Social Media: The Next Customer Service?
By Benjamin Blascoe
I was in San Francisco this past Wednesday at a social media conference put on by Dealmaker Media. The conference was dubbed Strategy Series: Mobile Apps and Twitter, Killer Channels or Just Time Killers – and with good reason. As more and more social media tools become active in digital land, there are more and more distractions. But only if you allow yourself to be distracted….
One of the main talking points of this conference was considering these ‘distractions’ to be beneficial. Social media is like a sporting event where everyone plays, so everything people say, blog, tweet, update, etc. all has a purpose or condition. So why not join the conversation and actively listen, respond and become involved in the various streams that suit your purpose. This way, social media moves away from information and becomes conversation.
Social media has the revolutionary ability to level the playing field – give ‘Joe the Plummer’ as much credibility as a CNN reporter. In the past, the news and information have always been handed down but social media is the first tool that the audience essentially writes for itself. And for that particular reason it is changing the game.
At the conference, Robert Gelick, VP of CBS Mobile, alluded to the fact that he often listens to what people are saying about his competitors as well as his own company. From the ‘life guard chair’ approach Gelick and his team are truly able to best assess the climate around their community using comments made on blogs, tweets and discussions on their various forums.
You may have heard about how Comcast has literally revolutionized their customer service through this methodology…
Even Richard Jalichandra, President and CEO of Technorati, agrees in full. He spoke of the countless individuals who use social media to strictly advertise and promote to the fullest – which in the end only gets them ignored.
And that is what makes social media extremely exciting, because it is changing the game on multiple levels. Although the days of big-billboard advertising are still alive and well, social media has created an environment where flash, smoke and mirrors are not effective. People want to be able to touch the people that affect their lives so being one tweet away from @shaizstern or @richardbranson is a good feeling.
How does your company use social media? How do you use it personally?
