Comcast’s Frank Eliason: Corporate America’s Template For Social Media Customer Experience

The best example of customer service and support, utilizing social networking in their efforts, is Comcast. More precisely it is the Digital Care team run by Frank Eliason that shines the brightest light on how American corporations could and should be engaging their consumers on a daily basis. The following are excerpts of the interview Frank gave to Mashable.com for the article “How to Use Twitter to Support Customers.”

Mashable: Exactly how do you use Twitter?
Frank E: We use Twitter to help customers. We simply search for “Comcast” and a few variations and respond by offering help.
Mashable: What Twitter tools do you use?
Frank E: If you are thinking of listening, you can easily start with Google Blogsearch, Twitter Search, and Facebook Search. For analysis we use Radian 6 and Nielsen Online, but for day-to-day work we do use many free tools
Mashable: How many cases do you deal with every day?
Frank E: We review about 6,000 blog posts each day with most not having anything to do with Comcast. Twitter has about 1,500 – 2,000 tweets a day or more.  .  .  We reach out to 600 – 1,000 people, and we have conversations with about 200 – 300 a day.
Mashable: Do you use ghosts or staff or is it pure Frank?
Frank E: Every tweet from @ComcastCares is me, but I am not out there as much as I used to be. When we started on Twitter I was out there all hours of the day and night, usually seven days a week. Today we have ten different Twitter ID’s. Different than many companies, I believe that each ID should represent a person. I relate this to calls. You would never answer a phone, “XYZ company. What do you want?” so we have team members with ID’s like @Comcastbill and @Comcastbonnie responding to our customers

Comcast’s Differentiating Factor: Come Out From Behind The Logo

In our opinion, the very simple strategy of naming each Twitter account, coming out from behind the logo to create a human experience, is the very essence of what has made Frank’s program so successful. It is Comcast’s differentiating factor and a strategy very few American corporations are willing to try.

A Job Seeker’s Day In The World of Social Media

Chicago Sun-Times published this deansguide article 2-08-09

In my post “Job Seekers How Do You Organize Your Day?” I ask the reader to identify whether they were making 10 mistakes  in their job search. As a follow up to this article I want to outline a day in the life of a job seeker who utilizes social media for their job search efforts. No resumes are sent in the making of this day-just value.

Daily Structure for Job Seekers Utilizing Social Media

1. 8:00am Check email:

2. 8:30am Check Google Reader:  Job Seekers should have their feed reader filled with the following resources:

a.) Blogs authored by companies that are on your company target list
b.) Linkedin Q&A, where you can follow relevant information to your targeted niche
c.) Blogs authored by associations or networking blogs within your field of interest
d.) Twitter feeds from recruiters, career strategists, and your local job market news agencies

3. 9:30am Linkedin: Create a new message in the “What are you working on” tool on your home page. This tool provides exposure of your activities to your entire network:

4.  9:45am Linkedin: Ask or Answer a Question to demonstrate your expertise

5.  10:30am Blog:  Check your blog stats, answer any comments, monitor traffic for each blog article within the last week, check keyword and Referrers sections

6.  11:00am Write Article: Choose a subject from the research you performed in your Google Reader and email check.

7.  11:45am Lunch-Twitter: Broadcast your new article & mine for article resources

8.  12:45pm Social Media Networking: Deliver your value by leaving link(s) to your article(s) on your targeted company’s blog(s), mass media blogs, industry association sites, and influential blogs comment sections. Ex below Ryan Phillipenko left a link (in red) to his blog .

9.  2:00pm Check Email-Twitter: Return all messages and reach out to one new contact

10. 2:30pm Research Networking: Look for offline networking meetings, events, meetups, tweetups, and charity events

11.  3:30pm Cold Calls: Call your network and offer your value. Offer to volunteer, provide free services, or offer any breaking news or resources that will help your networking partners

12.  4:00pm Twitter: Tweet your latest article, leave at least 5 new messages with valuable resource links, connect via conversation with at least 3 new people

13. 4:45pm Review Monster.com & Careerbuilder.com: stay connected to these sites

14. 5:15pm  Linkedin Answer Follow up: Look for follow up to questions that are niche specific to your job search.

