Social Media is the New Customer Service
- Posted March 19th, 2008
- Filed under: Customer Service, Social Media
An interesting discussion that came out of the South by Southwest experience was the question of whether or not altruism exists, specifically in regard to social media. That is, does someone ever truly participate in an online discussion, or comment on a blog, or link to someone’s website from their own without having some sort of ulterior motive? It’s a bit of a slippery slope, especially for those of us who do ultimately have a product or service to sell.
It’s also an issue I’ve thought a lot about over the past year as we’ve built and launched BatchBook. There’s much animosity in the blogging world against anyone deemed “inauthentic” or who is obviously pitching their wares without adding any value to a discussion. I find this somewhat ironic, because some of the bloggers who rail the hardest against being “pitched” to are in fact pitching themselves as consultants/subject matter experts via their blogs and public speaking engagements.
It was refreshing to hear a voice of reason in the form of Deborah Schultz at the panel “Self-Replicating Awesomeness: The Marketing of No Marketing”. Like me, Deborah is a communicator who has been working in technology for a mighty long time. Her core customer philosophy (below) mirrors mine:
-It’s about the customer
-Respect your customer
-Ask your customer
-Involve your customer
-Listen to your customer
-Good products sell themselves
-Be agile and flexible
I love this. To me, ultimately, social media is just another way to engage with your customers and potential customers. The tools may have evolved from when I was picking up phones at amazon.com a decade ago (although I just called a customer who needed help yesterday, so the “old” tools are still relevant.) Deborah said it well when she stated that learning how best to use the new tools is currently an art, not a science.
There will be times when we make mistakes. And there are admittedly some nefarious people out there, like comment spammers who really do just want links back to their site. But I believe most of us are, if not altruistic, at least well-intentioned.
Being involved in social media means being a part of an on-going conversation. There are a lot of good folks out there writing about and exploring using new media (blogs, twitter, podcasts etc.), including those of us starting and running our own small businesses.
Don’t be afraid of joining the conversation. You have just as much to say as anyone.
