Social Media: CR4 in NYC

For three or four years I rode that train from Penn Station to Rochester New York at least once a month.

Really what you did was take a trip together on a train and hang out with some people.

That is a good trip.

Troy could be better if CR4 had a yearly convention, with a traincar trip as you had in the schedule.

There is no substitute for personal, in person contact, in business, is my point, and why your trip to read letters, tweets, or whatever, with others in the real room, was a good trip.

Thanks for your comment, Transcendian. I like the idea of a CR4 meetup, too.

We'd need to have European meet up too....

"The Marketing Department crafts and controls the message, orchestrates and regulates customer feedback"

Basically, that means they tell management exactly what they want to hear. If management holds the attitude: Tell us what our customers are saying, about how we can improve our product. Then that's what the marketing Department will do. If on the other hand, management doesn't want to hear about the problems, then they won't, because nobody wants to give them the bad news.

Twitter, Facebook, LinkedIn and YouTube are only new tools for the marketing department to use, in taking the "pulse of the people". Other means have been there all along.

Can these new forms of communication be useful? Absolutely! But only if the company is already willing to listen.

P.S. Please put Twitter, Facebook, LinkedIn and YouTube in the CR4 dictionary!

Thanks, Kilowatt0. Adding those terms to a CR4 dictionary is a good idea, too.

Welcome to CR4, Morgan_Moran. Glad to have you with us.

With regard to your comment about making mistakes and learning from them, Domino's Pizza probably learned a lesson or two about "crisis management" and social media. The following is an excerpt from a New York Times article dates April 15, 2009.

"When two Domino's Pizza employees filmed a prank in the restaurant's kitchen, they decided to post it online. In a few days, thanks to the power of social media, they ended up with felony charges, more than a million disgusted viewers, and a major company facing a public relations crisis."

One of the ways in which Domino's responded was by joining Twitter and actively tweeting.

Good point. The Domino's example also shows that businesses may have lost some control of the brand messages that are being sent from other areas within the organization.

Thankfully they had enough insight to respond via the same channels to reduce the impact.

Good answer! Ditto's Moose- Welcome to CR4, Morgan Moran.

It is the customer that owns the brand. The company is the "steward of the Brand" no more, no less. They may think they own the brand, but ultimately it is the customers decision and granting of top of mind that "is the brand determinant."

The current global crisis shows this to be true- it is demand, not supply that is critical. With no demand, the products built up don't sel;l, and price falls and falls and still don't sell.

The "brand" is the incarnation of demand in the mind of the consumer.

milo

twitter et al can be a direct path to a management that cuts to the chase at once.

If management engages the twitter, etc., they can do a far better job of sensing the pulse of their clients than conventional surveys.

If they try and pee on them from on high, they will gain a new appreciation for their power, as they will be swamped by bad results.

SW did the right thing and from that will spread good stuff. Now how do these systems combat trolls?

If management engages the twitter, etc., they can do a far better job of sensing the pulse of their clients than conventional surveys.

Thanks for your comment, aurizon! Hopefully, part of doing a "better job" involves sensing that pulse more quickly, too. After all, time is money.

FYI - CR4 has a growing presence on Facebook, Twitter, LinkedIn and even YouTube.

So please join us on these Web sites! The links below take you where you need to go.

CR4news on Facebook

CR4news on Twitter

The CR4 Group on LinkedIn

CR4news on YouTube

Big business may be able to detect and counter adverse publicity but what chance does a small business have in this area? The small Co. can respond with as much force a multinational in these channels but it's ability to detect these problems are much more limited. The anonymity of these sites means a malicious poster could cause a lot of damage with no effective recourse for the victim.

The potential for problems seem enormous.

Chas

Hi Moose and everybody.

Sorry for my skepticism, but could this be a setup? I mean a fake.

You know, things like that happen these days..., at least in my area.

Mishka

Feed back from the customer or complaint from the customer is very important, as it helps to modify your products or services. I am narrating my personal experience on this subject.

One of our large customer was Tata Motors, Jamshedpur, India.We had sold them many Chain Electric Hoists which were mfd. by us with German know how. We were in regular communications with Tatas regarding performance of our Hoists. In few months they gave us many suggestions regarding modifications of the some of the components to suit Indian conditions.we implemented their suggestions and this helped us in improving our quality and successful marketing of our product.

Suresh Sharma.

Drove the upper portion of some of that last year during My Albany gig, so beautiful.

The next time you take the train, take some pix and describe the serenity and soulful aspect of that venture.

Someday, I will do it myself just for the pleasure.