15. 5:45pm  Read One Social Media Blog: Read at least one current article from social media experts Chris Brogan, Guy Kawasaki, Peter Kim, Pat Kitano, or InnerArchitect

Tag Cloud Blog Experiment: Netflix Case Study

Courtesy bigberries.com

How do bloggers measure their writing, article effectiveness, viral marketing power, and popularity with readers? Comments from readers and blog traffic can only provide a margin of insight into your effectiveness. Clive Thompson’s great New York Times article “If You Liked This, Your Sure to Love That” describes an interesting contest hosted by online movie rental company Netflix.

Netflix Offer

Netflix is offering anyone the opportunity to win a $1,000,000 prize. The challenge is to increase Netflix’s Cinematch it’s recommendation search engine. The engine suggests movie titles to consumers based on what they have chosen in the past. Netflix will pay out the cash prize to anyone who can increase their search accuracy by 10%. The leaders in this contest and their progress.

Netflix Problem

Statistical analysis and algorithms do not account for a genre of movies that have been described as quirky or unpredictable. The effect is called the “Napoleon Dynamite Problem” because it is said that this type of movie is either loved or hated by it’s viewers. Very little middle ground exists or gray area of preference.

Blogger’s Measurement Experiment: Posit for Answers

According to the article, Netflix is considering the following experiment:

“. . . hiring cinephiles to watch all 100,000 movies in the Netflix library and write up, by hand, pages of adjectives describing each movie, a cloud of tags that would offer a subjective view of what makes films similar or dissimilar. It might imbue Cinematch with more unpredictable, humanlike intelligence.”

Posit: How We May Learn

1. Bloggers set up a tag cloud for each individual blog article rather than for an entire blog’s library

2. If that can be done, the next step would be to ask readers to provide 3-5 adjectives that describe the blog article they just read.

3. Tag Cloud information would give bloggers an idea how readers perceived the value of their article and provide the following benefits:

3 Measurements Benefiting Bloggers

1. If a blog reader likes one article what other articles in your blog library would they enjoy?

2. Internal blog linking and construct could be improved if the blogger understood synergy between their articles

3. Don’t just rely on Categories as predictors for synergy between articles

Final Analysis and Acknowledgements

Netflix realizes that their best method to answers is to measure a social network: “It might imbue Cinematch with more unpredictable, humanlike intelligence.”

Thanks go to Vijay Krishna who alerted me to this information on Twitter.com: a fantastic social media site that provides 80% of my research data. You can find solid information by following Vijay on Twitter . Thanks also go to New York Times writer Clive Thompson for his insightful and wonderful piece on this challenge. Thank you Clive!

Blogging Realtor’s New Content Tip: Blog Article “Mashup” Provides Variety and Measurement

The mashup content post is a concept that combines 3 subjects, in tip or list format, in one blog article. Today’s first edition will provide 3 tips on 3 different subject categories: Anchor Text, Social Media Construct, and Focus and your plan.

Mashup Article Benefits:

1. Variety for the writer and reader

2. Measure your reader’s enthusiasm for each subject with traffic analytics

3. Valuable information in multiple areas

Tip #1 Anchor Text:

Anchor text is according to Wikipedia “is the visible, clickable text in a hyperlink.” According to Marilyn at Seoshootout.com you will “Improve your SEO and build relevant anchor text by using an important keyword as the hyperlink – preferably linking it to another, relevant page on your site or linked to an external site that is relevant.”

Ex: SEO Shootout is the premeire SEO blog in the blogosphere

Tip #2 Social Media Construct: Chris Brogan-Darren Rowse featured by James Helm’s todaysbesttools.com

Here is a great description of the construct for Soc Media sites

a.) Blog is Home where all sites should point and all readers funneled

b.) Outposts (Darren Rowse) “are third party sites where he creates “Relationships, ideas, traffic, resources, partnerships, community and much more emerge from the outposts” Darren’s idea is a powerful method to multiple points of exposure for the blogger

c.) Frontiers (Kyle Lacy) feels these are “a website or service you have a presence on but rarely go.”

Tip #3 Focus

According to James Helms the best method to stave off burnout and feelings of overwhelming angst over the massive crush of available social media sites and tools is to consider the following:

“When it comes to social media don’t focus on the tools before the goals within your strategy. Said another way, first focus on your campaign and then leverage available tools that help you meet your goals.”

