Blogs

      With over 150 million blogs available to view, it's easy to find one that not only interests you, but also keeps you reading every time a new post is published. Topic matter of blogs range from cooking to politics and everyday life to new science discoveries. Businesses have found this venue helpful, but so have stay at home moms. In essence, anyone from any background can use and maintain a blog because they are free, easy to use, and effective. 
     Among the most common of blog hosts are Blogger.com and Wordpress.com. Both are free and have a simple and easy layout. Without knowing any HTML anyone can create a blog, arrange a layout, change the background, and frequently update it with new posts. All in hopes that someone will care enough to read what you have been writing and be interested in the topic you are discussing. 
     Blogs often start out personal. They are small and have a handful of readers that often know the blogger personally. Sometimes however, a blog can begin to attract many followers and eventually become a popular website. This is the case for one of my favorite blogs to read, www.howsweeteats.com. 
     This daily updated cooking blog started on September 14, 2009. Since then it has grown to have thousands of readers. Alexa, a web information company, reports that HowSweetEats has a traffic ranking of 30,968. Which despite the seemingly large number, is very good considering the hundreds of thousands of sites on the web. 
      This woman started a simple blog detailing something she was passionate about. By expressing her joy and love about cooking in her own voice and style she became convincing and intriguing to others. She was effective and as a result has a very popular and well read blog. HowSweetEats.com is one story of many who have become popular through the daily chronicles of life, hobbies, and passions. 

Religion Online

           It's no secret that social media is changing the way businesses interact with their customers and people keep up relationships with friends and family, but social media has also made a big splash in the religious sector. Various religious organizations across the world such as the Catholic and LDS faiths have started to use YouTube, Twitter and Facebook campaigns to raise awareness of their beliefs and who they are. Another example is OurJewishCommunity.org. While they do not represent the entire Jewish religion, this congregation uses social media effectively to hold worship services on a weekly basis.

"As our lives get busier and more transient, making the trek to the same brick-and-mortar synagogue for services can present a barrier to involvement in the Jewish community," says Rabbi Laura Baum. This is why she has helped to build and lead the world's largest online synagogue. (Baum) With thousands of followers in dozens of countries, this world-wide congregation is changing the way many choose to worship and connect with fellow Jews.

Every Friday evening, the time of the Jewish Sabbath, a sermon is presented by Rabbis Laura Baum and Robert Barr, but not in a synagogue or other place of worship. Their sermon is only streamed over the internet where many members of the congregation check-in and chat via Facebook and Twitter both during and after the sermon. Baum comments, "The reality is that relationships built and maintained online, using tools like Facebook, Twitter and Skype, are increasingly common and can even be stronger than physical connections...If someone mentions one week on the chat that they have a relative who is ill, often people will inquire about them the next week." (Baum) In this way, the members are able to connect and be part of each other's lives without being physically present or geographically close. 

The influence of social media and technology are only becoming stronger in today's ever evolving world. It is bringing people closer, as is evidenced by the worship practices of this Jewish congregation. While this type of worship may not be conducive to many, I foresee other religions taking a similar route to connect with more people of their faith throughout various parts of the world. 

Works Cited

Baum, Laura. "Belief Blog: My Faith: Why I lead an online synagogue." 4 October 2010. CNN. 23 January 2012.

Social Media and the Social Customer

On January 6, 2012, Minhee Cho entered the Papa John’s pizza restaurant near her home in Manhattan. She ordered her pizza, but upon receiving her receipt (pictured below) was shocked to discover that the employee had recorded her name as “lady chinky eyes” instead of asking for her real name. The next morning she took a picture of the receipt and tweeted it with the comment, “Just FYI my name isn’t ‘lady chinky eyes.’” Within 24 hours her tweet had been reported by a local newspaper and viewed by over 200,000 people. (Duke)

In July of 2009 Dave Carroll, a musician, uploaded a video to YouTube (below) entitled “United Breaks Guitars.” This short music video details his experience on United Airlines as a passenger who took a simple flight, discovered that his guitar had been broken, and had poor customer service when it came to resolving (or in his case not resolving) the issue. The video went viral instantly and today boasts over 11 million views. (Bernoff and Schadler)

Early in 2010 members of the organization Greenpeace started posting comments on Nestle’s Facebook page. They were upset that Nestle was using Palm oil in their products and wanted their opinion to be heard. By using Facebook, this organization was able to bring awareness of their opinions and experience with the company to Nestle’s nearly 300,000 fans. (Bernoff and Schadler)

Stories such as these are not uncommon in today’s world. Customers dissatisfied with the service rendered by a company are likely to tweet about it on Twitter, post something on Facebook, or create a video about it on YouTube among a myriad of other internet avenues. With customers constantly on social media and customer review websites such as consumerreports.org or Yelp.com, it is not enough to have a web presence. At this time it is absolutely essential for every business, big or small, to have a social media presence as well.

Customer service has taken on different meaning with the addition of Facebook and Twitter. Employees and customers can now be connected instantly and have meaningful conversations about the service they have received. Best Buy has implemented this practice through the use of Twelpforce, employees who are over and respond to the social media. Having done this, Best Buy is now known for their customer service online. (Bernoff and Schadler) This kind of personalization has brought business closer to the consumer-especially when they respond quickly. Paul Simon, author of The New Small, says the following about the social media customer, “The social customer expects you to listen and engage with her, not only when it coincides with an e-mail blast or new feature release, but rather when she needs you. And you better respond fast, in real-time, or she will either move on to a competitor, or tell her friends about her bad experiences.” (Simon)

Around 4:30 on January 6^th, the day Minhee Cho tweeted the picture of her receipt, Papa John’s posted this comment on Facebook, “We were extremely concerned to learn of the receipt issue in New York. This act goes against our company values, and we’ve confirmed with the franchisee that this matter was addressed immediately and that the employee is being terminated. We are truly sorry for this customer’s experience.” (Pizza) Instantly Papa John’s was able to connect with their 2,000,000 fans to alleviate the situation. While their actions were great to respond so quickly, they unfortunately did not follow up on the issue. Of the 991 comments to that post, none were from Papa John’s pizza company. If they had taken the time to respond to at least some of these comments they would have been able to address some of the other customer service issues that fans wrote about and thus better promote and save their brand image.

In order to stay ahead of your competition and understand more about your customers, it is essential to be part of the social media trend. If you take part, you can ensure that you are doing what is necessary to promote your brand image and stay connected to your customers.

Sources

Bernoff, Josh and Ted Schadler. "Empowered." Harvard Business Review (2010): 94-101. Issue 7/8.

Duke, Alan. Papa John's apologizes for receipt's racial slur. 8 January 2012. CNN US. 13 January 2012.

Pizza, Papa John's. Facebook. 6 January 2012. 13 January 2012.

Simon, Phil. "Review: The Rise of the Social Customer and Social Technologies." Baylor Business Review (2011): 24-25.