five people offered to bring me a power supply. I took one of them up on the offer, and he delivered it to me within an hour."

"Holy kaw! Within an hour of putting out a distress signal that I needed a Macbook power supply at 10:15 pm on Coronado Island,  the Twitter community got me one."
( I couldn't find Guy's original tweet, it happened in Nov '08)

I also love this story of the lost dog and how the owner used Social Media to find him.

Over the past two years, as a result of Twitter I have met the most delightful, charming and outstanding friends I have ever met in my life.  People who time and time again have gone the distance and brought joy and lots of entertainment in to my life.

These two tales make clear the advantages of listening to others and, oh yeah,  it doesn't hurt to have a lot of followers!

DISCLAIMER: I am not a graphic artist (obviously)!

Do you have any stories about Twitter or Social Media and how you have used it to find something or even someone? Let me know!