Comcast Cares. At least that’s what one of Comcast’s many Twitter accounts will tell you if you happen to mention their name in one of your tweets.
Businesses everywhere are jumping on to the ever-expanding social networking bandwagon, and with very good reason.
Specialized computer programs can track everything being said about a company through websites like Twitter and Facebook. Many companies are hiring people specifically to track these comments and respond appropriately.
It certainly adds a human element that people often don’t get from large corporations, now that without even having to make a phone call, you can be talking one-on-one with a representative.
Comcast’s Frank Eliason started using Twitter to respond to customers in 2008. A BusinessWeek article published in 2009 chronicles Eliason’s day at the company – reading and responding to the disgruntled customers on Twitter. The company even takes it a step further, allowing Twitter representatives to have the same abilities as a phone representative would, such as checking conditions and scheduling service appointments.
Other businesses use Twitter to casually and unofficially have conversations with their fans. If you tweet @PopeyesChicken, you’ll find all kinds of tweets about their “bonafide” fried chicken, and @FamilyFeud represents the TV game show, and loves to re-tweet what game show fans all over are saying.
Is it worth it? When companies actually put the effort in to interacting with their audience, definitely. Unfortunately, most just set up a Twitter or Facebook account to post news about their own business without ever checking or responding to posts and comments.
It’s important for companies to regularly monitor and respond to feedback in a timely manner. Comcast "cares" and your brand can too.
Jake Hamilton is an Intern at Firebelly Marketing. He is a Media Arts & Science major at Indiana University.
I spent some time evaluating sentiment towards BP on Facebook based on the number of 'pro' and 'con' pages. It's not surprising to find that there are significantly more anti-BP pages on Facebook in wake of the Gulf of Mexico oil disaster. The largest 'con' page, Boycott BP, has nearly 200 times more fans than the largest 'pro' page, BP America.
These numbers are constantly changing. The 'con' numbers continue increasing rapidly and I've seen a slower decrease in the 'pro' numbers (they're not very high to begin with).
Chad Richards is the Social Program Manager at Firebelly Marketing. Find him on Facebook | Twitter | LinkedIn
Several of our clients came to Firebelly after having negative experiences with a wide variety the "social media gurus" out there. Today's YouTube Tuesday video gave me a good laugh and reminds me of some of the things they said they were told. I love the line, "No one knows how to handle your customers like a total stranger working for $6 an hour." Do not call this guy!
[Video URL: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=5mdWm_6V6To]
Chad Richards is the Social Program Manager at Firebelly Marketing. Find him on Facebook | Twitter | LinkedIn
Why is it important to avoid putting all of your social marketing eggs in one basket? How easy is it make your blog or website mobile friendly? Can you really send grandma a printed newsletter of your Facebook updates? Find out below in this week’s 5 social media stories I wouldn’t want you to miss:
1. A Closer Look at Twitter’s Latest Features for Businesses
By Adam Ostrow Later this year, Twitter is expected to release a variety of features for business users, some of which have already been enabled for testing on a number of accounts. Recently, we were able to get an early look at some of the tools, and in turn have some ideas about how they might eventually be utilized by small businesses.
Firebelly Memo: I think businesses can expect to see more feedback from people on Twitter when businesses will be able to receive direct messages from people they don’t even follow. Publicly “@-replying” may be holding a lot of people back from interaction as many may prefer to voice their complaints or feedback privately.
2. WordPress Plugins to Make Your Blog Mobile Friendly
By Rohit Due to the advances in mobile technology, now a days almost all the mobile phones are equipped with Internet surfing capabilities. And mobile internet is an important channel to reach blogs, especially for popular ones. Instead of making mobile web sites, it is easy to change web interface into mobile. Many phones have flooded the market at affordable prices that help you to browse the net with ease.
Firebelly Memo:It’s important that you make you blog, or website built on the WordPress platform, accessible to the increasing number of people who surf the web on mobile devices.
3. Don’t Fall in Love with One Social Media Platform
By Liana “Li” Evans With today’s featured Don’t Fall in Love chapter, I take a look at why you should really bank your entire social media strategy on one particular platform. Falling in love with just one social media community can be very limiting to your strategy and the type of engagement you are looking to implement. A lot of times, just because you love a particular platform or community and feel comfortable there, doesn’t mean that your customers or audience is there.
Firebelly Memo: The old cliche of “don’t put all your eggs in one basket” really is true and applies to your social marketing strategy as well.
4. Send your Facebook Updates to Grandma via Post
By Amit Agarwal There’s an interesting Facebook service called PostEgram that will automatically create full-colored printed newsletters of your status updates and your Facebook photos and it will send them to your loved ones via post. It works something like this. You authorize the app with Facebook Connect so that it can access your pictures and status updates. Then select profiles of your Facebook contacts who you want to include in the newsletter. Finally, pay via PayPal and you are done.
Firebelly Memo: This one is just for fun. It’s kind of an interesting services, but more and more grandmas are joining Facebook so I don’t know how successful it will be.
5. How to Convert Your Facebook Superfans Into Brand Ambassadors
By Aliza Sherman This week, I’m going to discuss how to harness the passion of the superfan in order to convert them into an ambassador for your brand. Once we had identified the superfans — the Facebook fans who not only liked a brand’s page but also participated and interacted with others on the page and even came back on a daily or near daily basis — we knew we had to do something more.
Firebelly Memo: Take the time to identify, approach and engage those people most active on your Facebook page. They may become your brand’s best friend.
Have a great weekend everyone!
[Image: daskar]
Chad Richards is the Social Program Manager at Firebelly Marketing. Find him on Facebook | Twitter | LinkedIn
UPDATE: Facebook appears to have reverted back to the original permissions – making landing tabs available for all Pages. No word yet on if this change is permanent. The tips below are still valuable regardless.
Facebook surprised, and upset, a lot of people yesterday when they announced that now only "Authenticated Pages" or Pages with over 10,000 fans can have a custom landing tab. Not good news for individuals and small businesses who may have a hard time reaching 10,000 fans and don't have the money to become "authenticated."
Those individuals and small businesses can still have custom FBML tabs, but they will not be able to configure them as the first tab new visitors land on when going to their Facebook Page. These landing tabs often contain a video greeting or a special promotion that the Page admins would like people to see before hitting the Wall.
What's an easy way to still get people to your landing tab?
Make the most out of your profile photo space! Include a call to action on it that directs people to the tab you want visitors to see. It can be simple as saying "Click on the Sweepstakes tab to enter" or "Watch our video greeting on the Welcome tab."
Below is an example of a profile photo directing people to a desired tab that we created for a client during a sweepstakes they were running:
I realize it's a bit hard to read at this size, but the top half of the graphic is dedicated to their promotion and under the pinata, it says "Click the Sweepstakes tab to enter."
Another tip:
Each FBML tab has a unique URL. If you're sending people to your Facebook Page from email or Twitter, link to the specific tab you want them to land on!
Chad Richards is the Social Program Manager at Firebelly Marketing. Find him on Facebook | Twitter | LinkedIn
In Part 3 of Duncan’s video interview with Danny Sullivan, Search Engine Land Editor-in-Chief, Danny discusses the future of real-time search.
Watch Part 1 of their interview about The Essence of Search and Part 2 about Vertical Search & Video.