Great advice and very important to remember–your efforts to leverage tools is useless if you don’t stay connected to your planned campaign

Courtesy of James Helm’s todaysbesttools.com and inspired by Chris Brogan, Darren Rowse, Kyle Lacy and James Helms

Blog Your Way to Employment, Branding, and Your Differentiating Factor With Inner Architect

Susan Dean

I am very happy to announce the first of two Inner Architect workshops titled “Blogging to Employment” November 18 and 19. The workshop is a detailed basic course on how to create an employment campaign utilizing your blog as the delivery system for your message. The goal is to provide people a plan on how to create their differentiating factor in order to stand apart from the estimated 1.1 million Americans who will lose their job in 2008.

Call to Action: If you know anyone who is unemployed, and I know I do at this time, please consider informing them of this valuable workshop.

Benefits for Attendees

1. Your own Blog: We will help you register and set up your first blog

2. Employment Campaign: Learn how to action plan an employment campaign so that you can answer the age old hiring manager’s question “So Bob what have you been doing the past 6 months to find a job?”

3. New Skill Sets: You will add to your skill sets-blogging, navigating blog software, Web 2.0 tools, and networking

Workshop 1:

Date: Tuesday November 18, 2008

Place: Silicon Valley Holiday Inn Express San Jose Airport

Time: 6:30-9:00pm

Workshop Fee: $75

Workshop 2:

Date: November 19, 2008

Place: San Rafael, CA Ace Conference Room

Time: 6:30-9:00pm

Workshop Fee: $75

Value Comparison: Blog Set-Up fees, as advertised on the internet, run from $200-$300 which only covers the registration and setup without any coaching. Blog Coaching and Training fees run from $70 to as much as $500 per hour

Class Size: We will limit classes to 20 so that each student is provided hands on personalized instruction.

Come find out why you need to establish your brand, discover your differentiating factor, and add to your skill sets the latest Web 2.0 information.

Technology and Networking in 1978: My 30 Year High School Reunion a Reminder

Can you guess which one is me?

Excuses are like long term personal contracts that freeze a person’s ability to make change, take action, move forward. One of the worst excuses I often hear people expound upon is the fact that blogging and social media networking is just too time consuming, not effective enough, or over their heads technologically. Bull_hit! It is all about your willingness to learn, expand your knowledge base, dedicate yourself to the task, and remain steadfast on course through dedication.

Back in 1978, there was very little technology that allowed a person or business to network themselves and build their brand. How did I arrive at this subject?

My 30 year high school reunion, Terra Linda High School in San Rafael, CA, is being held tonight and it sparks many memories. One of the biggest memories is how our world used to be and how technology has changed what we can do, where we can go, and who we can ultimately become due to the advances.

In order to appreciate the Web 2.0 world of Social Networking tools, blogging, and the global conversation that is inspiring a seachange in the media and information industry, lets take a look back at where we used to reside: 1978.

You have NO excuse not to network, connect, and utilize the tools of blogging and Web 2.0 to your advantage. Here is what you would have faced 30 years ago:

Technology in 1978: Or what I used to do, what I could not do, and what I never knew I wanted to do

1. Remote Control: I was my father’s remote as I sat by the TV while he pointed and “clicked”

2. Cable TV: We had 4 channels 2-4-5-7; ESPN did not exist, cable TV did not exist

3. VCR-Video: VCR’s were invented but not in the market in my area, Video stores did not exist

4. No MTV: Music videos did not exist

5. Microwave Ovens: no microwaves, no Hotpockets!

6. “Partyline”: no not some 900 number. My grandparents phone service was a party line where 6 families shared the same phone line!

7. No Internet: ?????????????

8. No Personal Computers

9. No Video games: Pong was just around the corner

10. No Cellphones

11. No Answering machines: if you missed the call you were left wondering

12. No Voicemail: same thing but now you could screen calls without screwing up!

13. No Social Media Networking: Facebook, twitter

14. No Niche Media Networking: Linkedin, Plaxo

15. No PDA

16. No Video Cameras: none that were small and affordable only the mass media behemoths

17. Microcomponents: Sterio components and speakers were HUGE

18. CB Radios: They were a national phenom and since technology have gone back to their intended use

19. Ham Radio: Same thing Hamm Operators are a dying breed with the internet, skype, and other technologies

20. Networking: Back in 1978 it was through your family, Chamber of Commerce, Barbershop, or the local rag newspaper

21. Sadly No Active Rain: Are there words to express my gratitude?

Where can you find me if not in the picture above:

1. Active Rain profile

2. Innerarchitect.com/about

3. Linkedin.com profile

4. Facebook.com profile

5. Collegeplanningspecialist.wordpress.com author

6. Plaxo.com me

7. twitter.com deansguide

If you can’t get find me to network with me–you ain’t tryin!

