Many businesses across the country are grapping with the question: “Should we be using social media?” Or maybe they’re asking an even more pointed and inappropriate question: “Should we be trying to sell more product using social media?” Companies that have been sending direct mail pieces, and running print ads, radio ads, even TV ads… they’re asking themselves, “Is social media a space we should be playing in?”

Scorch’s answer (and my own answer) is a big YES! But perhaps the greater question is, “Which of those traditional interruption-based advertising mediums should we be replacing right now with a devoted and concentrated social media engagement strategy?

When it comes to restaurants’ use of social media, AJ Bombers in Milwaukee, WI is just killing it. Joe Sorge, owner, has used social media exclusively to promote his burger joint, and it’s working because of his undying belief in the medium (along with excellent food. Including a burger with peanut butter on it. Don’t argue with me. Eat it once and you’ll know). You would struggle to find a business owner that’s more on top of the tweets swirling around his business than Joe.

An agency like Scorch can help with something like this, and we do an excellent job. Joe has a leg up and he helps himself, because he truly believes in the core principle of what Gary Vaynerchuk calls, “The Thank You Economy.” When I visited AJ Bombers for the second time in a week to conduct my interview, Joe was engaged in conversation at a customer table. I grabbed a beer and chatted with this staff, thinking he might be awhile. I was right – he spent a ton of time chatting up the folks that made their way into his establishment. Joe is hands-on, both online and offline, and the combination is helping AJ Bombers meet with huge success.

Thanks to Joe for talking to me, and thanks for the hospitality when I came in with my family. My daughters loved throwing peanut shells on the floor! Joe, I’ll be back up next summer – see you for a Quad AJ Burger – I can do it!

Buy Joe’s book, TwitterWorks, Restaurant 2.0 Edition.

Related posts:

1. Scorch Welcomes The Ubiquitous Chris Reimer To The Agency
2. Social Media Day Celebrated By The Social Media Club Of St. Louis
3. What We’re Reading – July 14th 2010 – Hot Links From Scorch

© Chris Reimer for Scorch Agency, 2010. | Permalink | 12 comments
Post tags: AJ Bombers, Chris Brogan, chris reimer, facebook, featured, Foursquare, Joe Sorge, Milwaukee, scorch agency, social media, Social Media for Restaurants, twitter

During the month of May, each time a patron checked in at Mosaic on Foursquare, they received a free Fresh Fruit Mojito (one per day).  The “mayor” of Mosaic on May 31 received a special prize – a $100 bar tab.  The promotion was supported by the handbill creative you see to the left. Hundreds of check-ins later, what had we accomplished? The drink had been sampled by hundreds of consumers, those consumers brought friends with them to Mosaic, and the Lounge had a very good month.

Foursquare is quickly becoming the go-to application for a wide range
of demographics to share what they like, where they’re at and what
they’re into with their entire social network. It’s an untapped
marketing goldmine for brands that want to get their products top-of-mind with the modern consumer.

For most brands however, Foursquare is not necessarily an easy network
to gain traction on. Since you can’t check-in to a product, most brands are holding their breath for someone to figure out how to leverage this technology to acheive their marketing goals. This is where Scorch Agency can help.

Here are the analytics from the promotion:

– 218 public check-ins
– An average of 55 check-ins per week
– Demographic split: 56% men / 44% women
– 10% of check-ins shared on Twitter
– 11% of check-ins shared on Facebook
– Over 200 consumer samplings of Mosaic’s signature summer drink
– Plus many tweets, blog posts, Facebook updates, etc. praising the campaign

Foursquare is still pretty new to the St. Louis area. It is not as widespread as Facebook or Twitter, and yet the promotion brought in a very targeted and upscale demographic to the Lounge.

Here was the creative on the back of the handbill (we hate to waste space):

More unique Foursquare promotions to come!

