Are you kicking back watching cable — or are you learning about effective social media marketing from the cable company that does it right? Comcast cares about connecting with their customers and keeping them happy by any means. They have proved it with a well-known and highly successful social media campaign on Twitter called — what else — Comcast Cares.
Some years back their clients were defecting to competitors over customer service indifference and a host of other problems. The Twitter initiative was launched to allow customers to communicate directly and feel heard immediately. Comcast has seen a huge reduction in complaints since the implementation of this program, along with an increase in customer appreciation and even in their “street cred”. After all, how many national corporations will bother to tweet you back and help you solve a problem with their product or service?
I think they could have just as accurately called their Twitter program “Comcast’s Cool!”
But why Twitter?
According to Bill Gerth, (also known as Comcast Bill, but probably not by his mother) “…people have different preferences for how they like to communicate, and being in the social media space gives us a way to reach our customers who use that space.”
This brings up a point that I stress repeatedly in my internet marketing keynotes, trainings, and in my social media marketing book, Thumbonomics: the Essential Business Roadmap for Social Media and Mobile Marketing. These days, people like to find out information and communicate in a host of new ways, and the savvy marketer will enable their product or service to be found on all of them!
Bill Gerth goes on to add, “In addition, sites like Twitter give us a great real-time view into what’s happening and what people are thinking.” Do you want to wait until something blows up to handle it, or would you rather keep up with customer issues, reputation issues, and any mentions of your business online — as they happen?
If you check out @comcastcares on Twitter, you’ll see Bill communicating directly with Comcast users who are experiencing any kind of trouble with their service. Notice that Comcast is really doing Twitter “right” by using one person, Bill, as the “face” of their company on Twitter. Instead of a faceless corporate logo, their Twitter page has Bill’s face. Why? Because people want to interact with other people, not nameless, impersonal entities… hence, “social media.”
This one personal aspect can mean the difference between success and failure of your company’s social efforts.
Says Bill, “Providing customer service via social media is just one of the ways we’re working to improve the customer experience, and it’s really a win-win for our customers and for us.”
This successful social media campaign illustrates just one way a corporate giant stays relevant by embracing new ideas and changing with the times, or should I say changing with their customers’ preferences. The rest of Comcast’s social marketing is also excellent, including their blog and their Facebook page. I recommend taking a look at what they are doing, with an eye out toward places your company can meet people where they’re at via social media as well.
For more of the interview with Comcast Bill and other tips on “doing Twitter right” check out Thumbonomics, available at Amazon.com.
Heather Lutze Author, Internet Marketing Speaker and Consultant