Years ago my wife had this bumper sticker on her car.  It used to crack me up, but it is so true.  I know all too well that life is too short and we should live each day to the fullest.  I always strive to do what is best for everyone I come in contact with.  Maybe this is why I love serving Customers?  In recent weeks I have come across numerous examples of personal attacks, deeply angry people at relatively silly things, and just a lot of unpleasantness.  During that same time I have seen people going through hell and they are the most upbeat people around.   Why is there such a variance?  Why can’t people just learn to be nice and respectful to others?

I know what it is like to be angry, and I do get that way at times.  For those that have seen this, I want to apologize.  In fact today I read a blog post that was completely inaccurate and referred to me as an unbelievable creep, of course this was someone that references internet trouble as ‘ass rape.’  The actual trouble was wifi signal reaching all points in a home, particularly a wireless printer.  Which during last call was working when I was off the phone.  I have been deeply offended, as I am sure other men and women would be, with the terms being used.  Anyway  this made me angry to read and I was determined to figure out a response.  I was so angry it was taking me away from what is truly the most important aspect of life, my own family.  Those that know me also know the truth so at this point it was not worth letting an angry person destroy my weekend.

My wife made a good point, everything is relative.  Maybe individuals that are mean to others and angry have been so lucky in life that they find little things to be angry about because they have not dealt with worse.  How lucky are they?  I wish I had such luck in life.  But actually, I am happy that I am who I am.  Yes it sucks that some negative things have happened in my life, and I would do anything to have Gia back, but I would never want to live life as an angry person.  It is just too short and I would prefer to live life to the fullest.  You never know what may happen.  We sometimes joke that you can get hit by a bus, but the reality is you can be.

For me I am going to strive to be the best person to everyone I come in contact with.  If I ever was mean to anyone, I also want to take this time to apologize.  When I am, please point it out to me.

It seems to me that the word converging is used to describe so much that is happening right now.  At Comcast we have used it to describe the combining the way people use products like phone, internet and TV.  But in general we hear it throughout business, especially when we hear about mergers or new partnerships.  We also hear about it in politics, global news and within social media.

A little over a year ago I told a large group of PR people that the best thing about me is that I was not one of them.  This was not done in a negative way, but used to point out that people within social media do not like to have spin or the corporate line.  They prefer dialogue.  Of course I was wrong, and I have grown a lot since that time.  I have learned that we are in a converging world.  PR and Customer Service have a lot in common.  Ultimately good service is good PR.

Last night I received a phone call from a head hunter (probably not a politically correct term, should probably say executive recruiter or something like that).  That was not the first time, but what was interesting was the position was a leader in marketing for a major company.  I am sure I know many people that would be good for the role, but what really shocked me was how I have accomplished many of the goals in a very short time.  How can that be?  I have never been in marketing.  As I say all the time “I am a simple Customer Service guy.”  I guess nothing is simple in today’s world.  Things are changing including the approach to marketing and the shift to conversational marketing.  This is the first time that I could really touch it in a quantifiable way.  My eyes continue to be opened wider each day.

In this online world, it is about dialogue, not dictating the conversation.  It is not about spin but listening and asking questions.  These are both common in good Customer Service experiences.  Worlds are converging everywhere and the real winner is the Customer.

So this morning I received this email (I edited the email address out but remainder is the same):

From: Martine Paris
Sent: Sun Jun 14 02:03:30 2009
Subject: Plug on Content NOW from TWTRCON

I reviewed the post.  It is about the recent TWTRCON event in San Francisco, which was excellent.  During my panel discussion on Customer assistance on Twitter, Francine Hardaway chimed it with a fun story of how I helped her with trouble with her Apple router.   The story with Francine is one that I will never forget and she will be a friend forever (well doesn’t that sound so teenage like).  What basically occurred was our conversation shifted from social media to phone.  This does happen at times because the phone can be useful to walk someone through many steps in fixing something.  This same thing happens when someone needs assistance via email and more questions are necessary.  After we were able to fix things I received a call on my cell and it was a hotel that found her phone.  I was able to tweet francine on exactly where she could find her iPhone.