Related posts:

1. Solving The "Employee As Mayor" On Foursquare Crisis (Yes, Office Politics Has Reached The Shores Of Foursquare)

© Chris Buehler for Scorch Agency, 2010. | Permalink | Be The First To Comment
Post tags: Foursquare, fresh fruit mojito, handbill, Mosaic, promotion

At the July gathering of the Social Media Club of St. Louis, Jason Fiehler, CEO of Infuz, released the findings of a very interesting report. STLTweets.com completed a comprehensive study of the tweets made by St. Louisans during the first six months of 2010. They were able to locate over 220,000 St. Louis Twitter users, and logged almost 5,600,000 tweets they made during the six month period. A great deal of very interesting data was culled from the study (Friday is the biggest usage day, one in seven tweets includes a link, etc).

Near the end of the presentation, the Top 10 Most Influential St. Louis Tweeps were announced.  Jason did the countdown from 10 down to 1, and we were pleased to find out that our own Chris Reimer (@RizzoTees) was named the most influential Saint Louis Tweep for the first six months of 2010. Congratulations Chris!

I can still remember the day I started Scorch Agency, over 18 months ago. Sort of a scary but exciting day for me – I was just a guy and a laptop at a desk.  On that first day, Chris took the time to send me a congratulatory Direct Message on Twitter.  I always appreciated him reaching out to me. Back then he had 15,000 followers. Now he has over 40,000 followers, and he’s tweeted almost 40,000 times. That’s an awful lot of tweeting – don’t worry Chris, we’ll get you the help you need!

Once again, congrats on this “Most Influential” honor. As we go forward, my advice to you is two-fold:

1.  Don’t let it go to your head, and no more holding the award over your head like it’s the Stanley Cup.

2.  Get better after-party celebration food next time.

Here’s video of the presentation, as taken by our friends at @PioneerSTL. The discussion of St. Louis’s most influential begins at 49:50, and Chris gets a little embarrassed at 54:40.

STLTWEETS-SMCSTL PRESENTATION from PioneerSTL on Vimeo.

Thanks again to Jason Fiehler of Infuz, Marc Brooks of STLTweets.com, Hatch Research for hosting, and to the Social Media Club of St. Louis for its continued work in the St. Louis social media community.

Related posts:

1. Scorch Welcomes The Ubiquitous Chris Reimer To The Agency
2. My Presentation On Business Use Of Twitter, Facebook, and Blogging
3. Social Media Day Celebrated By The Social Media Club Of St. Louis

© Chris Buehler for Scorch Agency, 2010. | Permalink | 9 comments
Post tags: #STL, chris reimer, featured, infuz, Jason Fiehler, marc brooks, most influential saint louis twitter user, stltweets.com, twitter, twitter study

I was meeting with a business colleague recently – a company that I would love to work with.  As I was discussing things with the head of marketing, I was explaining what Scorch specializes in and how we might be able to help.  Almost immediately, he said, “I know, I know, social media is the place to be.” The person was trying to assure me that, even though they had no money budgeted for social media, they understood the importance of it.  I believe in it, too – I would not be at my dream job without it.

However, just “being” on social media misses the mark. Social media platforms like Twitter and Facebook are just tools. They are not the magic elixir, or the secret password to get into the exclusive nightclub. They themselves don’t make good things happen. They’re just tools. They are tools that came on the scene, and they will eventually go away or be supplanted (Myspace and Friendfeed, come baaaaack!)

It’s a much bigger deal than just using social media. It is this: no matter what kind of company you are, LET YOUR HAIR DOWN. This is the challenge facing companies and brands today. It’s not about registering a Twitter account and handing it to the summer intern. Great, you opened a Twitter account – here’s your cookie! (*cookie not included). What are you going to do with that account now?

Well, if you shotgun blast buy buy buy messages from it, prepare for disappointment. If your tweets look like they went through “Legal,” that won’t do. If your company has a policy of not engaging people on Twitter for fear of potential negative publicity (yes, there are companies like this), you’re completely missing the boat.

Companies do not need to embrace the idea of talking about their products. They’re already way too good at that. Every company thinks they have the most awesome product ever. I am just as guilty here! My tees and Scorch’s product offerings are so great!  So what?  No one will care unless you engage them, entertain them, inform them, and help them. Traditional marketing sometimes entertains, and sometimes helps. Letting your hair down by using social media allows you to easily do all four.

