Wednesday, January 28, 2009

Putting Twitter to Work

A lot of business owners and corporate communications pros are wondering how to put new media to work for their organizations. Blogs, Wikis, Facebook, MySpace, YouTube, Twitter.... It seems to be a never ending list. Business owners wonder whether social media is just a big time suck or a way to truly boost productivity and make money. Should employees be allowed to become true brand ambassadors as they communicate with customers publicly or do I need to continue to control the message on a corporate level? These are fair questions at this point, although with a cohesive plan and strategy it is possible for a company to become a part of the communities new media creates, and utilize the flexibility and interactivity of social media to better tell your story.

At Jackson Spalding, we are advising a lot of clients on new media strategy, and part of the challenge is that the applications and potential solutions are diverse, and vary with the business. So every solution has to be custom built and resources have to be dedicated to implementing new media, and keeping the content fresh.

Earlier today, a colleague pointed me to a great example of a company utilizing new media. Believe it or not it is cable provider Comcast, which has improved customer service and generated buzz -- and a sense of community -- in an industry known for disappointing consumers. All it took was an enterprising customer service manager -- get the story here. Pretty cool idea that could be applicable to organizations with a lot of Gen Y constituents. A certain institution adjacent to downtown Athens comes to mind....

3 comments:

Scott H. said...

The Grit?

Brian said...

Here is the latest bad service story on the Grit. http://www.athensworld.com/2009/01/grit-nazi.html

As a Grit neighbor, I love their food, but they sure don't like to serve folks who don't fit their normal demographic.

Lizzie Azzolino said...

You ARE hopping on the Twitter bandwagon! :)

Another model to follow is Zappos: http://twitter.com/zappos.

P.S. And they are unappreciative of to-go orders. (re: The Grit)