Within two minutes of sending the tweet, I got an @ from Bonnie at Comcast asking if there was anything she could do to help. Fortunately there wasn’t anything she could help with, as there isn’t anything wrong with my service, but I was impressed that Comcast reached out. Here is an example of a company that customers are quick to criticize for having “bad service” actively listening to their customers (or at least the subset of their customers on twitter) and reaching out to solve problems. Brilliant.

If there had been something wrong with my Comcast service, Bonnie could have created a conduit for solving it almost as soon as I showed frustration.

Opportunities to fix issues when they are small exist everywhere, but all too frequently we wait to take action until we the issue is brought to us specifically. Sometimes we even make it harder for customers to redress their issues, as in the stereotypical customer service hotline.

Listening for things like this makes Comcast a better company. It also makes me a better customer; one who is more likely to work with them if anything were to go wrong with my service instead of fighting against them.

Twitter limits users to messages of 140 characters or less. Short messages. So short, in fact, that it would seem to preclude robust discussions, complicated thoughts, or mature business models. Yet if you read through most twitter streams, you will see signs of all of these and more.

A tweet has little inertia. You can’t build a brand, personal or corporate, with a single tweet. However, a stream of tweets can do anything.  Investigate concepts, grow relationships, develop a brand, (ruin a brand), and build momentum.

Some of the most influential twitter users have built a strong following this way. My own employer, Dell, has hundreds of individuals on twitter in both official and unofficial capacity, all tweeting away and building momentum. @Zappos links 58,000 followers with Zappos.com CEO Tony Hsieh. @Marc_Meyer has built momentum by engaging in conversations with 1200+ users to the tune of close to 5000 140 character tweets.

There is a lot of fear towards entering the social media world on the wrong foot. Afraid of making a mis-step, many individuals and companies are avoiding it altogether instead of engaging without a “plan”. A lot of this fear is misguided, however. The low inertia of a single tweet means that mistakes can’t push you too far off course. Immediate feedback in the form of retweets, replies, follows, and unfollows make it easy to refine a message over time instead of making sure it’s perfect to start with. Marc Meyer highlighted this point in a recent blog post by outlining the mistakes he has made in social media over the years. (Read it here)

Afraid of twitter? Don’t be. Get the ball rolling. It will start small and may move slowly at first. Keeping it on course will be easier than you think. Growth will happen organically. Momentum will come from hundreds (thousands) of tiny pushes in the right direction.

I leave you with this Travelers Insurance ad from a few years back, which illustrates the point in true Katamari Damacy style.

Admittedly, I kind of got on a tangent and dominated the conversation, but I have been thinking about this for a while and had some things I wanted to relate.

James and I edited this slightly before posting it, but only so it makes more sense (hopefully) to those outside of the conversation.

Todd, James [12:30 PM]:
I’m suspicious of twitter.

Taylor, Nathan R [12:31 PM]:
Suspicious how?
As a time waster?

Todd, James [12:31 PM]:
Not so much that…
If I were concerned about that, there’s be lower hanging fruit.
Like uninstalling my RSS feeder.

Taylor, Nathan R [12:32 PM]:
Oh, Right
So what is your suspicion?

Todd, James [12:33 PM]:
With equally qualified candidates, selection moves to preferences.

Taylor, Nathan R [12:35 PM]:
Connect that for me

Todd, James [12:35 PM]:
Leaving a trail of my opinions and thoughts gives someone more substantiation to reinforce any pre-judgment about me.

Taylor, Nathan R [12:36 PM]:
Ah. Thought that’s where you were going.
I disagree with it as a negative though
I posted a comment to that effect on David Armano’s post here: http://experiencematters.criticalmass.com/2009/01/23/the-age-of-brandividualism/

Todd, James [12:37 PM]:
I think it would be more positive if my opinions were more mainstream.
The Republicans kept touting Our President’s lack of experience as a negative.
Having a clean slate actually had a significant positive impact for him.

Taylor, Nathan R [12:38 PM]:
Having a clean slate helped him create an image of himself that he controlled.
A ‘history’ would not be a self-formed image, but a public perception.

Todd, James [12:39 PM]:
OTOH…
If I ever want to WORK in social media or CONSULT around social media, I’d better full well have an online presence.
We’ve all read about “those guys.” (Here, James was talking about the people who apply for SM positions, but don’t have a blog and have written 4 tweets.)

Taylor, Nathan R [12:43 PM]:
Those guys are like squatters on mining claims in the old west. one day everyone will be there, and social media won’t even be a buzzword

Todd, James [12:43 PM]:
Good point.