Job Seeker’s Employment Campaign: Differentiate and Brand “You”

Courtesy dotdoubledot at Flickr.com

Reuters.com published this deansguide article October 8, 2008

Now is the time to take action in this challenging and changing employment environment. If you are a job seeker, a soon to be laid off ex-employee, or someone simply worried about your job security, this message is for you. Your greatest strategy to employment is to utilize Web 2.0 tools, network within the Social Media system, and join the global conversation by establishing your own blog.

“Blogging to Employment” is a hands on powerful workshop that provides the job seeker the tool to showcase:

• Differentiating Factor: Stand out from the non blogging job seekers
• Knowledge to Expertise: Showcase your business intelligence and assets
• Employment Campaign: Chronicle your search strategies and answer the hiring manager’s question: “What have you been doing during the past (insert your timeframe) to find employment?”
• Writing Platform: Establish the brand “You”, improve your writing skills through practice, and create content that hiring managers want to see
• New Skill Sets: Learn to blog and utilize Web 2.0 Social Media Systems
• Networking: Network globally, within your niche, and to your local market
• Google Presence: Manage your search placement by populating your top 2 pages on a Google query of your name or business name
• Reputation Management: Respond, correct, or defend against erroneous information about you online
• “Living” Resume: Position your blog as an extension of your resume, a landing page where you send people to view your current activities

4 Strategies to Employment

• Scenario Solution: take on a company’s challenge, posit your solutions, or review actionable steps that showcase how you might solve their challenge
• Promote Linkedin Profile: Place a Linkedin widget on your blog that links to your Linkedin profile; place a link within your profile on Linkedin to send readers back to your blog
• Profile Linking: Link all your profiles on each Social Media site to one another. Also link from these profiles back to your blog
• What Are You Doing Now?: Promote and tell the world about your employment campaign and writing by placing links on Linkedin and Twitter. Linkedin has a message board and twitter is a “what are you doing now” message board

Related Blogging Services:

Business Blogging Basics

Business Blogging Strategies

Unigo.com: Student Content Driven Review Site Best Tool For Realtors and College Applicants

Students and parents looking for information on colleges, campus life, pictures of University grounds, reviews from unbiased sources, and everything wrapped up in one site search no more. Unigo.com is the answer to the propaganda machine that many Universities call blogs.

The majority of schools in America are clueless to the advantages of a blog for their school, Web 2.0 tools for their students and teachers, Web 2.0 as a business major or at least focus within a business major, or the value of student powered content for marketing purpose.

Filling a Need: Business Model Success

Unigo.com is a brilliant yet simple concept: poll thousands of college students on their universities. Have these students provide reviews and reports about everything the University has to offer. Describe academic and living conditions. Create audio and video resources; and package it all together so parents, students, and entrepreneurs can learn more about the institutions

Realtor’s Tool

If you have a great University or a concentration of great Universities within the region you sell you must consider this a strong selling point in real estate.

Unigo.com: Find, Review, Explore

Find: this is a rich search system that can pinpoint nearly every major university in the land

Review: this allows you to rate your university adding information for others to consider

Explore: this section aggregates all the information for your investigation. Sections include College Reviews; Video; Photos; Documents; and student Profiles

Unconvinced? About Us Document:

“Unigo is the world’s largest platform for college students to share reviews, photos, videos, documents, and more with students on their campus and across the country.

It’s also the best place for high school students to find out what life is really like at America’s colleges, and to make friends to help them find the school that’s right for them.

Unigo is the result of a nationwide grassroots movement to get the truth out about college life, and it’s growing bigger every day. Want to join?”

Manage Your Online Reputation Through Profile Placement

Defending your online reputation is a key element in establishing your ability to capture the top 2 pages of a Google search engine query for your business or surname. The goal is for you to capture the top 10 positions on page one of a Google search. You want your own writing, web site, blog site, and positive reviews to show up first when a search is performed.

