It is no secret that I am a huge online social networking nutcase. If you need evidence you can just visit one of my many social networking profile pages listed on the left there.

The world is moving at about 5,000 miles a second anymore at least when it comes to how information gets to us. We are slowly seeing print newspapers dissolve, I might even be off when I guessed that citizen journalism will have overtaken the journalism industry in two years on the Will Young show back in August of this year. This onslaught of social media mediums is also changing the way that companies are doing business.

On twitter I am followed by and follow Starbucks, Wordpress, Southwest Airlines, Panchero’s Mexican Grill, Whole Foods Markets and Plato’s Closet. I believe that these companies are on the cutting edge of not only customer service but also public relations. I’ve seen evidence of both with my (blog) friends Anne and Pete.
Back in April of this year Anne was traveling and experienced some issues with a particular airline. Now, please understand that Anne is a very nice person (or at least comes off that way in most of her blog posts…I’ve never actually met her) so when I read an entry by her titled “American Airlines is the devil” I knew that the problem was quite severe, at least from a customer service stand point. Somehow American Airlines caught wind of it and issued her an apology, among other things. Through an e-mail from Anne and a post about the situation American Airlines realized just how much significant a roll the internet and social media plays in creating potential public relations scabs or, in some cases even scars. I think their actual acceptance of that fact goes above and beyond proving the level of customer service they wish to provide their customers. (I still only fly Southwest though but, for unrelated reasons ;-))
More recently Pete experienced some issues with a music stores advertising. Pete felt like their advertising was a bit of a Bait and Switch. He “tweeted” about it on twitter and received a reply from an executive with the music store. Needless to say I’m fairly confident Pete was satisfied with the end result. The music store sent him quite a nice apology in both the form of words (the most important) and in “gifts.”

Now, before I go any further let me make one thing clear: Anne and Pete are insanely incredible human beings…without having ever met them I can guarantee that they did not post their frustrations with their respective companies for the sake of obtaining “free stuff.” So those of you who have that idea in your head right now can go ahead and drop it.

Both their stories are I believe shining examples of how companies MUST respond to the social networking age. If a company does not have one full time employee devoted to searching out their online reputation then they are doing themselves a great injustice. Every day normal folks like you and I are blogging, tweeting, and posting information about companies and our experiences and those companies need to be responding. They need to demonstrate that the customer is first and foremost! Last Saturday I tweeted that I was going to try Panchero’s Mexican Grill for the first time on the advice of a co-worker. I really enjoyed the food and tweeted my joy too and within an hour I received a notice that “Pancheros is now following you on Twitter” and also a reply from them thanking me for patronizing their business and how glad they were that I enjoyed it. Southwest Airlines and Starbucks are both ALWAYS holding contests for customers through twitter and I honestly believe they have strengthened their customer base as a result.

If you are a business owner, whether small or large, the social networking bandwagon is one that you need to get on. NOT because it is a bandwagon (I HATE bandwagons) but, because it will end up costing your companies hundreds, if not thousands or potentially MILLIONS in lost revenue or profit. I promise you. If you don’t believe me just ask Anne or Pete how many people view their blog on a daily basis…they’re way more popular than I am and I receive anywhere from 85 to 250 hits a day and only about 8 percent of those are search engine spiders.

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