In response to the video that made people second guess ordering a pizza, Domino’s “created a Twitter account, @dpzinfo, to address the surge of commentary occurring on Twitter. ‘We realized that when many of the comments and questions in Twitter were, ‘What is Domino’s doing about it” Mr. McIntyre said. ‘Well, we were doing and saying things, but they weren’t being covered in Twitter.’ ” Mr. McIntyre would be Tim McIntyre, a spokesman for the pizza chain.
According to CIOzone, their twitter response had quite a bit to do with saving the way their customer’s viewed them. http://www.ciozone.com/index.php/Social-Networking/Twitter-for-Pizza-Pie-Purveyors-Embrace-Social-Media.html
While setting up a twitter account to address customer’s fears is definitely great PR work, it shows yet another avenue in which social media can be used.
Responding to customers is what social media is all about. It allows for two-way interaction that often doesn’t exist in the era of telephone prompts and automated help systems.
In this case, Domino’s response wasn’t just a press release loaded with feel good words and legalese. Instead, they were able to address the very comments that customers were making.
Every once in a while I come across an article or a posting on the web that seems to be written about social media just because social media is one of the latest buzz words.
This piece from one of The Examiner’s social media writers just happens to be one of those pieces: http://tiny.cc/SocialMediaHelp.
The title, “How to Hire Social Media Help For Your Business,” is extremely misleading. The entire article is about a social media marketing campaign. There is no mention of bringing in someone who understands how the software works, or how to add widgets and extensions, or even how to edit the different templates you may be using. If you are going to use a blog, can your social media help recommend which blog engine you should be using and can they configure it for you? Do they understand how a wiki can really help your business collaborate and share information? Can they help you turn that blog into a community that helps you establish trust among potential clients with well written posts that engage readers and encourage contribution.
That is what social media is. It isn’t social so you can have a soapbox, it is social because it allows people to interact with you. It’s social because it is not a one-way street.
Of course, the purpose of this rant is not to belittle the use of social media in a marketing campaign. After all, it is one of the best vehicles for launching a viral campaign – ask Dane Cook how well it works.
No, I don’ think that using social media as a marketing tool is wrong. But when we think of it only in respect to marketing, we lose sight of everything that social media has the capacity of doing.
Every once in a while, I will google my name to see where my work is showing up in the blogosphere.
As a writer, I am thrilled to see my work being reposted on different sites. From a social media standpoint, I can’t help but think, “Another blown opportunity.” Don’t get me wrong, I love the fact that when a blogger reposts my work thousands more people have the chance to read it. What bothers me is that it is such an inappropriate use of a blog.
Social media isn’t about getting as much content on your site as humanly, or electronically, possible. It’s about connecting with your audience. The beauty of blogs is in the fact that readers can comment on what you write. Their participation is what makes a blog special. But if I go visit John Doe’s blog and find three articles by Jeff Orloff in the last five posts, why would I want to comment? I’d be better off going right to the source of the article and commenting there where I can express my opinions directly to the author.
There are times when someone’s content may work well in one of your postings. That’s great. Link to it inside original content that you wrote. Use it like you would a reference or citation.
Oh, and a, “Hey, check out this article…” doesn’t count as original content. No, if you are going to repost, write about it. Make it your own so that you can actively engage your readers. There are many examples out there on how people write their own content
Blogs can be great tools to bring people into your community, but at the same time, a blog for blogs sake doesn’t cut it. If the goal was to get as much keyword-rich content as possible, a simple static website would do.