Radio, TV, print, direct mail, sponsorships, and billboards = traditional media. Come on, let your hair down! Grab a Flip Cam and interview your employees about what it’s like to work for you, and put those videos on YouTube and embed them on your site.  It will help with recruiting, and no, you’re not selling anything at this point. Volunteer in your community AND blog about it. You’re still not selling. Share your expertise in the form of a regular blog series (video, podcast, or the written word. Or all three!). You are still not selling, and yet people will be sold.

Best yet, try to do something as freaking amazing as Old Spice.  Their now-famous series of 200 near-real-time Youtube video responses is, from a marketing logistics perspective, completely shocking.  Try to picture their agency Wieden + Kennedy pitching this idea to a conservative consumer products company like Proctor & Gamble. Pampers, Tide, Bounty…  these are huge venerable family brands that P&G has to protect.  ”So you want to stick a muscular dude in a towel – our now-famous spokesperson – and shoot 200 YouTube videos and blast them out on this Twitter thing? We don’t get it.”  Instead, they said “Go for it.” Proctor & Gamble let their hair down.  Frankly, so did Wieden + Kennedy. They’re in the business of creating high-budget knockout 30 second TV ads, and here they made 200 slightly lower budget ads in two days.  Does this cheapen their high-budget 30-second ad offering?  Who knows, it might! But they went for it anyway. Huge kudos to Proctor & Gamble and Wieden + Kennedy.

What do you guys think? Can architects, CPA firms, law firms, and the like let their hair down and engage, inform, help, and entertain people in a way similar to Old Spice? I encourage you to comment below and let me know what you think.

Related posts:

1. Social Media For Restaurants – It Works!
2. It's OK To Be A Business On Twitter
3. Businesses on Twitter – You Have One Extra Rule To Live By

© Chris Reimer for Scorch Agency, 2010. | Permalink | 7 comments
Post tags: engagement, facebook, featured, flip, flip cam, old spice, old spice man, Proctor and Gamble, twitter, Wieden + Kennedy

Playing the part of Internet DJ, here’s a sampling of what Scorchers have been reading lately.

1.) Darren Rowse at Problogger.net has a nice article on how to get things done when you’re feeling overwhelmed.  Often when we’re freaking out, when we have a plate stacked high with things to do… we end up getting less done.  It can be a paralyzing feeling, and our new 140-character culture is changing us from being task-oriented beings to ADD Shiny Red Ball beings.  Darren’s article is what I call a “duh” article – his four steps seem like common sense.  That’s grand – now go get started!  I have 10+ things on my to-do list today (yes I use lists in an attempt to keep things from slipping through the cracks), and yet I had to force my butt into the Aeron to write this post.  Choose to get things done!

2.) Chris Brogan writes about the countless ways people can now communicate with us. Scorch Agency is in the communication business, so you might think we’d be excited at the explosion of communication options.  However, just look at the list he offers: multiple email accounts (some with chat), Facebook (wall, chat, private message), Twitter (public tweets and DMs), SMS, the contact form on your website or websites, LinkedIn, the telephone (even voicemail!), and face to face. I didn’t even include Google Wave or Google Buzz. Companies are being communicated with on each platform, and the trick is to listen extremely well and communicate back. Chris’ point is spot-on — this new world actually makes a smart phone completely necessary.

3.) Renée Revetta over on Marketing Pilgrim writes about Facebook’s ability to dynamically create ads for your business.  When you provide Facebook Ads a URL, it instantly creates a suggested Facebook ad for you by pulling the title tag, meta description, and an image associated with the main content. For those that want to get an ad done quickly, Renée thinks the service works pretty well.  However, if your ad requires a specific call to action, you’ll probably want to edit your auto-generated ad content.

Related posts:

1. Mike’s Favorite Tweets (and Blog Posts) for The Week: May 31st – June 4th
2. Get More Twitter Followers
3. The Top 50 Tweets That Businesses Should Be Doing

© Chris Reimer for Scorch Agency, 2010. | Permalink | 6 comments
Post tags: Chris Brogan, Darren Rowse, facebook, getting things done, GTD, hot links, links, Marketing Pilgrim, Problogger, twitter

The cow on Mid Rivers Mall Drive across from Vista Grande is on Facebook! That’s right! Bessie! An offbeat St. Peters landmark for many years, with the crazy seasonal clothes and hats, a random backyard cow statue now has a huge Facebook fan page.

