Last Friday, I flew from San Francisco to Seattle to celebrate my mom’s 85^th birthday with her.  She’s got quite a sweet tooth and a distinct fondness for chocolate cake, but packing a cake into your carry-on isn’t exactly the easiest thing to do so I decided instead to rely on her favorite restaurant to insert a candle in her dessert.

Upon landing in Seattle-Tacoma Airport, I pulled out my BlackBerry and mindlessly Tweeted about our arrival and the plan to celebrate with my mom.  I immediately got a Tweet back from @odettedaniello with a link to her bakery, Celebrity Cake Studio.

I had not heard of Celebrity Cake Studio before and wasn’t planning on buying a birthday cake in Tacoma, but Odette’s Tweet made me realize that Twitter can serendipitously answer your requests – even when you weren’t really expecting an answer.

I ended up tweeting with her and arrived at her studio the next day to purchase my mom’s cake.  My mom was chuffed at the delicious three-layer chocolate cake with chocolate mousse filling and I was thrilled to support a local Tacoma business.  With a simple Tweet, Odette alerted me to her business, lured me in with her concise and enthusiastic messages, and got a new customer for life.  New business was as easy as writing about a piece of cake!

I use TweetDeck to monitor various key phrases and our client names so I always know when they are subjects of discussion.  It keeps me posted on sentiments, news and rumors in real-time.  For anyone conducting business on Twitter, I recommend you search for key phrases relevant to your business and monitor these search queries for messages of praise, concern and/or need.  It provides a direct line to current and future customers and provides a wonderful channel of dialogue.

And if you’re in Tacoma and need a great cake, please do visit Odette and say hi.