Before this class, I never tweeted or blogged or read anyone else’s tweets or blogs. So, any opinions I have are going to be fairly superficial, but here is what I gathered.
In the business world, it seems to me that this way of communicating is attractive because it is fast and fosters trust between individual and companies.
Ten years ago, if someone had a complaint about a product or service, he or she probably had one of two options:
a. Write a letter and send it snail mail, which would probably take about a week. Once the letter got to the already overflowing mailroom, someone may or may not look at it. Generally, a response will come as a form letter.
b. Call. You could place a call to a company and quite possibly wait ten, twenty or thirty minutes and still be on hold.
In either case, customers do not really feel as though they are being listened to.
Then, we had email which could take a day or sometimes more.
Today, companies have numerous social networking sites like Twitter that respond almost instantly to customers needs. And that is what customers want. People feel like they are dealing with real human beings and not just automated responses.
Likewise, blogs allow for people within a company to give users and customers a better sense of who they are dealing with. Blogs make a company more open and give it transparency which can translate into trust for many customers and clients. Bloggers can try to engage their customers with more in depth and personal information about their organization and help stimulate “word-of-mouth buzz” about a company, what they are doing or what new products they have to offer.
Because sites like Twitter and blogs are so popular, companies are being faced with new challenges. People want to feel a real connection with the places, spaces and products that they are investing their money in; and people expecting more and more from businesses. This calls for new skill sets, including the use of social media, in order for a company to be successful.
Amy,
ReplyDeleteLike you, I had never read a blog or a tweet before I was asked to for class at BC. Until MI621, i didn't even realize that people used twitter to complain or compliment a company because I was so limited in who i followed and what i did on twitter, that I didn't evne look beyond it to see what other people were doing. It is definitely much qiucker than mail, phone, and even email, now that companies tend to have someone monitoring the twitter feed. I agree that blogs make companies more transparent and give their customers a reason to trust them when they are willingly sharing information. I also agree that people don't want an automated response. We are social beings and would rather be interacting with another real person to get our needs met. So, that being said, you make a good point that companies when hiring employees must look for new skill sets in people that undoubtedly involve knowledge of social media platforms and how to leverage them to benefit the business
I also think that blogs are expected to be "conversational" and meandering, thoughtful as opposed to well-thought-out. Following the CEO of a company as s/he blogs would be quite a different experience than reading his or her press releases and official communications (with the exception of Steve Jobs' "thoughts on flash" and his plea to make the iTunes store DRM-free, etc. Come to think of it, though, those are really just "blogless" blog entries.). Anyway, this conversational style lets readers understand people at the company on a more human level, reveals their thought process more organically, shows the path to decision-making that the company takes. So there are no surprises, really, when they come out with a new product or change direction. What did you expect? They have been blogging about it for months!
ReplyDeleteI agree with you that people expect more from businesses since, as Shel Israel phrases it in "Twitterville" we've moved from the Broadcast Age into the Conversational Age. People now want to have relationships with the companies they invest in and the brands they show loyalty to. (I wonder whether there is in fact a correlation between customer loyalty and a company's successful adoption of social media.) I think that the companies that are able to provide valuable service in an honest, person-to-person way are the ones that will succeed. This is something that we currently see with those independent retailers able to hold on in a market full of big box chains.
ReplyDeleteI agree that Twitter makes it a lot easier to give/receive feedback and this is what customers need. We live in such a world of instant gratification, if I have to wait on the phone with say Comcast (don't get me started on how many times I've had to do that) I will be extremely annoyed if its more than 5 minutes. No exception, and there's always the possibility I'll be interrupted during this time and have nothing to show for calling and waiting.
ReplyDeleteFor me, Twitter and social media are kind of "set it, and forget it." If I complain about them, they will/should reach out to me and I will feel a lot less frustration towards them as a result. If they don't I'll just keep complaining about them and get my satisfaction that way. So basically, it pays for them to be on top of the social media game way more so than mail or phone which other customers won't necessarily see the result of.