This tool takes the contacts you've made on Twitter and Facebook and makes them even more useful, meaningful and valuable, and all with the touch of a few buttons. This tool is (gasp) the phone.

I wouldn’t call myself an expert or a guru or even very good at it, but I do like and USE social media quite a lot. And in doing so, have become pretty proficient at using many of the tools at my disposal. There are some very nice things about social media and the applications that support them, namely: portability, ease of use, instant access and immediate gratification in many cases.

However, this past week, I learned (as I tend to every few months) about the latest, greatest social media innovation of all! This tool takes the contacts you’ve made on Twitter and Facebook and makes them even more useful, meaningful and valuable, and all with the touch of a few buttons.

This tool is (gasp) the phone. You might roll your eyes at this one but the phone (or a face to face meet if possible) really does all of those things. A phone call can:

–Show a new contact that you are serious about getting to know more about what they do.

–Make a friend or ancilliary business contact aware of a professional move.

–Take a fleeting conference ‘buddy’ and make them a part of your inner circle

–Give you access to people you never though would give you the time of day.

–Get you a book deal.

–Grab a great guest post for your blog.

–Create lifelong friendships across the nation.

Social media has done some amazing things to make the phone even more potent. You know those LinkedIn invites that “introduce” someone? What if you got a follow up call from someone you genuinely didn’t know but who was interested in your business? Would you be more likely to accept?

What if a potential colleague DM’d you via Twitter and asked to set up a call to see if you could work on projects together?

So what if YOU picked up the phone?

1) DO Cultivate the relationship over whatever medium you met the person on. Don’t follow someone and then immediately call their iphone. That’s weird. Instead, read their blog, look over their last few tweets, or see if you know anyone at their current company. Then interact.

2) DO Mention that you might have some ideas for that book they’re writing, or a great t-shirt designer if they need some for that conference. Make sure that you actually have a reason to deepen the relatiosnip via phone, even if it’s something as simple as wanting to pick their brain about the industry they are in.

3) DO remember to schedule the appointment ahead of time and be respectful of their time. I would plan on about 10-15 minutes for the first call. That way, if the call goes well, you can ask again later and they know your call length will be exactly what you say it will.

4) DON’T Ask them to wait while you get to a quiet spot, find a pen and paper, or subject them to loud car driving. It’s irritating

5) DON’T use social networking as a dating service unless . . . you are using a dating service. Call those people, not some hottie you only want to “get to know”.

6) DON’T be all take and no give. Even if the person you are calling is eons beyond you in the professional sphere, you can still help them. You can try our their product or service as a user, beta test something, tweet about how great they are, drive traffic to their blog, buy their book, copyedit, any number of things. Everyone can learn something from someone else.