Wednesday, November 10, 2010

What is a not a conversation is not social media

I spoke to Ben Parr recently about B2B social media and it got me thinking!!! This morning I woke up to ChrisBrogan's blog about conversation and innovation (not to mention the twinkies picture I saw before breakfast). I am hungrily looking to find ways on how companies engage with their customers using social media. If you are one, please read on and do share your comments.

I have used social media in several different ways in the past 3 years.

Many are for marketing, from events and sharing new products and features. That is useful but not a conversation!

While at Intuit I've done alpha testing of messages using Twitter to test what message worked, at what hour to what segment of audience. Audience reacted and we learned. Not a conversation still!

While at DEMO we built community on Facebook with a campaign called "Entrepreneur asks, VCs answer". Users posted questions and VCs answered on the Fan Page. It built community and followers but not a continued conversation.

Two weeks back we completed PayPalX Innovate conf and are still wowed by the engagement from our users and the echo of the excitement from our echo system. I loved the conversations, the passion and the real time speed of the echo by our partners, global customers and friends.

We had a dedicated team that had the joy of monitoring tweets and responding to users, listening, monitoring beyond our social media presence to scout all conversations and become part of them! We had a separate team that captured the excitement of the 2000 audience and brought videos, live ustream, Tweets, facebook, photos, blogs and tweeted everything out to Millions out there!

Now as we take a step back after Innovate I am looking to find how we can continue the monitoring daily to build that listening and social media conversation into our DNAs?

How can we go past social media being a job to making it a way of life to have daily conversation with our customers? Can we create processes to listen and metrics to track to see what works to course correct?

I know several brands that monitor Twitter to provide customer support:
1. Bank of America is my favorite example as they always respond and excel in their service using Twitter to go out of their way when I am looking for their ATM or reporting bugs on their mobile app or asking for their service.
2. BestBuy is known for it monitors in their CMO office monitoring all tweets.
3. Kodak is my favorite as they have transformed their business by listening to tweets and letting us name their products, offer deals and for quick support.
4. Intuit has an army of Tweeters listening and providing support and product info on all products. My favorite is @alisonatintuit

Do you know of companies/brands beyond CS that uses social media? I am hungrily looking for models here. I'll update here or write another blog summarizing my finding.

Which Product Managers use Social Media to listen to customer feedback to build products?
Which companies use social media with their suppliers?
Who all connect with their partners to extend their relationship across connected communities?

Let me know!!!

20 comments:

Anonymous said...

The ancient mens Jelly Watches were in actuality affluence watches beat alone by the wealthy. These timepieces, which aboriginal became accessible about the time of the Protestant Reformation, were ample and awkward by today's standards, and were beat on a alternation draped about the neck.

Mana said...

My client Meatheads Burgers and Fries are strongly committed to opening up all channels of conversation with customers. You can see it in their Twitter stream twitter.com/meatheadsburger and Facebook Facebook.com/meatheadsburgers.

Of course I'd lie if I said I had nothing to do with it. My company was hired by them to set up the strategy and structure and not only did we immediately start chatting with all customers but we have standards in place for how fast we respond. For example, if someone checks in on Foursquare we respond as soon as we are alerted (we have alerts set in place). If a customer has a concern, complaint or feedback we respond within one hour.

But all of this would not have been possible without the client understanding the value and being strongly committed to online conversation with customers.

Raela Drigger said...

Mana's client is a good model for businesses out there that are looking for ways to communicate with their customers. Keeping an open line of communication can help business owners find ways to improve their products and services.

www.encontactos.com said...

Hey, there is so much worthwhile info above!

ridsfhfhfhdfhh said...

Thank you for the great article I did enjoyed reading it, I will be sure to
bookmark your blog and definitely will come back from again.
I want to encourage that you continue your great job, have a good day

north london business oppotunities
london business group

Unknown said...

Incredibly hot pink was my favorite color, but you can find tonnes a lot more to select from.
The 17R is finest suited to staying at home, both sat on the desk or with your lap for the sofa whilst you juggle a brew in one hand and also a cat while in the other.Dell Inspiron 1464 Battery
Dell Inspiron 1564 Battery
Dell Inspiron 1300 battery

Unknown said...

The interchangeable lids remain readily available around the new model, letting you change the colour scheme as your state of mind sees in shape. Apple MA561 Battery
Apple MacBook MA566 Battery Dell features many sound colors -- including the delightful very hot pink I observed -- together with lots of mad styles that easily click on into put. You pick a person if you invest in the 17R and also you can purchase far more separately.

Unknown said...

Apple MA561 Battery
The interchangeable lids remain readily available around the new model, letting you change the colour scheme as your state of mind sees in shape. Dell features many sound colors -- including the delightful very hot pink I observed -- together with lots of mad styles that easily click on into put. You pick a person if you invest in the 17R and also you can purchase far more separately.
Apple MacBook MA566 Battery

Unknown said...
This comment has been removed by the author.
Unknown said...

Thank you for the great article I did enjoyed reading it, I will be sure to
bookmark your blog and definitely will come back from again.
I want to encourage that you continue your great job dress up games girls
dress up for girls
fashion games

oil change coupons said...

I am very impressed with your views and interesting content. I hope you intend to continue writing more informational articles.
oil change coupons

jobs in nigeria said...

This is a good site… and this site looking so good. jobs in nigeria

interview essay said...

I'm sure they will head in the right direction here.
Check out http://www.bestcustomwriting.com/interview-essay
pusl 2653

Carmen Velarde said...

This is a very informative article.I was looking for these things and here I found it. Like the site < buy gold I am doing a project and this information is very useful me. I always try to find information and hopefully I found more about what I am looking for.
Thanks..

bedouin dubai desert said...

This is really good site and it's looking so nice bedouin dubai desert .

desert safari said...

this si perfect and decent site i like this so much but what i say more for this desert safari

Unknown said...

An ideal student can be every individual has respective duties to perform properly. custom essay writing service As a student can solved his problem properly and he knows every thing a man can be a good opportunity and he solved his problem.

Susan said...

We provide database services for your company as SQL Consulting firm and work as Remote DBA while performing the work only if needed, thus reducing your company unnecessary expenses. The first step in the process is Remote DBA SQL consulting. This ensures that your company's needs are identified and the necessary course of action is outlined.

Naim said...

Incredible post ! I am really getting prepared to over this data, is exceptionally useful my companion. Additionally awesome blog here with the majority of the profitable data you have. Keep doing awesome doing here. resume search engine

Peter said...

I liked your thought process on this article. It was very clear to me. your work on this article is appreciatable. Well done, Keep this work up. Now it's time to avail Live Chat Services for more information.