This past week, I felt just how powerful social media here in Birmingham can be.
A couple of weeks back, I went to Social Fresh Nashville. It was great to rub elbows with Community Managers and CEOs who are living proof that social media can stay social and benefit a business (ROI anyone?).
In the ROI of Community Building panel, I remember DJ from Blue Sky Factory and Amber from Radian 6 talking about how your community will protect you. Essentially what they were saying is that if something blows up while you’re not around for some reason (sleep, dinner, vacation, sleep, driving, etc), you’re community will step up to the plate for you until you can take care of a situation. Assuming, of course, you’re cultivating a good community, of which Amber and DJ do a great job.
Fast forward to Thursday of last week. I had this very same conversation with Mellanie from Taziki’s (@tazikis_bham) during a meeting. It was more of a tidbit at the end of a conversation, but a serious point nonetheless.
Not less than an hour later (distance from Taziki’s in Hoover to Wal-mart in Roebuck, minus a pitstop to Burlington Coat Factory), I had a chance to run lead blocker for Mellanie.
I was checking my Twitter feed before going to pick up some zucchini (love the stuff) when I noticed that @heydusti had had a bad experience at one of the local Taziki’s. I also noticed that she had used the wrong @reply to get to Mellanie directly. So, I sent a simple tweet saying to @heydusti that I think that Mellanie may want to chat.
Within 5 minutes the entire situation was taken care of. Mellanie caught up with @heydusti and hear what happened. I hear Mellanie even did some followup within the location to get to the root of the problem, which was a simple fix. No one got in trouble and a little education was all that was necessary.
My point is that if you are good to your customers and your customers see that, they can be your most powerful marketing/pr tool of all (adverts, TV spots be damned). How do I know this? Because I have heard from at least from at least 2 people in person they were watching and liked how @tazikis_bham handled the situation (and how fast). Now, I know for a fact that there are a lot more people watching/lurking on twitter than just those two. How many people will now head over to their local Taziki’s for take out dinner than before? This may not be measurable directly, but it added a heck of a lot of brand value to those who where watching, and those who they choose to tell.
