In a recent video post, Time Managing Editor Josh Tyrangiel explained how to tell a story across multiple media. I found this fascinating because it reminded me that social media is about telling a good story.
Think about it. Why else are companies getting into Social Media if not to give their customers a compelling story to share with friends and colleagues? After all, you need to have a story worth talking about if you want them to spread positive word of mouth.
Here are some examples:
- A confused customer asks for help on a company’s fan page in Facebook – and both an employee and a fan offer to help, even though they live in completely different areas of the country.
- A dissatisfied customer posts a Tweet asking for an earlier appointment. Six minutes later, a customer service rep tweets back “Can you DM the info to me, I will take care of ya–”
- A happy customer purchases a baby stroller, shoots a video review, shares it on YouTube, and someone else leaves a comment saying, “My wife and I were just looking at this stroller – and will probably go for it.”
- An executive at a retailer shares a fun and interesting photo on Facebook showing what his employer used to look like, thus making a connection with the past and sharing it in the present.
These are all real-world examples from H&R Block, Comcast, Graco, and Meijer (*).
Bottom Line:
Don’t pigeonhole Social Media solely as something that’s “cool.” Use the tools and platforms to empower your fans and advocates to share a really good story with their friends and colleagues.
(Hat tip to Guy Kawasaki and Alltop for the video)
(*) Disclosure: Meijer is a client of my employer, Empower MediaMarketing. This is my own opinion.
Your Turn
Do you have other examples to share of companies using social media to help fans tell a good story? Please share it.
Tags: Comcast, Facebook, Graco, H&R Block, Meijer, Social Media, Twitter, video
The point of giving your customers a voice, and making that voice personal and important through letting them tell their story is nice.
Thanks for sharing!
I’d like to recomment the David Lynch produced Interview Project as inspiration too, Do a Google search and you’ll find it.
The first 2 examples are essentially customer service requests & responses…which have become commonplace, table-stakes for social media already, esp. on Twitter. But I don’t quite see how they illustrate “telling stories”?
Ulstrup — My pleasure! You’re very welcome.
Kevin — Good question. The customer service episode where someone reached out and got an actual response back is the story itself. That’s worth talking about and sharing with friends.
Think back to your own experience. When was the last time you got above-board, world-class, outstanding customer service? You probably told at least one other person, if not many.
By going above and beyond for their customers, these companies are trying to create the same experience that compels one individual to tell the story to another.
Providing a channel of communication for fans (or as I call them, “potential clients”) is a prerequisite to have a word of mouth overload. With so much social media platforms these days, giving them a voice can positively get your brand almost anywhere.
What now seems like ages ago I wrote a short article that highlighted several success stories on how a credit union (my employer) used Twitter.
Just thought I’d share since this article hit on some customer service examples. The article can be found here: http://bit.ly/ziefJ.
Ryan