Thursday, March 24, 2011

The Magic called Social Media!




There is enough material written on the social media.So I will not add some more gyan but I have decided to share my experience of being on social media as a consumer or simply an internet user.

I recently bought a blackberry and was still struggling to use this device when I encountered some issue regarding some function.I was looking for help when I decided to write to @BlackBerryHelp on twitter.I was anticipating that the reply may come in some few days when to my pleasant surprise their solution was sent through direct message in some few hours! Quite prompt considering that I must have been some zillionth customer who must have asked for help.Mind you I have asked more questions after that at different times and the timeliness of their reply has always been the same.Prompt.

Another incident I encountered was with @TeasAtGirnar, I was having tea at The Tea Centre at Chruchgate, Mumbai and I happen to tweet this, within minutes I get a mention and I find Girnar Tea tweeting me and asking me the tea I was sipping and my favorite flavor. They also sent me a tweet encouraging me to visit their e-store.Perfect consumer engagement without irritating the consumer off with some personal selling talk! and to think of it I could have chosen not to reply.



The above were examples of companies approaching and helping their consumers.

I have also experienced the beauty of social media when a complete stranger replied to my tweets on a simple inquiry.I was travelling on the highway from Santa Cruz when I saw ahead a massive traffic jam.I tweeted the same wondering the reason for the jam, within seconds I get a reply from some stranger that there was some vehicle problem and so the jam!

Even now and then I receive mentions on topics I tweet about or re-tweet where some person has shared some more knowledge or a page on the same issue.

This kind of interaction only says that given an opportunity you can get in touch with the consumers and the target audience without being pushy and give that space to the consumer to take a call on whether they want to interact with you or not.

Consumers are watching your interaction with them, whether you are solving their problems, offering tips, or inviting their contribution on a topic etc.They observe you and decide a lot about you whether you are worth being given a second look or not!

If it is not promotion or public relations from a company or an individual; it is simply a good human helping on the digital space,but magic of the social media still remains.




8 comments:

  1. Madam, you seem to be lucky that you received such prompt response. I presume that the companies see the advantage of using the social media. Anyway, I will follow your example and write about the problem I have been facing about a handset I bought very recently. The local executive of this handset,manufactured by a Chinese company has not responded to my e-mail a week after I sent in my complaint. The manager of the service provider, Reliance,responded to my call saying he had received my mail and that he would organise a meeting with the executive in two days. Today is the second day. I will wait until this evening and do what you have tried successfully.
    Kiran Thakur, Pune

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  2. Yes Thakur Sir you could try this method too maybe it works.

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  3. Kiran, emails are very different from social media. Try tweeting your issue mentioning the service provider/ manufacturer's direct Twitter handle if it exists. Social media is giving a lot more power to consumers, and if consumer product and services companies have still not recognised how much they have to win or gain from social media, they are already behind in the race.

    One example - Airtel and I have had a hate-hate relationship for years now. But a phone call/ email has never worked the kind of magic that Twitter did. They can't afford to displease a customer in front of a million other potential and current customers. They actually resolved an excessive billing issue in 30 hours, which is a mean feat by Airtel standards any day!!

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  5. Hi Meenakshi... your examples really encouraged me to use social media now... infact i was asking my colleague today about the usage of twitter and how it can make a difference in real life...but after reading this piece i would start using social media quite often..thanks and take care.

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