After that story, Dave McClure chimed in to say this story proves social media service is not scalable.  This led to a little back and forth regarding the scalability.  In my opinion he is incorrect, and we have proven that you can have a multiple people within social media, especially a place like Twitter.  Today we have 10 people on Twitter and we are also in many other spaces on the internet.  As I discuss in the post “The big question for @comcastcares is: How will they scale?” it is really about the tools that are being developed.  My big question for those that do not believe it would scale, what would you recommend companies do, ignoring commentary has not worked?

I know many would respond to that saying that companies need to improve traditional service channels, and I wholeheartedly agree.  This is a new time and Customers are more in control and companies must recognize that fact.  At the same time I will tell you that there will be a large percentage that will still request help online first.  In fact I would guess that most people are like me and google something before calling (in fact a Gartner study shows this is 50% and growing).  I can also say that the majority of people that we assist never called, emailed or entered into chat.  The other trouble is with many products, like internet, trouble can be with many other devices not controlled by the provider, such as router, computer, or even servers throughout the net that a company does not control.  We have to find a way to converge support to help with all these areas, and the web offers perfect solutions for this (I will save this for another post because I am developing a project on this topic).

This brings me back to the purpose of this.  In the post in the email it offers a synopsis of the talk and ends with the following statement about me:

“But for all that talk, Dave McClure was right, at the end of the presentation, Frank was not giving out any business cards. So much for accessibility.”

They are right, I did not bring business cards with me.  I did respond to the email with the following message:

That is interesting that you felt not having business cards proved that social media efforts were not scalable, yet you were able to contact me via email, could also do the same via Twitter.

Maybe the world has not changed as much as I thought if we are still looking for, even expecting, business cards at an event about Twitter.  I think the benefit to Twitter is how close it brings us all together.  It make the world a much smaller place.  I guess I was wrong about that.  Actually the fact was I did not go in the office during the week leading up to the trip and did not want to go in just for business cards.  So I do feel bad if anyone that wanted my business card did not get one, so I am offering it here for anyone.

I worked from home today because I traveled all day yesterday (I was out of the house at 4:30 AM and returned around 11 PM).  Needless to say I was tired.  I still got up at 6:30 and I drank lots of coffee.  Since I was not motivated to get dressed I never did get the girls to day care.  By the time I got around to it, it was already 11 AM.

This did not take away from the work I had to do.  While I was working, Lily and Robyn were playing on the floor.  At one point they were in the kitchen “making dinner” at the little play kitchenette that we have.  I have to say they were really cute.  At least until I looked around and realized the mess that was all over the family room and kitchen.  Toys are everywhere.  

Lately I have been thinking a lot about CRM or Customer Relationship Management and believe it or not, it really fits with the way my house looks today.  There has been discussion on the net about CRM and social media, especially regarding Twitter.   Well on Sunday I will be traveling to Bonita Springs, FL to talk at the Frost and Sullivan Customer Contact 2009 MindXchange.  So this is why it is on my mind.

I will not get into all the other discussions on the internet, but here are the posts that may be of interest to you.  The first one I read was by Paul Greenberg  on ZDNet called “Is Twitter Social CRM? Nope.”  I do agree that Twitter is simply a communications channel, just like phone or email.  I also feel there are many other channels such as blogs, forums, Facebook or numerous other social networking websites that are also communications channels.  In his post he also links to Jeremiah Owyang’s post “The Future of Twitter: Social CRM.”  I agree with Jeremiah that a good way for Twitter to monetize itself, “if they were to take the challenge” is to sell the data being collected by people answering the question “What are you doing.”  Companies already spend a lot of money to learn how people use their product or interact with their business.  And this information is readily available on Twitter.  The other post Paul Greenberg mentioned is one by Brian Solis “Twitter and Social Networks Usher in a New Era of Social CRM.”  My favorite quote from Brian is:

“Twitter is forcing the next level of reinvention for how we identify, track and respond to online conversations that are pertinent to brand perception and resonance. Twitter is the catalyst that will spark the change for how brands truly engage across the Conversation Prism a.k.a. The Social Web.”