First, some background. The Cow on Mid Rivers Mall Dr. has been in a private backyard facing the road for several years. The owners change its clothes based on the seasons, current events, or important causes. Bessie joined Facebook on Friday, May 4th, 2010, and in that short time, she has gained almost 9,000 incredibly localized fans from all age groups. The page has hundreds of comments from St. Peters natives sharing stories and memories about the cow.

This has marketing relevance for several reasons as it relates to the demographic of St. Charles, and it’s worth bringing to the attention of those who aren’t in on the silly suburban joke. And it’s not that St. Charles people are crazy – don’t be jealous that we have more Wal-Marts than you. What makes the St. Charles business culture unique?

1) St. Charles residents connected with a quirk in their physical landscape. Of particular importance to St. Charles is that much of the landscape in the county looks pretty similar. Lacking the mash-up variety and personality of urban St. Louis, the suburban sprawl of St. Charles is overly familiar.

2) St. Charles residents connect with their families. Many people left comments saying something about their children always wanting to see “what was up with the cow today!” Families are dominant in St. Charles culture.

3) St. Charles residents connect with each other. Things like this recurred among the comments on their page:

4) Most importantly, St. Charles residents connect with Facebook! Almost 9,000 fans in two months for a plastic cow? That’s incredible! And if my own family and their friends are an accurate core sample, Facebook is hoppin’ in St. Charles.

Strangely enough, though, if you conduct a search on Facebook for businesses in “St. Charles, MO,” and narrow by Pages (the now-standard business pages on Facebook), you get 28 results. Only 28! Conversely, there are 252 Groups found under the same search, the top of which is just for St. Charles enthusiasts and it has almost 4,000 members.

What is this giant Facebook divide between community and business? Are businesses skeptical of the power of social media? St. Charles is actually a treasure trove of opportunity for the right business willing to embrace Facebook as part of their marketing strategy. Unifying this tool with a real-life relationship—with a person, place, product or plastic cow—could yield tremendous results for a savvy business owner.

The moral of the story is much bigger than St. Charles, MO.  Business owners everywhere just need to take the leap into social media, on their own or with agency help, and give it an honest chance. No matter if you’re in New York City or in a farm town, members of your community are on Facebook!

Related posts:

1. Imo’s Pizza – The Store Launch Beyond Compare
2. My Presentation On Business Use Of Twitter, Facebook, and Blogging
3. The Social Media Divide

© Jenn Cloud for Scorch Agency, 2010. | Permalink | 7 comments
Post tags: Bessie the Cow, facebook, Facebook fan page, social media, social media adoption, St. Charles

Due to the size of my Twitter network, I am often asked, “How do I get more Twitter followers?” People really want to increase their follower count, and they don’t want it to take months or years. I mean, microwave ovens don’t even cook my food fast enough.  I want results now! There are a range of ways to circumvent Mother Nature and increase your Twitter following FAST. Here’s how you do it:

• Mass-follow thousands of accounts. It doesn’t matter who it is – just follow them, tons of them, and watch your numbers go up! Even if there are a few porno accounts in there, screw it – no one will ever know.
• If you can use a robotic program to make all of this happen FAST, then use it. Some of these services ask for your Twitter login credentials. You do trust them, right?
• Offer to donate money for each new follower you get. Or alternatively, promise you’ll donate money if you reach a certain follower milestone. Rest assured that you’re on the honor system here – no one will be able to verify if you really made the donation or not.
• Engage in list bribing. Much like follower bribing, where you promise to follow someone if they follow you, you promise to throw someone on a list if they’ll list you. The more lists you’re on, the more followers you might get.
• Buy Twitter followers. Simply Google “buy Twitter followers” and find the paid answer to your problems. Does this violate Twitter’s Terms of Service?  It’s up to you to research this.
• Buy Twitter accounts. Some people use bots to build Twitter accounts and then sell them. This is a fast way to build an army of accounts with hundreds of thousands of followers. What kind of followers are in these accounts? Do you care? We’re here to grow a Twitter following, not make friends.
• Once you gather a massive Twitter following, don’t forget to run ads in your tweetstream. You would be foolish not to cash in on what your bot has built for you! I am sick of people with yellow teeth, aren’t you?

