Twitter Chats: Do You Participate? Are You a Host? We Want to Know What You Think!

Image credit: US Department of Labor

So, what do you all think about Twitter chats? These virtual chats are held on Twitter. Lots of companies hold these chats every so often to get customer feedback, answer client questions and to just generally get to know the people who are interested in the business’ products and services.

If you’re still a little murky on how your company can benefit from a Twitter chat we’ve gathered up a few ideas that may help you embrace the idea and get to chattin’:

1. Keep the chat name the same week after week, or month after month

When organizing the chat, make sure everyone knows what it’s going to be called. Pick a hashtaged name, such as #(your business twitter account)weeklychat and add the specific hashtag for the topic you plan on discussing, such as #samedaydelivery.

2. Select a trending topic

Chat about something that’s interesting and timely so people are excited to learn.

3. Use experts

If you know other people in the industry who know a lot about the topic you’re going to feature, make sure they’re involved with the chat.

“Brands and organizations have a slew of experts whose online and offline networks would flock to speak with them during Twitter chats. Employees, partners, celebrity spokespeople… these types of high-profile or knowledgeable people can be great assets for drawing in a large audience.” – “Hosting a Better Twitter Chat,” Lauren Dugan, Social Media Today

4. Promote the chat via other social media, email, etc.

Promote the heck out of this event via Facebook, Twitter and your blog, and don’t forget to include it in your weekly email blasts, too.

5. Try to respond to everyone’s questions: 

Pay attention and always try to respond to client questions or concerns. And don’t forget to favorite the tweets you really dig.

6. Follow up: 

After your chats are complete, don’t forget to write a blog post that details what went down.

Source: Social Media Today

How Social Media can Benefit Customer Service

Source: Jason A. Howie

I’d wager that customer service is important to your company. Heck, who are we kidding – it’s essential. And over the years, more tools have emerged that help companies make top-notch customer service an every day reality.

For example, 30 years ago, your employees likely got most feedback about your delivery service from customers via phone calls, or clients who stopped by your storefront. Now, you can easily get in contact with customers immediately via email, or social media.

Just last week, Social Media Today highlighted how FedEx has successfully used social media to help the company achieve positive client responses to its customer service. And although FedEx is a large corporation, small delivery businesses can learn from the company’s social media/customer service plan of action.

According to Social Media Today, Ginna Sauerwein, a customer service veteran, has worked for JC Penney, Delta Airlines and Miller Brewery. For the past 29 years, she’s placed her talents and efforts into FedEx. As FedEx’s managing director of customer service in the western region, Sauerwein and her team check FedEx’s social media accounts to make certain the company’s customers are happy. She and her team have been doing this since 2009.

According to Social Media Today’s post:

“Providing a variety of channels for the customers to engage through, whether it’s a phone, a chat, a blog or social networks like Facebook and Twitter, appeared to be highly beneficial. Even though FedEx does online listening, Sauerwein’s team is the one responsible for handling actionable requests that customer care follow-up to help solve the issue or answer the question. Their engagement time? Mostly in a matter of minutes, not hours or days. The team tracks online buzz and digital conversations through the internal score card that shows daily interactions with ‘authors’ (yes, FedEx team refers to their customers that create content and initiate conversations online as ‘authors’) and what types those interactions were, as well as how fast the team responded.”

Now that’s interesting.

The article continues on to explain that many of FedEx’s small business customers dig that immediate customer service. Overall, the company’s social media monitoring has allowed FedEx to:

Integrate across multiple functions: Social media use allowed various departments within FedEx to collaborate creatively, and keep an open line of communication.

Keep authenticity alive: All FedEx employees are authentic with customers. Basically, FedEx’s employees talk to customers like people, and really try to relate to each customer in a unique manner.

Treat all customers well no matter who they are: All customers (the big and small) matter. Everyone should get great treatment.

Try new things: Over the years, the company has experimented with different forms of customer communication. One example Social Media Today highlights is FedEx’s piloted video chats.

Be creative: The company always strives to try new things, and FedEx employees are encouraged to find new ways to solve problems.

Source: Social Media Today’s “The Big Brand Theory: How FedEx Achieves Social Customer Service Success”

And we’re back!

We’re going to get this blog running again. Our plan is to post fresh content and commentary about courier industry news. We’ll also post extra interviews and Q&As that don’t appear in the print Courier Magazine. And from time to time, we’ll write about social marketing, small business marketing and HR tips. We’d love to get your feedback on what we post, so please feel free to comment! If you have content ideas or news tips, don’t hesitate to contact us (we’re at -- social@couriermagazine.com ).

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Image: stevendepolo, Creative Commons