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Hillary Clinton Not Tweeting Yet, But is Embracing New Media

March 22, 2009 By

Although you won’t find Hillary Clinton sending out tweets yet on Twitter, “Clinton’s State Department has embarked on a digital diplomacy drive aimed at spreading the word about American foreign policy and restoring Washington’s image. Part of a broader Internet outreach by President Barack Obama’s administration, Clinton’s Web efforts already have outpaced those of her predecessors,” reported Matthew Lee, The Associated Press on March 21, 2009.

In Lee’s article “Hillary Clinton, e-diplomat, embraces new media” he writes how Clinton’s team has revamped the department’s Web site at www.state.gov and the Dipnote blog at http://blogs.state.gov and is sending out tweets at http://twitter.com/dipnote. In addition, interested citizens can keep up with her activities on Facebook, Twitter, Flickr and YouTube.

In the article, Lee quotes Cheryl Mills, Clinton’s chief of staff, “New media is critical in this new era of diplomacy, where smart power and expanded dialogues are essential to achieving our foreign policy goals.”

It can’t be long now before Secretary of State Clinton follows in her good friend Senator John McCain’s footsteps and starts sending out her own personal tweets. Wonder what she will take as her user name?

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Southwest Airlines Makes Flying Fun

March 20, 2009 By

How do you build customer loyalty? Southwest builds loyalty by making the safety instructions fun!

Filed Under: customer service Tagged With: , , ,

Vaporware Versus Creditability

March 19, 2009 By

Window
Creative Commons License photo credit: dynamosquito

For what seems like eons, many software companies have followed a common practice of announcing products or services that are not yet ready for the market in the hope of creating buzz for the company and or to secure a space for their product in the marketplace. These products are called vaporware.

Last week Forrester Research analyst Jeremiah Owyang discussed this growing trend in the social media space  in his Web-Strategy blog and warned,  “As a response, I’m going to start calling out vendors that do that. Why? it protects buyers from getting caught up in the hype of an announcement, flashy videos, and buzzword industry-changing definitions. I fill the space with enough buzzwords myself, there really isn’t any room left for vendors.”

In the past, before the Internet was alive with bloggers, the most a company risked in announcing vaporware was being ignored by the technology press. The technology press realizes an announcement without an analyst and a customer describing the benefits was at best premature.  But today, one of the worst things that can happen to a young company is to launch a product that does not exist and get called out on it. You not only risk alienating the reporter or blogger but everyone that does a search on you and your product.

Owyang provided his requirements for vendors as they launch, “On day of announcement they should be able to show a demo of their product. If it’s an enterprise product, or complicated, then show a video with it working. Consider using a customer reference or a test case to demonstrate how it’s been working in the past. I like what John Furrier said, that sometimes products are still getting the bugs worked out and that’s fine –but in any case, show that the product exists.”

I believe these guidelines could help establish creditability for any vendor launching a real product.  What do you think?

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Listening to Your Customer

March 15, 2009 By

Student and Teacher
Creative Commons License photo credit: Wonderlane

“There are still too few companies that make the most of their customer relationships, whether by gaining product and customer insight from customer feedback or by realizing the full revenue potential of their customers,” reported Jeremy Nedelka in the March 2, 2009 issue of 1 to 1 Weekly in the article “Turninig Customer Voices Into Revenue.”

In the article, Nedelka writes that according to a recent report by the CMO Council less than40 percent of companies collect customer feedback more than annually while the rest rely on customer satisfaction surveys and ignore tools available to them via the Web to listen to what their customers are saying.

By ignoring the conversations going on online via message boards, blogs and other social networking groups, marketers are missing a significant opportunity to understand their customers. And without an ongoing dialog, customers are left feeling that they do not have a good relationship with the company.

How are you listening to your customers’ conversations on the Web? How are you responding to your customers?

Filed Under: customer service Tagged With: , , , ,

Should Creative Cuts Rethink their Customer Strategy?

March 13, 2009 By

First Haircut
Creative Commons License photo credit: pawpaw67

My experience today at Creative Cuts got me thinking of the importance of delivering stellar customer service in today’s uncertain times. It was really quite simple—my local Creative Cuts outlet posted a sign notifying customers that after March 9, 2009 they would no longer be honoring their card that offers a free hair cut after the ninth paid hair cut. This offer is the reason I use Creative Cuts. I have a large family and it makes sense to me to forgo the fancier salons in order to get this benefit.

So, what is Creative Cuts strategy? I wondered as I sat in the chair why they were making this move. Yes, my hairstylist explained that business was down and many people were waiting longer between cuts. This made sense. But, it still did not make sense why Creative Cuts would take the coupon away. Won’t other customers begin to wonder which of Creative Cuts’ competitors are still offering coupons?

Apparently management did not read the March issue of 1 to 1 Magazine. Elizabeth Glagowski writes in “Retailers Look to Service Experience During Tough Times” :

Shoppers are scarce. But one bright spot is that the current economic situation is forcing many retailers to take action to improve the customer experience. Companies can’t afford to pay lip service to customer service anymore.

