KPLU Local News
(2010-03-15)
Listen Now:
null
AP Photo
Madhu Rao, an Associate Professor at Seattle University says things are a lot different today, "I think companies have realized they no longer control the entire marketing communications plan."
Rao says big businesses got a wake up call last summer, thanks to a creative, ticked off musician named Dave Carol who was traveling on a United Airlines flight.
"Somebody noticed they were throwing guitars around and one of them turned out to be his. And he wrote a song about it and posted it on YouTube because United wasn't getting back to him."
So far Carol's YouTube video has more than 8-million hits and counting and United Airlines was left with a lot of very bad press. Rao says sites, like YouTube, Facebook, Twitter and Yelp are turning the tables on businesses large and small. The control of the message has moved from the corporate office, to the consumer communicating with other consumers. How do businesses get that control back?
Many are starting to invest in social media teams. These are people whose sole job is to monitor what is being said about their company online. One business that's embracing this approach is the largest cable operator in the country; Comcast. Shauna Causey works for its communications department in Seattle. She recently spoke at a conference in Seattle about using social media as a marketing tool. Causey says Comcast has 11 social media specialists across the country, and they are all very busy.
"We interact with people via email, 7-thousand emails a month. We review 500 to 1-thousand forum entries each day; six thousand blog posts a day. And we reach out to about one-thousand people on Twitter a day. And about 200 to 300 hundred respond to us and we engage them in conversation."
One disgruntled Comcast customer with 500 Facebook friends can be like a loaded gun. So, Causey says the goal is to respond to the consumer's needs quickly and keep them happy to prevent any bad word of mouth.
"We're listening to them and figuring out how we can make our products better, how we can improve our customer service. and not only are we listening, but we are taking that feedback and implementing that into our products as we go. And that has been the most beneficial thing for us."
This might be working well for large companies, with deeper pockets. But what about smaller businesses like the neighborhood coffee shop? Hanson Hosein is in charge of the Masters Program for Digital Media at the University of Washington. He says maintaining this direct access to the customer is not so easy.
"Social media, although the platforms are free, you can not do it for free. It takes a lot of time and attention. if you are going to cultivate that community you have to be in touch with them. SO if you are a small business person, you have to find the time to be connected to your computer or your smart-phone to respond to this and that's very difficult."
And for consumers, there is the issue of privacy. In order to have this voice that company's are now paying attention to, you have to make yourself be known.
"So, yeah, there are certain privacy issues, because now they can reach you directly, as opposed to a radio ad. But it's also more targeted to your interests and so there is a reason why you might want to surrender some of that privacy," says Hosein.
Businesses are just starting to quantify in dollars the positive impact of social media is having on their bottom lines. One thing is certain, it is here for the long haul. Researchers say younger consumers do not respond to traditional advertising. They tune it out. They don't want to be talked at. They want to be part of a conversation.
JW, KPLU News, Seattle. © Copyright 2012, KPLU