Brian you are correct that Twitter is going to cause companies to reinvent how they respond online.  First the space is easily searchable, unlike Facebook.  Also the costs of entry are virtually nothing.  I would expect companies to do just that and for those that don’t, their employees will do it for them.  

Now lets tie this all together and put the pieces of the puzzle into a nice form.  Literally as I write this I am doing that with items on the floor.  Today CRM is highly organized data used by most organizations to measure phone, email, chat, mail or self service options, but it excludes a key component:  social media. Companies understand regular interactions but social media interactions are not done by many companies or, when they are, they are not tracked as well as they could be.  Many companies are still trying to determine how social media fits in and how they would measure it.  It is not hard to search the net, or even ask around to find debates on who should own the social media strategy.  Usually the debates are between marketing and PR departments, but Customer Service should be in the mix as well.  We know that click through rates on ads are weak and going to a blogger with a press release probably does not work.  At the same time marketing and PR do a great job at measuring sentiment on the web and the overall Customer base.  Customer Service departs usually do well at measuring the Companies need to figure this out. 

My advice is all areas in a company need to work together and define a strategy.  There is plenty out on the net and with a good plan in place you can create a great Customer experience with solid performance measures.  Twitter might be a great place  to start because the cost of entry is cheap and information is readily available via Twitter search.  But the keys are understanding where your Customers (or prospective Customers) are and what are your goals for being in the space.

Now to the other pieces of the mess.  I have always struggled with the term “Customer Relationship Management.” I am not sure a company can manage the relationship as they have in the past.  They can strive to know as much as they can and track interactions but as social media has shown, the true control is shifting to the Consumer.  I think the groundswell on this is still small but growing  stronger with each Amazon review, tweet, blog post or Facebook mention.  With the limited amount of management taking place we need to think more about the relationship as the key component.

Over the past 20 years the key message was self service and limit the relationship building.  Things like handle time were implemented to keep calls short and complicated IVR’s were put in place to try to answer questions without an agent.  Today the trend is growing to want to talk to Customers, especially those that may leave.  Most companies are no longer reviewing handle time on an agent level.  Instead they use Customer call backs and Customer survey data to determine success.

Within the posts by Brian, Jeremiah, and Paul there was some discussion regarding CRM tools.  Well I think at times people should stick to what they do best.  CRM companies can continue to make CRM tools and companies like Radian 6 can make there social media tools.  I would then recommend that they work to integrate the 2 allowing for the best of both worlds.  I would not expect Radian 6 to know all about CRM and contact center management, and I would not expect a CRM company like Salesforce.com to know all about social media.  Companies do not have to be every piece of the puzzle, but if you make tools that play nice with other, your Customers and their Customers will win.

As Companies look to take a fresh look at CRM it is so important they they clean up and organize first, including all the components that exist today.  It is also imperative that they include the sentiment on the web and look for ways to personalize that relationship.  Part of this will be no longer waiting for Customers to call but finding ways to proactively reach them.  Review your existing CRM goals and work to tie them into an overall social media plan.  It will not always be clean but it will be a start to some great relationships with your Customers.

Driving in today I heard an associated press report that really had me concerned.  Many businesses have tried to find ways to change perception about their brand, sometimes going as far as creating fake reviews, such as the Belkin example.  But now some doctors are trying to influence reviews by making it part of their contract for care that patients can not rate their service.  Read the story “Docs Seek Gag Orders to Stop Patient Reviews.”  I think I feel a groundswell coming!

Do you see a day where everything we buy comes with a contract or terms of use forbidding talking about the business?  What if it was changed to say you can only say positive things, but not negative?  Is this going to change the game?

