"Get Satisfaction" is a really interesting company to watch. It demonstrates the power of social media for customer service, and today they announced some new investors. The service is customer driven, and there are now 12,000 companies participating.
The concept? If a company is not reacting quickly to a customer complaint posted on its own site, the irritated consumer can start a page at Get Satisfaction to complain. Get Satisfaction gives the company a chance to respond, but it lets other users participate too. This lets customers go around a company that might be stalling or not responding properly. In many cases, the crowds force the company to reply. In fact, some companies find Get Satisfaction so useful they use it as their own customer service page. They also have an "Overheard" feature on Twitter so that their corporate customers can track customer complaints in real time. Overhead works by monitoring Summize, the conversation topic search tool recently acquired by Twitter.
The service is used by 1.5 million customers each month, and is a very low cost, effective way to provide customer service. Adobe, Apple, Dell, Whole Foods - the list of companies on Get Satisfaction is endless. This is a great way to crowdsource customer care. Customers are happy because they get answers and VIP help, companies are happy because it is a direct, high impact way to provide service.
Tuesday, February 17, 2009
Monday, February 16, 2009
FanFiction?
This is a post written by my 15 year old daughter. She and her twin sister have been doing creative collaborative writing online for years, and always use characters from existing books or movies, but I didn't know the trend had a name! How did I miss this?
Her opinion below - the state of social media -
People of different ages tend to use the Internet and social media for different reasons. For the older generation it is for business, communication, and negotiations, but the most popular reason among the younger set is entertainment.
MySpace popularized social media among teenagers. It was huge for two years or so until Facebook was introduced, which was both safer and more convenient. MySpace is a dinosaur now, whereas it is hard to find someone--teenager and adult alike--who does not have a Facebook. However, the golden age of Facebook is starting to fade, and Twitter is beginning to take over. Twitter doesn’t have many features though, so for now Facebook is far better for overall communication. Twitter is oriented toward self-expression.
Self-expression is the other popular reason for the use of social media among teens. Although some people post things such as poetry and photography on their Facebook or Myspace pages, most people my age prefer to remain anonymous when it comes to posting outside of Facebook, and so they do it with screen names on sites that are more specialized. Sites such as DeviantArt are popular, and blogging sites such as Livejournal and Xanga (though Xanga is a dinosaur at this point too) are very popular for self-expression, and people can post their artwork and journal entries with options to share it either with the whole world or exclusively with their friends.
Another fad is FanFiction, in which people write stories and scripts using characters from their favorite TV shows, movies, or books. FanFiction is mostly posted on sites such as Livejournal and FanFiction.net.
Different sites become popular every year, and like fashion trends, what is cool one month may be embarrassingly obsolete the next.
Her opinion below - the state of social media -
People of different ages tend to use the Internet and social media for different reasons. For the older generation it is for business, communication, and negotiations, but the most popular reason among the younger set is entertainment.
MySpace popularized social media among teenagers. It was huge for two years or so until Facebook was introduced, which was both safer and more convenient. MySpace is a dinosaur now, whereas it is hard to find someone--teenager and adult alike--who does not have a Facebook. However, the golden age of Facebook is starting to fade, and Twitter is beginning to take over. Twitter doesn’t have many features though, so for now Facebook is far better for overall communication. Twitter is oriented toward self-expression.
Self-expression is the other popular reason for the use of social media among teens. Although some people post things such as poetry and photography on their Facebook or Myspace pages, most people my age prefer to remain anonymous when it comes to posting outside of Facebook, and so they do it with screen names on sites that are more specialized. Sites such as DeviantArt are popular, and blogging sites such as Livejournal and Xanga (though Xanga is a dinosaur at this point too) are very popular for self-expression, and people can post their artwork and journal entries with options to share it either with the whole world or exclusively with their friends.
Another fad is FanFiction, in which people write stories and scripts using characters from their favorite TV shows, movies, or books. FanFiction is mostly posted on sites such as Livejournal and FanFiction.net.
Different sites become popular every year, and like fashion trends, what is cool one month may be embarrassingly obsolete the next.
Thursday, February 12, 2009
Less Than 25 Random Things
Lots of things to catch up on, so I'm going to be brief with each topic.
