Connor BrookeTwitter Strategy Insights
A large part of what we do over here at IMA revolves around the world of social media. Unless your internet is still running on AOL dial up speeds (remember that sound?), you know that social media is huge. That said, there are definitely good ways to do social media and some really bad ways.
Here’s my experience from a few days ago:
I have a friend on twitter who tweeted about how she was mad at Comcast. It was a fair tweet with no expletives or foulness. She did what any good social media user does and she used the @ sign to make sure that @comcast understood her frustration. Like this:
I am so mad at @comcast right now. What a rip off.
— Jessica Henderson (@JessicaHasHeart) October 1, 2013
The Bad
@comcast did not respond. As you probably figured out, this falls into the bad category because they didn’t do anything to fix the problem. As many smart people have said:
Not responding to a customer in social media is like hanging up the phone on them. With millions watching.
— Dave Kerpen (@DaveKerpen) May 18, 2013
The reasons (as if you needed them) why this is so bad are:
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You just showed a lot of people that you don’t care about your customers
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Your customers think that you’re not on social media (missed opportunity)
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Customers will now engage in conversation without you
But most importantly (in this case)…
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You open the door for someone else to swoop in.
Back to my story. So after my friend tweeted about how much she hated Comcast I responded. My parents have had issues with Comcast in the past and I’ve generally not been a fan of their customer service in the past. So I tweeted:
“@JessicaHasHeart: I am so mad at @comcast right now. What a rip off.” seriously some of the worst customer service.
— Jordan P White (@jordanpwhite) October 1, 2013
The Good
Once again, no response by @comcast, but then something funny happened. Just as my friend and I were wallowing in our cable misery, a hero came swooping to our social media rescue!
@JORDANPWHITE Come to DIRECTV. Get more, pay less. I’ve helped many people in similar situations. I can assist you as well. Care to chat?
— DIRECTV Eunice (@DIRECTV_Eunice) October 1, 2013
Wow, talk about a brand that understand how to use social media.
Here’s what makes DirecTV’s response so great:
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They seized the moment their competitor missed
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A disgruntled competitor’s customer just turned into a lead for their company
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A conversation was started that allowed us to engage in a dialogue
But they even took it a step further:
@DIRECTV_Eunice no thanks. but well played.
— Jordan P White (@jordanpwhite) October 1, 2013
@JORDANPWHITE Thanks for responding. If you change your mind please do not hesitate to contact me. Have a great day!
— DIRECTV Eunice (@DIRECTV_Eunice) October 1, 2013
Key Takeaways
- It was Easy – If you’ll notice, the response tweets really weren’t that personal. They were definitely part of a copy/paste job where users monitor the bad mentions of @comcast.
- But do you think I care? No! – It was still more engaging than their competitors and I doubt it took more than 1 minute to do. Where else can you get that level of engagement in a minute?
- It Worked – What’s so great about this example is that one company found a way to take their competitor’s customer complaints and turn them into a step towards their brand loyalty. Inbound marketing is all about meeting people where they want to be met. Social media is one such venue.
If you don’t respond on social media, you’re ignoring your customer’s requests to connect with you. And further, if you’re not reaching out in creative ways like this then you’re missing a huge portion of the population.
Now go connect with someone on Twitter! Heck, it could even be me: @jordanpwhite.
image credit: bplanet/freedigitalphotos.net
This article was written for Business 2 Community by Connor Brooke.
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Jordan – I work for Comcast. I just wanted to let you know that @ComcastOrlando responded to @JessicaHasHeart within 30 minutes on October 1st. If @JessicaHasHeart is still in need of assistance, we are here to help.
ComcastMark
Comcast Corp.
National Customer Operations
[email protected]
Here is an interesting one for you. What if the lack of support comes from Twitter themselves!? I’m currently running a little study with @Twitter @Support trying to get them to advise me what is the ratio they use to allow you to follow more than 2,000 people (following). It’s been 9 days and no response on their side. I’m sending a daily reminder. I have over 1,750 followers, based on that ratio, I would certainly hope that I should be able to continue and engage our social media audience. Social Media is about sharing socially. If someone follows me, I’d like to follow them back. What are your thoughts?