This practice will cause multiple issues for businesses, including doctors.  Lets look at a few:

• Not Allowing the Positive Groundswell – If you are doing things right, your own Customers will come to defense of any negative commentary.  By having a rule like this they would be afraid to
• Negative Commentary will Still Happen – If someone had a bad experience they will want to tell the world and rules like this will not stop it.  The web can be a very anonymous place.
• Groundswell Just for Having the Rule – What I think will really happen is people will start tracking organizations that create rules such as this and advise everyone not to use them

This is a slippery slope.  I am not surprised it is being done, and I am actually surprised it has not been done by others.  This is being done by people who are short sighted and uninformed about the groundswell within social media.  If there is a fear of this discussion the best options are to create the right experience the first time, but also find ways that Customers, oh I mean patients, can provide feedback to your business.  Then take this feedback and take action to improve when possible.

This is personal for me because I have used the web to share thoughts on medical care and my child.  I elected not to share all the negative stories, to which we have many, but that was my decision and not one forced on me.   There are great organizations to help families share the course of treatment on the web, such as Caringbride.org.  Will policies like this be so restricted that families would not be able to communicate in the way they prefer? Or will it censor what they can say?  Could a website like Caringbridge.org be sued because someone said something negative about a doctor?

To the defense of the docs, they are not permitted based on the Health Insurance Portability and Accountability Act (better known as HIPAA) to discuss private patient information with anyone except the patient (and their insurance carrier) without written consent from the patient.   So they most likely would not be able to defend wrong information being written about them or clear any misconception.

I think it is time for some people to get past their egos and stop trying to prevent what will occur no matter what the legal mumbo jumbo has to say.  What do you think?

UPDATE:  While I was writing this the Consumerist posted “Warning:  Going to the Doc? Be Sure You Don’t Sign A Gag Order.”  In the post they talk about how RateMDs.com will create a wall of shame for doctors using the gag order.  Let the groundswell begin

Groundswell can be positive or negative for any organization, or for that matter an individual.  This is what makes social media so unique, and in my opinion so special.  Over the past few weeks I have seen a swell of discussion regarding my friend Scott Monty.  There were some critical of Scott, but to me it was a good chance to have further conversation on the topic.  First of all we all represent our employers whether we are at work at the time or on Twitter.  If you were a sales person, and you made a comment that was questionable, and a client saw it, do you think anyone would say oh he was on twitter at home so that is ok?  Another aspect to this discussion, as David Armano pointed out in his post, is the fact that Scott Monty already had a personal brand prior to joining the Ford team.  It is probably part of the reason why they selected him to lead their social media effort.  Beyond all this, I thought I might be able to add some personal perspective to the conversation.

Over the past year I have developed a personal brand , not intentially but it has still happened.  I have been weirded out by all the discussion over doing what seemed to be natural;  helping people who were looking for assistance.  A side effect was being a part of the conversation of businesses in social media.  Throughout the process of learning about social media, I was provided feedback.  I utilized this feedback when I could.  One piece of that feedback suggested using my own picture instead of the Comcast symbol.  This made sense to me, because when I service Customers via the phone I always strive to add a personal touch.  Why would I not do the same in social media?  This was really common sense.  Some people may have difficulty with this, and for that matter businesses too.  Now the brand and the individual are tied together in many ways.  Scott Monty and Ford are closely connected in the same way that I am connected to Comcast.  This changes the playing field a bit.  A true partnership develops that strengthens both the organization and the individual.

This may cause organizations to try to remove some of the personalization with their social media efforts.  I would warn against that.  Social media is not about selling, dictating, or marketing.  It is really a great place to build a relationship and participate in a conversation.  Relationships are better 1 to 1.  The best approach in my opinion is to educate all your employees on using social media.  This is what I like to refer to as the Zappos model, mainly because they have made this a standard for others to live up to.   Lately you may have noticed that I have not been on Twitter as much during the day.  This is because I have elected to build a team structure.  I want to provide @ComcastBonnie, @ComcastGeorge and @ComcastBill the opportunity to build their brand and demonstrate that this is not a one person effort.  My goal, similar to many, is to continue to grow in my career and continue to challenge myself.  I also want to build something that will live on and continually evolve in this ever changing world.  There is nothing more special than building something that is sustainable for the long haul.  My team is doing just that.