- Favorite new iPhone app = Feeds. It's a free app that syncs Google Reader with all of its regular functionality (sharing, making favorites). Also integrates with Instapaper. I never use Instapaper, in most places I have good 3G coverage if not WiFi so don't really need it. I've heard other people rave about it.
- What is going on with the Facebook boom? @HowardLindzon says it's because misery loves company. He calculates a direct correlation between unemployment and Facebook growth. Could be. The growth I see is in my unlikely middle aged friends. Not tech or social media savvy, but they've discovered it's a great way to keep in touch with generations of friends using minimal effort. Suddenly there are 25 Random Things we know about people we haven't seen since high school.
- I haven't seen a Kindle 2 in the wild yet, but it was introduced this week. Some people love it, but it wouldn't be worth it for me. I admit to doing almost all of my reading online these days, like all information junkies. Google Reader is my Kindle. The books I read are for classes I'm taking. I'm reading "The Future of the Internet - And How to Stop It" for a Computer Ethics class. Worth reading. And it's available for the Kindle :)
- I had some frustrations with Bank of America this week, and after pressing one and two and speaking to people who were robot-like, twittered "Bank of America please help me!". They tweeted a reply with a request for my phone number, and I got a call from "from Ken Lewis, the CEO's office" at Bank of America. I was sure it was a joke, until they gave me the return phone number to call him back. They are doing a big Twitter PR effort (to combat other negative press we all know about) and fixed my issues very quickly. Twitter is the best way to solve customer service issues. I did the same with FiOS and after 3 pre-tweet visits (where the problem always returned the very next day), the tweet led to a high level support person who came to fix things. The problems never returned.
- The New York Times says we need a "New Internet". Interesting reading.
- Curious about the growth of the Mobile Monday group on Linked In. They seem to be adding 100 new members per week (a lot for a Linked In group). 3800 members so far.
- SlideRocket is terrific. I've been using it more and more, and think that unless you are a very talented PowerPoint artist, Sliderocket is everything you need.
- Another great cloud based application I've been using is LovelyCharts. This is something most people use Project for, but for a simple impressive flow chart, it is so much easier.
I don't think we need a New Internet. We've put so much time and energy into the old one.
- Favorite new iPhone app = Feeds. It's a free app that syncs Google Reader with all of its regular functionality (sharing, making favorites). Also integrates with Instapaper. I never use Instapaper, in most places I have good 3G coverage if not WiFi so don't really need it. I've heard other people rave about it.
- What is going on with the Facebook boom? @HowardLindzon says it's because misery loves company. He calculates a direct correlation between unemployment and Facebook growth. Could be. The growth I see is in my unlikely middle aged friends. Not tech or social media savvy, but they've discovered it's a great way to keep in touch with generations of friends using minimal effort. Suddenly there are 25 Random Things we know about people we haven't seen since high school.
- I haven't seen a Kindle 2 in the wild yet, but it was introduced this week. Some people love it, but it wouldn't be worth it for me. I admit to doing almost all of my reading online these days, like all information junkies. Google Reader is my Kindle. The books I read are for classes I'm taking. I'm reading "The Future of the Internet - And How to Stop It" for a Computer Ethics class. Worth reading. And it's available for the Kindle :)
- I had some frustrations with Bank of America this week, and after pressing one and two and speaking to people who were robot-like, twittered "Bank of America please help me!". They tweeted a reply with a request for my phone number, and I got a call from "from Ken Lewis, the CEO's office" at Bank of America. I was sure it was a joke, until they gave me the return phone number to call him back. They are doing a big Twitter PR effort (to combat other negative press we all know about) and fixed my issues very quickly. Twitter is the best way to solve customer service issues. I did the same with FiOS and after 3 pre-tweet visits (where the problem always returned the very next day), the tweet led to a high level support person who came to fix things. The problems never returned.
- The New York Times says we need a "New Internet". Interesting reading.
- Curious about the growth of the Mobile Monday group on Linked In. They seem to be adding 100 new members per week (a lot for a Linked In group). 3800 members so far.
- SlideRocket is terrific. I've been using it more and more, and think that unless you are a very talented PowerPoint artist, Sliderocket is everything you need.
- Another great cloud based application I've been using is LovelyCharts. This is something most people use Project for, but for a simple impressive flow chart, it is so much easier.
I don't think we need a New Internet. We've put so much time and energy into the old one.
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