And if you haven’t figured out that I’m being facetious, then you might actually be a candidate to use some of these techniques.

If you truly want to have a meaningful Twitter experience while building a nice following, try these techniques instead:

• Have a completed Twitter bio, and use a picture in your avatar. Folks are way more apt to follow you if you use your picture. (full disclosure: I don’t use my picture as my avatar. It’s a marketing thing – I make my latest t-shirt offering my avatar – it helps sell tees. Yes, I’m being hypocritical here. If you want to see what I look like, page down to the bottom of this blog post!)
• Promote your Twitter profile by linking to it on your eCommerce site, blog, Facebook profile, Digg profile, and even your email signature. If you’re ever making a public speaking appearance, make sure to mention your Twitter account in your presentation and on any handout materials.
• Follow engaging human beings. As I talk about near the end of this post, it’s perfectly OK to follow those that are interesting to you. In a relationship, someone has to make the first move.
• Be engaging. Talk with folks. Talk with them again after they respond to you. Respond to everyone that tweets you. You’re making (e)friends. Doesn’t this seem like real life? If you’re a business, you especially want to engage those that are your targeted demographic (i.e. your customers!). Use search.twitter.com to find those that are in your twitter wheelhouse.
• Jump in on conversations. These can be conversations among friends, or trending topics. Tweeters are more apt to follow you if you’re interesting and human (read: not spammy or botty).
• Ask your followers questions. Not only will people appreciate being asked for their opinion, but you’ll probably receive some information you can use. David Siteman Garland does this quite well.
• Follow back those that you care about. As I discuss here, the followback is very important. The very fact that you’re reading this post means you’re interested in increasing your following. Don’t others feel the same way? How many people are following you right now, just waiting for you to follow them back. Don’t delay – go check now! If you don’t scan your followers list at least once a week and follow folks you like, you risk alienating those that found you interesting enough to follow you. If this sounds like work, it is.
• Help others. Don’t ask – just do.
• Tweet about the things you like. This is how you build a personal brand – be yourself. I like red wine, Audi A8′s, and the NBA, and my followers know that. Who cares if no one likes the NBA. I do!
• Tweet. Not five times a day, not ten times a day. Tweet as many times as it takes. Yes, the tweets need to be interesting – make them good. But do realize that more tweets equals more visibility. You will actually lose some followers this way, so finding the balance is key. I’ve actually been unfollowed and then told, “You were just jamming up my tweetstream.” I can live with that unfollow. What kind of tweets should you do? Whether you’re a business or not, here’s a great list.
• Most of all, stop worrying about the numbers! One of the most powerful Twitter brands I know has 6,000 followers. That’s not 100,000 followers, or a million followers. Just 6,000 close friends. Don’t obsess over this stuff. Just enjoy yourself. Like most of life, the rest will come out in the wash.

Related posts:

1. Top 7 Twitter Tips – How I Use Twitter
2. Scorch Agency CMO Named Most Influential Saint Louis Twitter User By STLTweets.com
3. Mike’s Favorite Tweets (and Blog Posts) for The Week: May 31st – June 4th

© Chris Reimer for Scorch Agency, 2010. | Permalink | 26 comments
Post tags: building a twitter following, get more followers, increase twitter followers, increase twitter following, twitter, twitter following

June 30, 2010 was Social Media Day across the globe.  A day to celebrate the revolution that social media is bringing to the doorsteps of communication, networking, friendships, personal branding, and business branding, over 600 meetups were held all over the world. St. Louisans celebrated at Gio’s Ristorante in conjunction with the Social Media Club of St. Louis.

The night was filled with #smday tweets, great weather out on the patio, and over 150 good friends celebrating together.  By all accounts, the worldwide event was a huge success, and the second annual Social Media Day is only 360 days away!  Scorch was very glad to be able to assist with the venue.