There is another side to being a personal brand associated to a business that is not always seen, and one of the reasons it is not for everyone.  I have had great success that has been recognized by numerous social media websites and traditional media.  How many people have the opportunity to be in articles like “Comcast’s Twitter Man” for Business Week online?  At the same time, what I do not discuss as much is the personal attacks that sometimes happen.  These occur in comments for articles, blogs or directly to me on Twitter.  Now I understand most of the time it is really meant for the company but that is not how they are worded.  How would you feel if you did a google search and you found a story that you have a small penis?  Well this has happened to me.  A Customer posted a blog that he could not do something on the Comcast DVR.  I wrote a response explaining how to do what he was trying to do.  The next day he did another post saying I was right, but you cannot do something else.   I responded with directions on how to do it.  The next day he followed it up with a post titled “Frank Eliason Probably has a Small Penis.”  This post was explaining I was right.  If this happened to an individual they might post a reponse that attacks the writer, but since I am associated with a brand, I posted a response thanking them for the feedback.  I remember the first time I saw this post on a Google search, my first thought was “I do not get paid enough to deal with this!”  As we all know the web is a permanent place.

The groundswell has been good to me, and generated a lot of positive discussion.  Many aspects contribute to thus.  First and foremost I think it is the outstanding work of my team.  Without them I would not be writing this today.  It also has to do with the friendships in social media, including Customers that I have helped.  At the same time, it also comes down to hard work.  Gary Vanderchuk has talked about passion and hard work to achieve his status in social media and the business world.  I am not sure if the countless hours I have spent helping Customers, even at night or the weekends, are even recognized.   In contrast, this hard work is respected in the world of social media and has contributed to the groundswell of support.  If I did the basics, I am not sure it would have been noticed.   Working hard always has the long term benefits.  Passion is another key ingredient.  My passion is creating the right experience for Customers.

Is the personal brand a bad thing?  In my opinion, no.  In fact it is really priceless recognition.  I know Scott Monty has lived up to this recognition, I just hope I can too!

P.S.  Here is a great example for a business in how not to handle social media:  Consumerist:  “Ryan Air Employee Calls Blogger “Idiot” and Their Spokesperson Publicly Agrees”

So video killed the radio star, VHS beat out beta, but was later killed by DVD.  Now online download is taking its toll on DVD.  We see it in many areas where new technologies start to take over older ones.  We have also seen it over the years in the online spaces and the community spaces.  Newsgroups shifted to forums for many topics or download services for file sharing.  Chat rooms are rarely seen now in favor of spaces like MySpace, Facebook and Twitter.

So while I was at the Omniture conference, I heard someone say, “oh not another space.”  It really started to make me think.  Are there too many spaces?  Will we see things shift from some space like specialized forums to a space like Twitter?

Over the past 5 years (or longer) companies have looked to create communities for their Customers to participate and have conversations within their web properties.  Many of these forums, like the Comcast Help Forums, are a place for support and discussion regarding a companies products.  Sometimes the communities are not within the company’s web server.  As an example, for internet service providers, one of the most recognized is Broadband Reports.  Forums are great because topics are broken up and it is easy to search for something of interest.

It may be time to rethink the importance of forums.  Although I have not seen a decline in participation in such areas, isn’t it just as easy, if not easier to ask your question in a place like Twitter?  What we know about Twitter or Facebook people tend to gravitate to others with the same interests, very similar to what we see in a community forum.  Just like a forum, besides asking the question you can search for others that may have asked a similar question.  You can even write to them and ask if they found a solution.  You can even make a new friend that way.

As we relook at the “Groundswell,” companies may no longer be about building a specialized place but using existing spaces in larger communities.  It will be in their best interest to meet Customers where they already are.  There will always be some topics that will be a little taboo or private for a place like Twitter (although probably happens there too) that forums will be useful for some of those discussions.  At the same time as we look in the crystal ball, do we need all these seperate forums or can it just happen naturally?  To make this easier Twitter may want to better group followers, that way I can have my “Techie” friends and those that like shows like “Dexter.”  This is available today through different apps, but if that was an option on the native app it would be helpful.  At the same time, I am willing to bet it is already happening.  What other things may change if places like twitter continue to have momentum?

