How Do You Connect?
Marketing to Build Relationships
RSS Feed
Comcast-ing a wide net
Posted by Imagination Blogger on July 29, 2008
One of the primary concerns major corporations and brands have about the ‘whole social media thing,’ is that it gives an incredible amount of power to the consumer.
Armed with nothing more than a workstation and a cause, Joe Schmoe can unravel decades of careful brand management with a well-placed diatribe on poor customer service or faulty parts.
But that may be about to change…
The New York Times published this article on the novel approach Comcast, the cable company, is using to address negative experiences customers have had with the company.
Instead of ignoring the criticism, Comcast has decided to go on the hunt for disenfranchised customers in order to help them with their Comcast-related problems.
Taken at face value, this is a huge moment. Previously, major corporations could do little but cross their fingers and hope that negative reactions to their products and services didn’t get too much coverage. But Comcast’s approach offers an alternative.
Instead of waiting for the hammer to fall, corporations can reach out to their customers and ask them a simple question: Can I help you?
This is not only a new level of corporate social marketing, I also think it’s a great way to do business—provided there are some boundaries.
As one of the sources in the story said, hearing from the company made her temper her message and approach. She turned down the volume on her complaints when she knew the company was ‘listening.’ While this is good for the company, is it good for the social media landscape in general? At first glance it seems like uninvited attention from corporations intent on preserving the integrity of their brands could have a ‘chilling effect’ on customers and bloggers. I’m confident that this won’t be the case, but what do you think?
Tagged with: brand management, customer service, social media, web 2.0
Possibly related posts:
Comment
How Imagination Connects
Imagination is the leader in content-driven relationship marketing. We’ll engage your clients, members, employees or prospects with the right content delivered the right way: print or digital, audio or video, podcasts, webcasts, blogs or email, magazines or digimags. Here we explore how to do all of these things better.
Monthly Archive
Imagination Blogs
How Do You Connect?
Marketing to Build Relationships
Blog Archive
Browse the Cloud
abm ad advertisement advertising apple asae association association publishing associations awards b2b batman battlefield bebo blog blogging blogs bluetooth bmw brand branding brand management c-level cell phones change chick-fil-a circulation civil war commercial commercials community competition content context conversation copy copycat bud caddell custom customer service customer touchpoints custom publishing dancing data digital digital media discount disney excel excellence executives facebook fear firewalls folio forward gettysburg goodwill marketing graphics hulu ibm iida imagination journalism leadership mad men magazines magnum opus mailbox members marketing martial arts media member experience message movies msci newspapers nfl nielson orkut perspective pharmaceutical photos pmi pmp passport professional membership organizations projections publishers publishing re-branding redesign relevance representation sales search site small business social media social networking steve jobs streamgraph superhero technology teens teen research online offline television text tivo tweets twitter value visual vlogging web web 2.0 web 3.0 webaward webcast web marketing association website websites wells fargo wonderlic xanga youtube zappos
