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Social media isn't a channel: Ad-driven program by AT&T

Posted by Bob Brin on April 21, 2009 at 6:59 AM

I like the spirit of AT&T's "Investing in America" with its etch-a-sketch illustration and story-telling based on how people are getting through these tough economic times. But the company isn't getting that social media is more than a channel for messaging.

The site links you to a Twitter presence, and a Facebook site, which provide a mish-mash-up of product and sponsorship plugs and attempts by the company to get people talking about how they're helping others.

As you might expect, the dialog is being overtaken by customers and former employees wanting better service and fair treatment of workers.

AT&T doesn't appear to be picking up on the calls.

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Nice piece (and comments) on social media monitoring from RWW

Posted by Matt Kucharski on April 16, 2009 at 11:51 AM

This is a really nicely done article (including a mention of our friend Jason Falls) on social media monitoring from the folks at Read Write Web. A bonus are the really insightful comments. These tools give us a better opportunity than ever to "listen" to the conversations that our target audiences are having, but there's definitely still a lot of fragmentation. Start small, and grow as you can. Listening a little bit is better than not listening at all.

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Susan Boyle should be on everyone's "Most Beautiful People" list

Posted by Matt Kucharski on April 14, 2009 at 1:47 PM

Lots of Tweets and blog entries these past few days about Susan Boyle's audition on British reality TV. Rather than attempting to turn this into some broader lesson on personal branding or packaging, I'd just encourage you to watch the video. You won't get a better lesson in humility than this. This is truly something worth watching -- and sharing.

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People ... not audiences

Posted by Tony Morse on April 14, 2009 at 11:46 AM

Is it me or is "social media" almost the "e-commerce" of the late 90's ... everyone's talking about it, regardless of their industry, profession or even generation (yes, my mother was asking about Twitter a couple weeks ago). People everywhere are calling themselves gurus and the younger generations seem to be the go-to people for understanding the technology (tools) and how to use them.

But wait! Deirdre Breakenridge and Brian Solis, in their recent book Putting the Public Back in Public Relations: How Social Media is Reinventing the Aging Business of PR, remind us that "Social Media is not just a new tool in the marketing belt. It is a new opportunity to engage customers and cultivate relationships." We're living the shift in how companies communicate with and engage their audiences ... in fact, Breakenridge and Solis urge us to purge the word 'audience' from our vocabulary and focus on PEOPLE.

Should it surprise us that firms are hiring anthropologists if, as Breakenridge and Solis suggest, "PR is evolving into a hybrid of communications, evangelism, and Web marketing, strung together by the teachings and benefits of sociology, anthropology, and psychology"? I guess not.

As communications professionals, our job is NOT to just learn the technologies, but to adapt to the changes in how people interact, gather information, make decisions ... and relate these changes back to the programs we construct with our clients. At Padilla, I'm grateful we have our SMERFs (Social Media Elite Response Force) to keep on top of the trends and tools ... the rest of us need only to think in terms of conversations and people; rather than messages and audiences.

So ... go forth and be human. Participate with people. Be social and ignore the tools....

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Are You Listening? Twitter Can Help. Ask SkyMall...

Posted by Matt Kucharski on April 3, 2009 at 3:47 PM

I had one of those "bad experience turns into a good experience moments" this week involving SkyMall. They can thank Twitter for keeping me as a customer. Here's the scoop:

After reading about this nifty roll-out vinyl garage floor in the catalog on the plane (had to put away the Kindle because we were landing), I went online and placed an order, but 5 minutes later I had buyers remorse. Let's just say my "spouse-meter" kicked in. The Web site didn't have any easy place to cancel online. Calls to customer service didn't help -- they basically told me that I had to wait until the order was processed. My problem was I wanted the order UN-processed.

I did what every unhappy customer does. I bitched. On Twitter. To a few hundred of my closest friends. A Tweeter representing SkyMall named Shea Beck DM'd me (if you don't know what that is, go sign up for Twitter), asked how he could help, and ultimately directed me to a customer service person who is working with me to resolve the issue. This wasn't an accident. Shea's job is to monitor the net (and thus Twitter) for anything and everything related to SkyMall. In doing so, he saved a customer.

So, my question to you is this -- are you using Social Media to listen to your customers -- and are you responding?

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