Nobody seems to want me to blog about “Maggots in our Mushrooms.”  I have been planning that post yesterday and today, but tomorrow is another day.  Normally I am up on the blogs mentioning Comcast but today someone beat me to it.  I received an email with a link to a TechCrunch blog:  “Survey of Insular Media Elite Says Twitter is Better Than Facebook for Business.”  First let me say that I am not shocked that Twitter is better for business than Facebook.  We are in both spaces and we definitely know Twitter is a better space to engage with your Customers.  There is an easy reason why Twitter is so good:  “What are you doing?”  Think about all the market research that goes into answering that very question.  Now you can go to Twitter Search and get the answer to the question.  As a business you can easily learn how people use your product or interact with your company.  

This TechCrunch post was about an Abrams Research Study of over 200 social media leaders.  There were other interesting, although not shocking, tidbits in the survey.

1. Which social media service would you be most likely to pay for?

1. Facebook 32.2%
2. Linkedin 29.7%
3. Twitter 21.8%
4. YouTube 13.4%
5. MySpace 1.5%
6. Digg 1.5%

2. What social media service would you advise a business pay for?

1. Twitter 39.6%
2. Linkedin 21.3%
3. YouTube 18.8%
4. Facebook 15.3%
5. Digg 3.0%
6. MySpace 2.0%

3. Which social media service will be the first to die?

1. ImInLikeWithYou.com 41.1%
2. Bebo 12.4%
3. FriendFeed 8.9%
4. Meetup.com 8.4%
5. Flixster 6.9%
6. Digg 5.0%
7. Last.fm 3.0%
8. Other 14.4%

None of the information above was shocking to me, but certainly interesting.

Now to the “shocked” part of my day.  I know it seems that we have been mentioned with regards to our social media efforts.  Recently Mashable labeled us one of the the top big businesses in social media, and I was wowed by that.  I have always been shocked by any press or blog posts.  I never considered myself to be a “social media” person, just a simple service guy talking to Customers.  I tried to learn as people provided feedback.  But this report was based on a survey of top social media people and for them to label the work of my team with the likes of @Zappos, @BarackObama, @CNN, @JetBlue, and @ScottMonty is amazing.  There are such great people representing companies that are on the list as well as others that are not.  I am just amazed and thankful for such recognition.  It is a credit to all those that helped me and the amazing team I work with each day.  I do not think I will ever be comfortable with all the discussion about me but being on this list really made me feel very special today and I want to thank everyone for that.   This has been a wild ride and it is really my team and all of you. Sorry for the wordiness but I am actually lost for words today.  Thank you.

Here is the complete list:

4. Which corporation has done the best job of using social media? (Respondents were asked to choose

one; these were the most popular choices, ranked accordingly)

1. Zappos (online shopping site)
2. Obama (campaign and presidency)
3. CNN
4. Comcast (“Comcast Cares)
5. Jetblue
6. Dell
7. Burger King
8. NPR
9. New York Times
10. Ford

What do you get when you add together Ian Schafer, Brian Morrissey and Gary Vaynerchuk?  A lively discussion on social media and business participation.  Immediately when I viewed the video on Friday I knew I wanted to take the opportunity to share it here.  Not only are they great minds when it comes to social media, they make points that every business needs to hear.  A few weeks ago I did a presentation about business blogging and the person that represents that to me?  GaryVee.  Not that every business should act the same way he does, that is not the point of social media.  We should not try to be someone we are not.  In my opinion the key to Gary’s success is his passion.  That is what it is all about.  I have a passion for Customer Service, and that comes out in everything I do.

So what is the key to hiring for social media?  It all comes down to that passion.  Most likely you already have that person within your organization.  Instead of hiring that expert, tap into this passionate person to represent the brand.  When I hire for positions on my team I am always striving to hire the most passionate people.  They are always successful and they do a great job at representing the brand.

