In my last post (click here to see it), I praised the Disney Store for being social with their customers through “social media.”
What a novel idea, right? It saddens me to say that this is a rare practice for large organizations these days. What’s more rare is seeing the heads of large organizations connecting with customers on social media platforms.
To keep the theme alive from my last post, I have to commend Jim Fielding (the President of the Disney Store) for standing out as one of the few business leaders that regularly engages in social media chatter.
If you take a look at the screen shot below (click it to see a full-size version), you’ll see that Jim has posted almost 4,000 tweets and 75 percent of the ones on my screen shot are replies to tweets sent to him by others.
Source: DisneyMBA.com
From what I’ve gathered, it looks like Jim just spends a few minutes here and there on Twitter (as opposed to posting all day long). However, when he’s on Twitter, he’s blasting out responses in a large batch.
Think Outside the Comment Box
Thought #1: Many corporate leaders are afraid of social media because of “haters.” If a customer walked up to a CEO and offered a complaint, I’d like the think that the CEO wouldn’t put his/her fingers in their ears and start chanting “La La La La La.” Instead, they’d have to face the issue head on. Virtual complaints are no different.
Thought #2: Let’s face it, every company wants to be known for excellent customer service. What better way to motivate employees to carry out such a mission when they can see their boss “walking the walk.”
Thought #3: Many business leaders tend to avoid social media because “it takes up too much time.” I don’t have any statistics to quote, but I’m guessing the time it takes to engage customers through social media platforms is way less than the time it takes to win customers back after they’ve left.
Here’s an assignment: find three organizations and/or heads of organizations that you’d like to reach out to through one of their active social media platforms. Once you’ve found your three targets, tell them about a recent experience you had with their company (positive or negative). If you get a response, I’d love for you to share it in the comment box below.
Have fun mingling!
Contributed by Derek Hoffman (NDD #243). Derek is the creator of DisneyMBA.com and writes business-themed posts for The Disney Driven Life.