Check out the gallery of event photos here, and thank you to everyone that attended!

Related posts:

1. Write a Blog to Enhance Your Personal Brand
2. Social Media For Restaurants – It Works!
3. Scorch Agency CMO Named Most Influential Saint Louis Twitter User By STLTweets.com

© Chris Reimer for Scorch Agency, 2010. | Permalink | 8 comments
Post tags: Business Branding, featured, Gio's Ristorante, Mashable, personal branding, Social Media Club, Social Media Day

Ironically, the best feedback that I received on the initial post was via Facebook, about a week later.

Well Allison, I have taken part of your advice for now. This installment includes some of my favorite tweets and blog posts, by people other than just social media folks, and is geared more around great uses of the protocol(s) for starting the conversation. Any conversation that is!

—

(1) The #needWaffle campaign. A Twitter conversation between @michaeltomko and @NadozCafe.

[note: The word "touché" is not being correctly displayed in the above tweet. Thank you Blackbird Pie]

I’ll admit, I was most definitely baiting Nadoz Café to figure out a way to respond to the gauntlet that I had publicly thrown down. In my mind I was going to see 1 of 3 possible “reactions”.

1. They wouldn’t respond to the bait.
2. They’d go all Nestle on me.
3. They’d come back with something either witty, creative or both.

In all honesty, Nadoz Café far exceeded my expectations and came back with something not only witty and creative, but also quite worthy of me publicizing via word-of-mouth, social media and now this blog post. This is a fantastic example of a small business using social media to create empowered, and localized, advocates of their brand. And the other very important thing to realize here is that I haven’t even been in to eat their food yet and I’m already evangelizing how impressed I am with them. Thank you Nadoz for showing me the person(s) behind the curtain and responding to my bait like a real person would. I will be in very soon to claim my waffle.

—

(2) “Google Rolls Out Local Business Tags Nationwide, Soon on Mobile Too” via @SEOPRO4U

A quick post by Arnold Zafra at the Search Engine Journal documenting a cool and inexpensive new way to get yours, or your clients’, businesses to stand out in search.

If you’re running a local business and you have placed listings on Google.com or Google Maps, you can enhance your listing with yellow tag emphasizing specific information about your business such as coupon, video, website, menu, reservations, photos and even custom messages. Getting this yellow tag to appear on your Google listings is not free though. You would have to pay a flat monthly fee of $25. The tags will not affect your listings’ rank and Google will clearly indicated which parts of the search results are sponsored when you’re local business is displayed.

—

(3) “Products That Are Earth-and-Profit Friendly” via @sarahfelts

A lengthy article by Sindya N. Bhanoo at The New York Times that goes in-depth into the growing trend of businesses making a concerted effort to incorporate sustainability into their products. Great read!

As the world’s greatest soccer players take to the fields at the FIFA World Cup in South Africa, many are wearing jerseys made almost entirely from plastic bottles rescued from landfills in Japan and Taiwan.

—

(4) “Farewell to Globe Drug Store on Cherokee” via @jcohen111

This blog entry from B.E.L.T. really hits home for me. As a fellow Cherokee Street resident, I’ve frequented Globe Drugs for awhile now. It is really sad to see it go as it was one of the few remaining landmarks on Cherokee still in operation.

The Cherokee Street News broke the news that the venerable Globe Drug store had closed its doors, and got the sentiment right in the headline: 1939-2010. It does feel like a friend has died.

—

(5) “Cassette Lamp” via @emilyfitzhugh

Do I really have to tell you how cool this is? I need one of these for my desk!

—

(6) “Trying To Make A Right Out of Two Wrongs Or Why We Started Our ‘Sprockets’ Program” via @spoke_marketing

Spoke Marketing is doing the St. Louis marketing community proud with their Sprockets Program. As someone who has helped coach and place interns before, I have had to have the conversation many times about paying ones dues. The analogy I often use is that if a you pass an empty coffee pot, it doesn’t matter if you are the gopher or the owner, you start a fresh pot. That said, interns are all too often abused and treated as if they are only worthy of scrubbing the toilet. The rule of thumb should be that if the owner of the company isn’t willing to do the work, then it isn’t fair to make an intern do it either.