The key for any business to understand is people will be talking about your brand whether you are there or not.  If there are flaws within your organization they will be magnified in social media.  So it is important for the organization to identify and work on these issues.  I will say , from experience, social media is a great place to learn the pulse of your Customers.  It is not a statistical sample of opinion but it is certainly a sample of the loudest opinion.  My favorite part about the space is how well it brings the Customer story to life.  If you work for an organization that is looking to improve, gathering feedback from blogs and other social media spaces is phenomenal.  People may like to look at numbers, but when they relate to a story things really change.

The converse is social media will reward organizations that have a positive way of doing business.  The way to measure this is simply do a search for Zappos.  Their model is about allowing and teaching social media to their employees.  It is the model to build from.  It comes down to their policies and how they are so well liked by their Customers, such as 2 way shipping. 

Another fun topic that is brought up is the famous sleeping tech video impacting a company I know.  This is a great lesson for companies and why it is so important to listen to your Customers through all channels to improve the experience.  Ultimately something like this can come out.  The reason I actually love the example is it was a driver for my company to listen closely to social media.  It then led to the work my team and I have been doing over the past year or so.  In the video there was some discussion about my own worth to Comcast, but I want to say a few things on this.  My worth is really because of the great team of people I work with.  It is also why I am a big believer in having a team involved in social media.  This allows everyone to take part in the conversation.  Also if one person does leave there are other great people to step up to the plate.  At Comcast we have a number of great people involved in social media, include @ComcastBill, @ComcastBonnie and @ComcastGeorge.  We also have many other great team members involved in other social media spaces or working behind the scenes to ensure we are successful.  That is how you can build a social media Customer advocacy team to last.

This is a question I have been asked numerous times.  My answers have almost all the same.  I simply ask 2 easy questions:

1. What are you trying to accomplish?
2. Are your Customers on Twitter?

Before deciding to venture into social media, it is important to understand your own audience, where they may be located and have clearly defined goals.  For Comcast my team has been involved in numerous social media spaces.  Our goal has been 2 fold:

1. Meet the Customer where they already are
2. Try to assist when we can

I have always found Twitter to be a great space.  The reason for this is we know our Customers are there and Twitter has a strong searchability that is also timely.  When we look at spaces we do look at the searchability and how quickly we can obtain the information from our Customers.  For this we can easily use Twitter Search.  There are 2 other benefits to Twitter that can be used for any business.  First and foremost is the ability to build relationships.  Nothing is more powerful than the relationships with Customers, or prospective Customers.  I have built relationships in this space and now also work with the companies involved.  Now that is because they had a good product, but I will say it is great knowing that they are there if I need them.  The other benefit to Twitter is when people are responding to the question “What are you doing?” many times they are saying how they use a product or interact with a business.  That is useful intelligence.

It does seem more and more people are turning to social networking, such as Facebook or Twitter.  According to a recent Pew Research Report , as of December, 2008 11% of “online” American adults have said they use a service like Twitter.  Now as @criticalmass asked me “if I would walk up to 100 people on the street, would I expect 11 to have heard of Twitter,” I would not expect that.  But I think if you were to ask a broader question involving other social media, such as Facebook, Twitter, Linkedin, or MySpace I think you would find the numbers even higher.  The other aspect is not so much the number but the actual trend.  In May, 2008 Pew found 6% were participating on spaces like Twitter and in November, 2008 that number was at 9%.  That is a very fast climb.  

Another interesting piece to the study was the breakdown of the age ranges.  Unlike other social media spaces, Twitter has an older crowd, with a median age of 31 compared to 27 for MySpace, 26 for Facebook and 40 for LinkedIn.

Beyond these stats the report talks about how Twitter users are more connected  via electronic devices.  This is not shocking given the amount of early adopters in the space.  The other discussion in the report is how Twitter users gain their news information.  Not surprisingly it is via electronic means.

As we have seen, more and more people are joining spaces like Twitter.  I know in Facebook I have been meeting more and more people, many of whom I never expected to be in an electronic space.  As social media continues to become more mainstream, it will be important for companies to view this as another channel to communicate with their Customers.  Where are your Customers?