Week 1 :: Communication and Social Media

Through the years I have had a couple of occasions where I was very unhappy with a particular company. Beginning with Customer Service I had to work my way up through their chain of command until I was able to talk to someone who would 1. listen and 2. solve the problem.

Today it’s not that easy.  With the exception of a few companies, I don’t think businesses care about customer service as much as they used to and it has, often times, been my experience that the employees representing the companies don’t care that much either.

I have never used social media but I have heard stories about people using negative comments on their Facebook page, or Twitter for example to generate attention to a problem. It seems to work, rather than have all the adverse press the company will respond by fixing the problem.  And the opposite seems to be true as well. When there is a crisis people can generate a tremendous response using social media.

My observation of social media is that you can reach large numbers of people in a very short amount of time and businesses know this and will react.

So much to learn

Good morning!

I’ve done all the reading and I must admit to feeling a little overwhelmed. I have not worked with social media at all, with the exception of a very little time on Instagram. (And I think I mentioned somewhere that wasn't a very good learning experience for me.)

In the reading a couple of ideas presented were,

1. that we all spend a lot of time online and that businesses should join in;
2. that businesses should go where their market is, see #1;
3. and social media focuses on building relationships and that’s what businesses, especially small businesses, need to do.

I imagine that blogs, podcasts, online video and social networks, for example, Facebook, Twitter and LinkedIn, would all be great tools for small businesses to introduce themselves and what service or products they are offering. Some industries would probably create more of an impact with a large visual presence, while others would be better able to spread their message via written word.

Blogs, social networks, and photo sharing sites like Facebook, Twitter, Instagram and Pinterest, would be fun tools to use to keep in touch with family and friends.

I looked at several large business websites and took a little poll of all the online sharing links they used on their websites, Facebook and Twitter were tied for first place and YouTube was a very close second.

My guess would be that most online media would work to market a business if you put the time and effort into it.