The Real Bruce

Last night I experienced the power of social media first hand, and it came from a very unlikely source, General Motors. Yes, that’s right. The company that just months ago was working through a bankruptcy is now using social media to improve their customer service.

Here is what happened. Yesterday my service stabilitrak light came on in my Trailblazer. Since I am not a car expert, I had no idea what this meant. I called my local Chevy dealership and made an appointment to get it looked at, but from that point, a huge knot began to grow in my stomach.

What kind of cost would I be looking at? Would this be under warranty? Is this a big deal?

With all these questions in mind, I headed to the fountain of information, Twitter. I posted a simple message asking my followers if they had ever had this problem and would it be expensive. I used the # tag when mentioning Chevy, hoping to get multiple opinions.

Within 5 minutes of my tweet, I received a Direct message from @GMCustomerSvc asking me to direct message him with more info, so he could help me. I was amazed, not only with the speed of this reply, but also that he offered to help me.

Over the next few minutes we exchanged tweets, but we soon found it cumbersome to limit our messages to Twitter’s 140 character limit. That is when my new GM buddy asked me to switch our conversation toFacebook. He sent me a friend request, and within seconds, we were chatting away about my situation.

At the end of the evening, Jared the GM Twitter Specialist had confirmed my appointment, assigned me a follow up case number and verified that the Stabilitrak was not under warranty. As much as that news disappointed me, I was happy at the service I had received.

This whole episode really illustrates the power of Twitter and the way social media can be used to improve your customer service. Instead of me going to my appointment today already worried and dreading the wait, I was armed with information, comforted that someone cared and confident that I would get good service.

How can you use social media to improve your business? Can you interact with customers through social media?

Most of us love to talk. We want to be stars or the center of attention. That is why we love Social Media. We love to tell people what we are doing and what is important to us. We also all believe that people actually care.

With that in mind as businesses, it gives us a fantastic opportunity, TO LISTEN. With all of these followers, friends and fans, we have access to a huge database of information, thoughts and ideas. Best of all, these thoughts come from people who are interested enough to have made the initial connection.

We now have, at our fingertips, information that has never been available before. Instant updates as to when someone might be hungry or when someone is out shopping. We can know if someone is looking for a new car, or just ate at the restaurant we own. If we just take the time to listen, we can learn a lot.

After listening, we need to act, of course. Thank the customers for their business, send them a link to a car you sell, or invite them to your next function to get to know them better.

There are many tools out there that make the listening easier and can help you interact better, but the main point is to listen. Social media is a very powerful tool, but sometimes we use it incorrectly. Try changing your approach–Talk less and listen more. It will pay you dividends.

This is one of my favorite videos. It really shows the way social media is exploding. Check it out.

I had the good fortune this week to attend the 2009 Masters of Business Online conference in Indianapolis, Indiana. This event is hosted by one of our peers in the industry, Evereffect. The President of Evereffect, Jim Brown, did a tremendous job of scheduling outstanding speakers and visionaries from the Indianapolis area to speak. If you haven’t attended MBO in the past, make sure to do so next year.

Over the course of the day, I watched a great presentation from the CEO of Brandswag, Kyle Lacy, on the importance of social media. I had the opportunity to hear Jon DiGregory, Founding Partner of Cantaloupe, talk about video production and how it is evolving for the web. Another particularly interesting presentation was from the Founder of Slingshot SEO, Jeremy Dearringer, on how creating inbound links to your site is so important to your search ranking.

While each presentation during the day was about a different area, all of them had one particular theme that stood out time and time again…COMMITMENT.

You see, when you talk about organic search engine optimization, social media marketing or your overall Internet marketing strategy, one thing is always consistent; you need commitment.

I have blogged about this in the past. We have witnessed this over and over again with our clients. The more they commit, the better success they have. We can create the best Internet marketing plan for you, but if you don’t commit to it, you will ultimately limit your own success.

If you think about this scenario, it is the same with so many things in life. Take for instance, weight loss. You can hire the best trainer to create a fantastic workout plan for you, however if you don’t commit to the program, you will have little chance for success.

Even though each of my fellow Internet marketers had their own stories and products, each of them continually preached about one ever important thing…commitment.

Before you are ready to dive into your next web project make sure you ask yourself one important question.

Are you ready to commit?

When I started in this business over 12 years ago, I learned one thing very quickly. The cool new thing today will be a thing of the past tomorrow.

Think about it. Back in the day, Netscape was the web’s only real browser, and it was a few years before a search engine named Yahoo dominated the web. Most people connected to the World Wide Web through a little company called AOL. Remember all those free disks?

I recall actually having heated debates with my tech friends about how AOL would become the most powerful company in the world. (I know, sounds like a nerdy conversation, right?) However, look how things changed.

Over the years, technology has evolved and become better and more complex, but the one thing that has remained constant is that things continue to change faster and faster when it pertains to the Internet.  This includes the world of web marketing.

As you plan a web based strategy for your company, keep this in mind. Right now, there are boutique businesses popping up everywhere telling you to tweet, tweet, tweet. There are frequent seminars on how to run your business by just being “social.”

Be very careful when you partner with a company who has one particular area they specialize in, because they will have a very short life span.

A great example are the new crop of Social Media Advertising companies that are coming on the scene. Do I believe social media works? Yes, but I also know this area will change faster than the speed of sound. We have already seen it. Myspace has given way to Facebook; Jaiku has given way to Twitter. These two will give way to the next big things, and so on and so on.

Mark my words, when I write a blog post two years from today, Facebook and Twitter will be on their way down the technology cycle. How do I know this? That is the way technology works, especially on the Internet.

Do you need a web based strategy? Of course you do. Do you need to be involved with social media? Absolutely. However, I would encourage you to look for an Internet partner who understands marketing in general and doesn’t just specialize in one particular “hot trend.”

The Internet is here to stay and your Internet strategy needs to be the biggest part of your marketing budget.  However, it will continue to evolve and change and do it faster and faster. Make sure to spread out your efforts and your web based strategy. Make sure you don’t only get caught up in just one social media outlet right now, because one thing is for sure….

The next big marketing trend on the Internet hasn’t even been thought of yet.