Taylor, Nathan R [12:44 PM]:
Some sensitivity will always need to exist around how people perceive themselves, and hence how they portray themselves
Skilled people are those with a well developed self knowledge, and the ability to express it
Ie, communication.

Todd, James [12:45 PM]:
Absolutely true.

Taylor, Nathan R [12:45 PM]:
Look at how all jobs are shifting more and more focus on this as we decentralize everything.
So for me, the possible cons of leaving a personal history that might turn one employer off are far outweighed by the ability to refine how I express what I am about, and possibly create a sense that another employer knows me enough to want to work with me

Todd, James [12:47 PM]:
Agree 100%.
Would feel more comfortable if I had done a little more practice articulating offline prior to jumping in.
However, it would be pretty lame if I designed an online construct of a person rather than me.
I think the crux of it is that I don’t want to be plastic, but I’m (perhaps overly) fearful of too much self-disclosure.

Taylor, Nathan R [12:50 PM]:
The good thing is, your training period is now. as you gain followers you refine the message.

Todd, James [12:50 PM]:
Good point.  Because nobody but me looks at old tweets.

Taylor, Nathan R [12:50 PM]:
It’s weird to think we need training in knowing who we are, but we do.

Todd, James [12:50 PM]:
I don’t think that’s weird at all, actually.

Taylor, Nathan R [12:51 PM]:
There’s probably a famous quote out there by Proust or something about ourselves being a reflection of the people around us
I would have always assumed that meant that people shape who we are, but just as much it means that without them we can’t see who we already are.
… to think this conversation happened without beer

Todd, James [12:52 PM]:
Which is actually a shame…  Let’s fix that soon.

Is it worth the risk to put yourself, your opinions, your thoughts out there in a competitive world? At the end of the day I don’t really know. I do know that I value the interactions that twitter, facebook, and other social media tools foster.

I value the sense that I learn as much about myself as I learn about others through these conversations. Whether that turns out to have any drawbacks at some point in the future remains to be seen.

Until that point, I will continue to tweet.

Fellow Dell tweeter RichardatDell sent out this info on best practices in the use of Twitter. I am posting it here so I can reference it in the future. All credit goes to Chris Brogan at http://www.chrisbrogan.com, and of course Richard for pointing me towards it.

Social media guru Chris Brogan posted “50 Ideas on Using Twitter for Business.”

His blog gives permission to repost as long as credit is provided, so here are the top 20 ideas:

First Steps

1. Build an account and immediate start using Twitter Search to listen for your name, your competitor’s names, words that relate to your space. (Listening always comes first.)
2. Add a picture. ( Shel reminds us of this.) We want to see you.
3. Talk to people about THEIR interests, too. I know this doesn’t sell more widgets, but it shows us you’re human.
4. Point out interesting things in your space, not just about you.
5. Share links to neat things in your community. ( @wholefoods does this well).
6. Don’t get stuck in the apology loop. Be helpful instead. ( @jetblue gives travel tips.)
7. Be wary of always pimping your stuff. Your fans will love it. Others will tune out.
8. Promote your employees’ outside-of-work stories. ( @TheHomeDepot does it well.)
9. Throw in a few humans, like RichardAtDELL, LionelAtDELL, etc.
10. Talk about non-business, too, like @astrout and @jstorerj from Mzinga.

Ideas About WHAT to Tweet

1. Instead of answering the question, “What are you doing?”, answer the question, “What has your attention?”
2. Have more than one twitterer at the company. People can quit. People take vacations. It’s nice to have a variety.
3. When promoting a blog post, ask a question or explain what’s coming next, instead of just dumping a link.
4. Ask questions. Twitter is GREAT for getting opinions.
5. Follow interesting people. If you find someone who tweets interesting things, see who she follows, and follow her.
6. Tweet about other people’s stuff. Again, doesn’t directly impact your business, but makes us feel like you’re not “that guy.”
7. When you DO talk about your stuff, make it useful. Give advice, blog posts, pictures, etc.
8. Share the human side of your company. If you’re bothering to tweet, it means you believe social media has value for human connections. Point us to pictures and other human things.
9. Don’t toot your own horn too much. (Man, I can’t believe I’m saying this. I do it all the time. – Side note: I’ve gotta stop tooting my own horn).
10. Or, if you do, try to balance it out by promoting the heck out of others, too.

For more, click here: “50 Ideas on Using Twitter for Business.”