Glagowski explains:

It’s not about acquisition anymore. One-time discounts or store layouts won’t build customer loyalty. Companies have to improve both the shopping experience and customer service to keep customers coming back.

How are you ensuring that your customers are receiving the best possible customer experience?

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Twitter’s Evan Williams Describes Ideas Behind Explosive Growth at Ted

March 13, 2009 By

Last month Evan Williams, the founder of Twitter, returned to the stage at Ted exactly fours years after founding Odeo. Williams described how back in 2006 Jack Dorsey, one of the lead engineers at Odeo, came to him with a side idea he was playing with–Twitter. Williams was intrigued just as he had been intrigued a few years before with another hunch he had–Blogger. What both ideas have taught him is that it is important to follow your hunches even if they don’t seem to align with your current business.

During his Ted speech, Williams discussed that originally Twitter was intended to share moments of your life, both the momentus and the mundane, with family and friends. He has been surprised that Twitter has taken on a life of its own and is constantly evolving as users find even more interesting uses for Twitter. Back in the fall of 2007, Twitter took a big leap when it was used to broadcast news of the San Diego fires and then a year later was used by the hostages in India to give real time alerts of the terrorist attacks. Back in January, Twitter was again used to broadcast the pictures as they occurred of the miracle on the Hudson.

The talk is fascinating. Are you using Twitter in a new way?

Filed Under: social media, twitter Tagged With: , , ,

Dinosaurs Interact with Kids at L.A. County Natual History Museum, Really

March 12, 2009 By

Filed Under: Uncategorized Tagged With: ,

Survey Says TweetDeck; LinkedIn Tweeple Group Rocks

March 3, 2009 By

As I mentioned in a post several days ago, last week I was intrigued with tip 4 of “10 Tips on being a good Twitterer” from CNN.com last week. This is the tip I needed:

4. Use Twitter from your desktop. Twitter has something called an API (Application Programming Interface), which allows programmers to create experiences around Twitter for the community. Because of this, there have been an amazing array of applications released that will allow you to manage your Twitter account easily. There’s Twitterrific, TweetDeck, and Twhirl — just to name a few.

I admit it has become impossible to track the more than 400 people, news organizations, and companies that interest me. But the last line of the tip stumped me, “There’s Twitterrific, TweetDeck, and Twhirl.” Which one to choose?

15 February 2009
Creative Commons License photo credit: dougbelshaw

Next stop, Google. I quickly queried “Twitterrific, TweetDeck, and Twhirl”. Lots of results. Unfortunately, nothing jumped out that would quickly solve my dilemma. I then turned to Twitter. I tweeted my request, “Which one to use Twitterrific, TweetDeck, or Twhirl?” No responses.

I then turned to the LinkedIn Tweeple Group. Within several hours I was flooded with responses –41 to date. 31 votes for TweetDeck. I heard from Twitterers around the world. I also heard from Jesse Engle, CEO of CoTweet. According to Jesse, CoTweet was designed for companies that are interested in having their team tweet through the corporate or brand account. Definitely a product to check out.

So, what started as a quick question, ended up being a fun journey around the world courtesy of the Tweeple Group on LinkedIn. Now, for the download.

What are you using to manage your Twitter account?

Filed Under: social media, Uncategorized Tagged With: , , , , ,

Got Blog Get SEO

March 3, 2009 By

In Jennifer Moline’s article “What your Business Can Learn from SEO Experts” in bMighty.com she writes:

Your business has a Web site. Think that’s enough? Hardly. Potential customers need to be find you,  and that requires you to flex some search engine optimization skills. And because the world of SEO–and the Internet, in general–is constantly changing, it pays to learn how social networking is moving in on Google’s territory.

If you haven’t given much thought to your search engine optimization (SEO) strategy in the last year, its time to think about it again. If your SEO strategy is for search engines to easily find your web or blog pages, there are many steps you can take to enhance your results.

Google Lego 50th Anniversary Inspiration
Creative Commons License photo credit: manfrys

Jennifer points to Google’s SEO Starter Guide as a good place to begin. In addition, she also details the importance of posting videos both on your web site as well as on You Tube; utilizing Flickr, and even how participating in social networking sites like Facebook and Twitter can also improve your rankings.

What steps have you taken to improve your web sites’  SEO lately?

Filed Under: Search Engine Optimization Tagged With: , , , ,

Get Your Twitter Name Today

March 2, 2009 By

So here is the tip of the day. Go open your Twitter account today even if you think it is stupid and you will never need it. What if you are wrong? What if someone else grabs your brand name. And I am not just talking about your company name.

Twitter Bird
Creative Commons License photo credit: tashmahal

Open a Twitter account for your product too. And while your at it, just to be safe,  open a personal account with your name as well. If your name is gone–be clever.

Better to be safe than sorry. Do you really want to get into a “bidding” war someday for your own name?

Filed Under: social media Tagged With: , ,
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