Television and Social Media: Final Project

Social media final

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Charter monitoring: part 2

As mentioned in my previous post, I have been monitoring Charter Communication's social media.  Charter Communications is the fourth-largest cable operator in the United States, founded in 1993.  It provides cable, internet and phone services to over 4.7 million customers.

Charter is currently the only non-dish provider in my area of Worcester, which means, by default, they are my service provider.  In the past two years of dealing with Charter, I have had many negative experiences peppered with only a few positives.  When choosing a client to monitor, I chose Charter, in hopes that maybe it would be a good outlet for my grief and frustration.

The two main areas that are the focus of the monitoring are in Customer Service and quality of product.  These are the elements that people seem to only speak about when talking about Charter.

In my previous social media monitoring mid term report, I explained how sites like samepoint and social mention were a little harder to use for Charter, because some terminology was deemed "positive" when it was, in fact, "negative."  Therefore, moving forward I concentrated more on using a qualitative analysis, reading tweets and Yelp reviews.  I also came across a website which provided me with some very strong negative feedback, pissedconsumer.com.

Before getting into the reviews, it should be noted that people are barely even talking about Charter.  They don't trend.  Each time I look on Twitter, I usually only see about 5 tweets a day.
Looking at IceRocket, it can be seen that they are hardly talked about on the blogosphere.  The most they've "trended" was to .00030% of all blogs.

Given that the reviews I could find were mostly negative, it may not be a bad thing that they are hardly talked about.

Yelp:
The Worcester branch of Charter currently has 1.5 stars on Yelp.  Breaking it down even further, there are five reviews; four of them are 1 star completely negative and the other is 4 stars.  The 4 star review, though, as you read it, seems to be mis-graded:

As you can see, in his review he talks about being charged extra hidden fees and forced to take unnecesary bundle deals, followed by waiting in long lines.  When finally reaching the front of the line he met with one customer service rep who went above and beyond to repair his pricing.  That one customer service rep should absolutely be applauded.  However, if I would recommend that Charter view this seemingly positive 4-star review as a negative review instead, given the context.


Twitter:


Charter Communications has a Twitter account, where they mostly talk about things that are on TV:

The things that customers tweet at Charter are far more insightful than Charter's tweet themselves.

The closest I can find to a positive tweet regarding Charter, seems to be more neutral tweets announcing job openings.

I, myself, tweeted at Charter in a fit of rage.  Charter George responded to me, which I had not noticed right away.  After a few days, he took the time to tweet again.  This made me soften up a bit to the company that I was reading all of the negative reviews about.

Facebook:
Charter Communications runs a Facebook page.  Most of the problems addressed on Facebook throughout the past couple of months have been negative, however, they have been addressed.  Charter reps use their own Facebook pages.  I didn't even realize at first that they were Charter reps.  Other than the helpful advice they give, they are distinguished in that underneath a picture of their face, they all have a Charter logo.

They only started commenting on every post beginning in March.  Before then, posts and complaints seem to have gone unnoticed.

Pissed Consumer:
Pissed Consumer is a site that allows users to vent about lack of quality service.  Charter has 207 complaints on that site.

Analysis:

Before analyzing, it should be noted that Charter has recently implemented a new customer service guarantee plan.  As it is the first couple of weeks of the plan, there has been little feedback and little change.  However, the frequent responses on the Facebook page is most likely a result of that plan.

Charter needs to have strong customer service.  Other service providers also rank low, but not as low as Charter.  Unfortunately, there are times that Internet and Cable may go down, and that may not be their fault.  However, they need to emphasize with their customers and make those rough times go easier.

Customers are unhappy with the quality of their actual service and the lack of actual service.  The few people who are positive, seem to be because of an absence of negative, rather than an abundance of good.

Goals:


Charter should have very clear goals.  They should first follow through with the customer service guarantee.  Once they can be assured that their customers are having more positive experiences, they should utilize social media more.  Engage the customers.  The fact is that most Charter Customers are customers because they have no other choice.  Charter should not treat them accordingly.  They can use Facebook and Twitter to poll their customers on what they want, and what they love about their current service.