Strategy of Defense

By precisely crafting and posting your profile onto the major Web directories or social media networking sites, you will begin to leverage the Google SEO “juice” for those sites. In turn your profile(s) on these sites will populate your top 10 positions forcing any other blog or web site information down the search list. The idea is to bury any unsubstantiated bad reviews or unwarranted information below the first three search pages.

Reputation Management and Your Profile

In a fantastic article on online reputation management “50+ Sites To Help You Bury Negative Posts About You or Your Company” Jeff Quipp states: “Keep in mind, most people never go beyond the first page of search results.”

Jeff’s strategy is to “build a profile on various sites.  .  .  most important is that the profile name should be the exact term phrase that any negative piece of information is ranking for in the search engines.”

50 Sites To Help You Defend Your Online Reputation

1. Digg
2. LinkedIn
3. Twitter
4. Stumbleupon
5. Facebook
6. Propeller
7. Magnolia
8. Jaiku
9. Simpy
10. Technorati
11. coRank
12. YouTube
13. BlogCatalog
14. Zimbio
15. HubPages
16. Reddit
17. UPCHUCKr
18. BlogMad
19. Curbly
20. Flickr
21. PublicBlend
22. Bumpzee
23. Pownce
24. ViewZoo
25. PeekYou
26. Hugg.com
27. Connotea
28. BlinkList
29. BlogFlux
30. Netvous.com
31. Plime
32. MyBlogLog
33. Giggg.com
34. DotNetKicks
35. Diigo
36. CoComment
37. LiveJournal
38. Faves
39. Indianpad
40. Blogmarks.net
41. MySpace
42. Mixx
43. ZiiTrend
44. FriendFeed
45. MetaCafe
46. Last.fm
47. ZippyVideos
48. Quizilla.com
49. Kirtsy
50. Photobucket
51. Deals
52. Agentb
53. BlogSpot
54. HuffingtonPost

8 Networking Tips To Engaging Business Relationships

The new and most misunderstood skill set that employers are demanding today is the ability for their employees, new hires, and prospective hires to network effectively. Employers are looking for people who can engage, connect, and create business relationships. People are engaging online in social media networking sites as well as through offline real world channels.

Let’s examine the most difficult piece to networking–engagement.

We have discussed what Networking is Not: the Hard Sell. We have talked about what Networking Is: Giving Value. Now it’s time to talk about how to approach people when you arrive at your networking meeting or event: How to Engage.

What Does Networking Mean?

1. Networking means that you are willing to listen and create an open discussion.

2. It means you are acting authentically and genuine in your interest for another person and their business.

3. It means you want to create a connection and engage

Tips To Engage

Note: I will assume that you will dress according to the event you are attending, support good habits of hygene, and present yourself with your best foot forward

1. “Let’s Make New Friends” begin your event with a positive attitude that you will meet and engage

2. Name Introduction then Re-Focus means introduce yourself but do NOT launch into your elevator pitch. Instead politely re-focus the attention-recognition on the potential connection with a Question:

“My name is Dean Guadagni and you are? . . . tell me about yourself (name) and your business”

3. Shut Up and Listen

4. Concentrate and Focus so you may comprehend their message

Very Important: The biggest pitfall I face in networking is constantly analyzing a conversation, searching for connections with other people, our synergy, or strategies we may have in common. When I do this stream of conscious analyzation, I miss much of the message from my potential networking partner!

5. Note Interesting Points for follow up questions

6. Be Attentive make and hold eye contact, nod and give body language which signals to the speaker that you are listening and engaged.

Note: NEVER make the “Bar” mistake. What’s that you say-the bar mistake? You men know this one–the act of looking beyond the speaker over their shoulder scanning the room. NEVER EVER do that even if you are waiting for somebody to arrive. This is the kiss of death to any connection and it is interpreted as very disrespectful even if you did not mean to be disrespectful

7. Have Fun. I have worked as a janitor, run a jackhammer, laid asphalt, moved furniture, day laborer, door to door salesman, and a number of other horrific jobs while getting established in life.

Networking is NOT so bad especially if you think back to your worst jobs and tasks.

Consider the fact that you may just meet a new friend!

8. Recognition is so important. If you give people recognition by listening, asking genuine questions, showing interest, and connecting you will make networking what it is meant to be–new partnerships. Give people recognition, make them feel special because everyone has something special that they do, help people feel supported