Businesses Using Social Media the Right Way
December 1, 2008 by Colleen Coplick
Filed under Social Media
I spent the weekend working on a Christmas gift for our families. Photos were edited, accounts created and by Sunday afternoon, I was ready to start doing the layout for my Blurb book.
It didn’t really take me too long before I got frustrated, mainly with myself and the software and our interaction. I tweeted my annoyance and then promptly went out to run a few errands. An hour or so later, around 430 or 5 pm, my phone trilled with a message
“@colleencoplick what are you trying to do? i’m blurb’s marketing director – maybe i can help.”
On a Sunday afternoon. Of the US Thanksgiving long weekend.
I was floored.
I got home, and replied to Mike, who pretty much immediately hopped onto GTalk with me and helped me through my software troubles, got me set on the right path, AND offered me $50 off my order with a personalized discount code. I was amazed and delighted that he was so responsive.
Turns out that Mike has a daily Twitter search that he runs to see what’s being said out in the world, and he saw my frustrated tweet. Talk about utilizing social media tools the right way! He’s tweeting as himself, but is there to help the community in any way he can.
It’s amazing when you run into a company using social media the right way, but combines that with outstanding customer service! Blurb should definitely hang onto Mike, he’s pretty fantastic!
The only problem is if someone else uses the word “blurb” (which we do – “hey can you send me a little blurb about so and so”) and of course, Summize will pick it up!
Nice to hear they are in social media!
Stories like these make me smile. Thanks for sharing, and hope you don’t mind if I share it with some of my clients!
@Raul – sure Summize with pick it up, but those are easy to weed through. I don’t see that as a big issue.
@Sameer – Sure, thanks for asking! Be sure to point them here for more info! :)
Thanks Colleen, I’ll be sure to send them the link. Always best to hear good stories from the people that experienced them, right? =)
Whoa, a Blurb book. Just checked out the website, and it looks like something that’s right up my alley! I created a scrapbook for my family for Christmas a few years ago that was a big hit! The process, however (printing out those photos manually, buying all the materials, gluing things together), was oh so arduous and a mess.
A Blurb book seems like the perfect way to keep the creation process digital and have the physical product printed and delivered right to my door.
Do I have that about right? Colleen, would like to more about your experience in creating a Blurb book yourself. If it’s positive, I may just take the plunge. After all, Christmas is but a few weeks away!
That’s great! Tweetgrid.com is another good service for monitoring tweets of various keywords.
That sounds like an amazing customer service experience. I hope more companies see the value in social media. Obviously Mike and his company do; and they used the medium in the right way.
This is a great story! I had a similar experience with MarketWire, I tweeted to ask if anyone had used them and got a response from them almost immediately. GREAT way for companies to use SM!