Social media success stories. September 17th, 9:13am. I put out a tweet using my personal account and it's pretty harmless. I say I'm going to be looking for some entry level folks interested in health policy/healthcare comms. That's all I wrote. I didn't include a link to a job posting. I just made the statement. September 17th, 1:08pm. I receive an email via Facebook from someone interested in the health policy role. It turns out that her friend follows me on Twitter, saw my tweet and told her about it. They go to this blog which is linked to my Twitter profile. They find a link to my Facebook account which is linked to on the blog. And then I received the email. And then I asked for her resume. September 21, 12pm. I did a phone interview with her. September 23, 12:30pm. She comes in for her first round of in-person interviews. And then a few more interviews a few days later. Then a final interview. And then I made an offer just a few days after that. She started working for APCO last week and we're all thrilled to have her on board. How 'bout them apples? Right? I tweeted something pretty harmlessly. They went to my blog to learn more. They then contacted me via Facebook. And then the wheels started turning. Twitter. Blog. Facebook. Oh, and one other detail about this story? Her friend was following me on Twitter because a recruiter at a competing company recommended that she follow me during an informational interview where she was asking about people in the industry to pay attention to for jobs. Read that again. Community matters. Networks matter. Relationships really matter. And - there was no cost to this hire except for the investment of time and effort I've made to be a good, contributing member of the social media community. That's it.