We follow a fella called Chris Brogan (author of an excellent book called Trust Agents) on Twitter and via one of his (many) blogs.
He recently tried a bit of an experiment.
- He searched on Twitter for the words,“I’m at Barnes & Noble” (a US Bookshop like Waterstones) , which came from a FourSquare check-in.
- He then went through the list of results checking the profiles of the Twitterers.
- For those users who fitted his profile, he sent them a direct message asking them if they’d seen his book, (and instructions on where to find it)
- This, naturally, started a dialogue with them, because it was the author talking directly to them!