Tuesday, March 8, 2011

I Feel Better Now




   Poor Pig!  A sad victim of social media, as his on again/off again girlfriend breaks up with him...again.

     This time, she does it via Facebook, and Pig obviously misses that personal touch.  So she shows up in person to slam him...again.
     Stephan Pastis' Pearls Before Swine hits a mark many of us wonder about in this age of business and social media - what's happening to the "in person" touch?
     Is there a single person out there who hasn't been frustrated by automated answering?  "If you'd like customer service, press one."  *Press*  "If you'd like to speak to a sales rep, press two."  *Press*  "If you'd like to speak to a technician, press three."  *Press*  "If you'd like customer service, press one."  &*!*$#!!!  And so it goes.
     Don't lose the personal touch in your business social media.  Remember, you are not just sending a message to a phone number or an @ address or a # address.  You are sending it to a human being.  And they want to be treated like human beings.  Not like an extension of their smart phone.
Personalize your messages as often as you can.
     There.
     I feel better now.

Monday, March 7, 2011

Teaching An Old Dog New Tricks

     I found this to be a very interesting use of business social media.   Over the weekend I was having breakfast at one of my favorite hangouts.  Before leaving, I went in to wash my hands.  Now, this place has posters in its restroom advertising various bands playing hither and yon.  One of the posters, at the bottom, asked any viewers of the poster to take a twitter snap and send it to an address - not only for discount tickets, but also to be entered into a drawing for free tickets!
     So here we have the melding of print media in one of its absolute oldest forms - the poster broadside - and business social media.
     Who says you can't teach an old dog new tricks?