The goal of Sprockets is to solve these two problems by letting our interns work on pro bono projects for nonprofits, and early stage start-ups. The clients get free marketing help, and the interns get a meaningful experience, a portfolio, and case studies to show future employers.

Don’t worry…we don’t just throw our interns to the wolves. We work with them on each of the projects, point them in the right direction, ask the right questions, and help them make the right decisions. But, at the end of the day (summer), the decisions are theirs, the work is theirs, and the success is theirs.

They might learn that they hate marketing, and that they should go to dental school. But at least they won’t learn it basking in the glow of a copy machine.

Well done guys. This is a great program.

—

(7) “Dear Honda Lawnmower” via @amveats

Schlafly Summer Lager now comes in a can. That’s all you need to know.

—

If you want to get your tweet featured here A) follow me and B) write better tweets! As always, your feedback is much appreciated. Until next week…

Related posts:

1. Mike’s Favorite Tweets (and Blog Posts) for The Week: May 31st – June 4th
2. Twitter Is Just For Meal Updates… And Getting Stuff DONE!
3. My Presentation On Business Use Of Twitter, Facebook, and Blogging

© Mike Tomko for Scorch Agency, 2010. | Permalink | 6 comments
Post tags: blogging, facebook, globe drugs, google, green, nadoz cafe, schlafly, seo, social media, spoke marketing, sprockets, st. louis, sustainability, twitter, world cup

Case in point: When you’ve simply had enough with the lousy customer service you’re receiving over the phone, hang up and jump on Twitter!

Our CEO Chris Buehler was having serious trouble with Adobe CS4. We own two licenses, and one of the licenses left with a former employee. That left us with only one license, and we paid for and need two. This led to CS4 crashes and an inability to use the suite of programs during a critical time for Scorch Agency. We had been unable to regain control of the second license, so Chris called Adobe and requested that they issue a new serial number. Three calls later, we were in a holding pattern. We had a case number, and were awaiting a callback from Adobe. In other words, we weren’t getting anywhere. Meanwhile, Chris was working on some very important creative and a big proposal. Computer trouble equals major frustration, and Chris was getting quite frustrated.

I told him to let me have a crack at the problem. He emailed me the case number, and I went straight to Twitter.  My opening salvo:

#1

Thanks Scott! Case# is [ redacted ] – the name on the case is Chris Buehler (Scorch Agency CEO). I’m the CMO at Scorch. (2nd DM coming….)

#2

Poor Chris – I hate to see my boss in pain! He’s using InDesign last night and it crashes – former employee has S/N and we cannot get back

#3

I’m very sorry to trouble you about this, but calls to Adobe are not getting it done. We’re cranking out proposals & creative, but ….

#4

… but we’re fighting our Adobe products to get it all done. Anything you can do to help us with our two licenses will be appreciated!

The result? A DM to me from Adobe two hours later:

Chris, I have sent Mr. Buehler an email from your case with the new serial #. The old serial has been deactivated ^ScottV

I received this Direct Message while at a networking lunch with Chris – I whispered to him across the table, “Check your email.” He proceeded to mouth “Rock on!” to me. Sweet victory!

I publicly thanked Adobe (which I think is important)

We chatted about this around the office – why is Twitter the last line of defense when it comes to great customer service? Why have I found myself banging my head against the wall trying to get a problem resolved, frustrated beyond belief, unable to get phone supervisors to step and in and just fix the problem….. and then the Twitter customer service team just takes care of it? Are companies staffing their Twitter teams with the best of the best? Or are these employees specially empowered? Leave a comment and let us know your thoughts.

Related posts:

1. Mike’s Favorite Tweets (and Blog Posts) for The Week: May 31st – June 4th
2. Scorch Welcomes The Ubiquitous Chris Reimer To The Agency
3. Mike’s Favorite Tweets (and Blog Posts) for The Week: June 5th – June 13th

© Chris Reimer for Scorch Agency, 2010. | Permalink | 20 comments
Post tags: Adobe, Customer Service, DirecTV, McDonalds, scorch agency, solving problems, twitter