Customer Service and the Social Web: A Cautionary Tale

I’m actually a nice person. I try to be helpful. I add value and I am often compassionate. I’m also an excellent customer since I network and provide word-of-mouth referrals. Most of the time. Things have been difficult this last week, what with the funeral, getting the 16 year old back to school and catching up with work after having been out of town. The garden is choked with weeds, the house so scary that I had been debating hiring one of those emergency cleaning crews that come in after a major catastrophe. The pressure has been intense. I worked most of ...

Rev Up Your Social Media Engine – Ford’s Scott Monty to Drive Sept. 4 Workshop at WGTE Public Media

Whether you’re already a social media maven or don’t know a poke from a tweet, you’ll be a more effective online spokesperson for your organization after attending this year’s Professional Development Workshop. Scott Monty, global digital and multimedia communications manager for Ford Motor Co., Detroit, is an expert on corporate use of social media who also writes on the topic for The Social Media Marketing Blog at www.scottmonty.com. In his talk, he will review guidelines and lessons that companies of any size can use as they enter the world of social media. Make your reservations now for the Northwest Ohio Chapter’s annual ...

A few weeks ago Twitter rolled out a new list function to a limited group of users for beta testing. To my delight (and chagrin) I was one of them. I have had the time to play with this feature and to read many of the posts and evaluations written by other beta testers. According to Twitter List project lead, Nick Kallen, 25% of all Twitter users now have the list function. Word is that Twitter plans to introduce Lists to the general public very soon. You need to start thinking about how you will use the Twitter Lists function when it is made available to you.

What are Twitter Lists?
Twitter Lists let you to organize people into easy-to-manage groups, not unlike the organizational features already available in Twitter management applications like Tweetdeck, Hootsuite and Seesmic. You can create lists based on topics that interest you, solutions you provide your ideal customer, geographic region, tools you have found useful, people who inspire you, etc. It’s up to you. Each list generates a feed with the latest updates from only the people on that list. Your Twitter Lists are public by default but can be made private for your own personal use. You can add or delete people to the lists you create and you can add or delete lists at any time. Unfortunately, for the moment you can only create 20 lists to a Twitter account and you can have no more than 500 people listed on any one list. This may change as Twitter continues to get feedback.

Setting Up Your Twitter Lists
Setting up your Twitter lists is easy but time consuming—for now. If you have the feature enabled you will see a “Create a New List” button on your profile. Type the name of your list into the box and start adding people to your new list. List building is slow going right now, though. You can only add people to your new list by finding them among the Followers or Following lists on your Twitter profile or by going directly to their Twitter profile. Need more information? TechCrunch has posted easy-to-follow directions on how to build your Twitter lists.

Why Is the Twitter Lists Function Valuable?
So why are we so excited about adding a time-consuming list management chore to our days? There are many reasons. For new users, the Twitter experience will be less confusing and less overwhelming as they find lists an easy way to find people to follow. Twitter veterans will enjoy the ease of adding entire lists of people vetted by those they already trust. As Craig Kanalley, of Poynter.org, says in today’s post,” …the public stream of tweets is chaotic and often filled with garbage… With lists you can create several streams flowing with information you want to know, without irrelevant information.” Suddenly we will be able to discover new names, new links, and new information–almost effortlessly as we find, and follow, entire lists created around industries, specialties, geography, and expertise, etc. The number of followers a Twitter user has will become less important than the calibre of lists he, or she, is included in and creates.

How Does This Help Grow Your Business?
The ramifications for using Twitter Lists as a business growth tool are enormous. Inclusion in certain Twitter Lists can quickly build your online trust factor and reputation. Twitter Lists can help increase traffic to your website, or blog, as Twitter users find you in a list, read your tweets and follow to your site to learn more. Lists will go viral as people find them useful and recommend them to others—increasing your visibility.

You are limited only by your creativity (and, perhaps, time constraints) in how you use Twitter Lists to grow your business. Depending on the nature of your business, you will be able to build Twitter Lists that can serve a wide range of business objectives. Your Twitter Lists can be easily customized to fit your specific requirements. Neicole Crepeau addresses this beautifully in her recent post, suggesting that we think strategically and think of Twitter Lists as a marketing tool. Ask yourself the following questions before you start your list building:

• Who are my target customers?
• Do they fall into distinct segments with different needs or interests? If so, define each customer segment.
• What are their goals, as they relate to my area of business?
• What kind of information helps them reach those goals?
• What kind of information is this type of customer generally interested in?
• Who on Twitter regularly tweets that kind of information? What Twitter resources can be valuable to this customer segment, given their goals?

Crepeau posts additional ideas for using Twitter Lists, such as : offering special discounts on products and services; building mini-communities around shared topics of interest; creating contests with short-term lists; and attracting offline participation with people in the real world.

Taking the time today to think through your Twitter List strategy will make the list building process more powerful–and the lists themselves more effective as marketing tools. For more information on building Twitter Lists visit these blog posts:

Twitter Launches Lists: Categorize the People You Follow
What are Twitter Lists?
How Twitter Lists Work
Twitter Lists: group friends and see tweets only from those people
Using Twitter Lists to Grow Your Business
Twitter Lists; Limitations, bugs, impact, and brilliance
How to use Twitter Lists in Your Business

Are you building your Twitter Lists yet? How do you plan to use them?

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