Target Audience:


Again, Charter's customers are locked in, so their target audience is more geographical than anything else.  Their target audience are the residents of any location in which they operate.

That time I was the Groundswell...

After reading the chapter "The Groundswell Inside your Company" in Groundswell, I knew that there was only one logical thing to blog about.  I knew that there was only one thing I could possibly do: completely embarrass myself.

Let me explain.  Back in early September of 2006, I got hired as a Sales Associate at Staples, the popular office supply chain.  My friend and neighbor, Christie, had been working there for about a month and she thought it was a pretty cool job.  I figured if I had to work retail, at least I could work with Christie.

Me and My "Freedom Brother" Brendan, happy to work at Staples

It took less than a week for me to realize that this was no ordinary retail job.  This was actually the most fun retail job imaginable.  Wait, what?!  That's right.  I loved it.  Brendan, a boy who I had only been acquaintances with earlier in high school, had become my best work pal.  We would plan our breaks together, have secret hand signals and code words, and straighten the store together at night.  After a few months, we had a Staples diary.  Yep.  We had a little notebook and we bought the coolest pen in the store  and would write all about our work shift while we were on break.  If we didn't have shifts together then it was absolutely required that we write to each other.  We would write about our managers, or how many Product Replacement Plans we sold that day, or lyrics to our cover of "SexyBack" by Justin Timberlake, which we remade into "EasyBack" ("we're bringing easy back, Office Max don't know how to act.").

When that wasn't enough to satisfy our urge to have Staples in every facet of our lives, we created an "I Love Cassie from Staples Radio" Facebook group.  Apparently, I am the only group member left.  But at one point, we had a good five of us there, and we would talk about the Staples Radio DJ, Cassie, and her wonderful gift ideas.

Also, about four years before I realized that I actually want to work in marketing, we would make up pretend Staples commercials with each other.

Reading Groundswell made me miss the connection I once had with Staples, and really wonder what could have been.  If Staples had implemented a program to tap into their own Groundswell like the example of Best Buy in the book, I know that Christie, Brendan, and I would have spent countless hours spreading our love of Staples and ideas.  We had so many funny stories to tell each other that we started a diary.  Imagine what could have happened if instead of just Brendan and myself reading those stories, higher-ups read them also.  Our problems could have found solutions.  We could have had a bigger support system.

Brendan, Joe, Me, and Christie.  Joe and I are not wearing the proper pants because we weren't actually working.  We just wanted to take an "EASY" photo-shoot.  Unfortunately, I ruined it with a backwards "S"

Just because every story needs an ending, I should add that unfortunately when I came home from college to work at Staples it just wasn't the same.  Christie, Brendan, and the so-far-not-mentioned-but-very-awesome-to-work-with Joe, no longer worked with me.  The shared experience wasn't there anymore and it became a retail job just like any other.  Handling the head manager was no longer something I could joke about.  All that was left was to sit in the break room, "take it easy" and remember a time that I felt devotion and connected to the huge corporation.

I took this picture during a dull 15 minute break

Social Media Monitoring: Charter Communications

I decided to track Charter Communications, because I hate them.  They are my internet and cable provider, and as I have explained in a previous blog post, their customer service has always left me far from satisfied. That being said, I have gone into this monitoring process with every intention of not being bias.

Charter has both a Twitter and a Facebook page.

The number of "followers" and "likes are in line with other cable providers.

I found that while some sites, such as Samepoint.com offer an easy, simple, breakdown of social media mentions, they cannot be trusted to give the whole story.

This screenshot, taken on March 10, is an example of where Samepoint failed.  It counts "could," "would," and "give" as positive words, even though the full sentence is: "If I could give Charter zero stars, I would."  Clearly, there is nothing positive in that sentence.  Recognizing that, I realized that each time I use any program I should be very careful in my analysis.  The quantitative numbers would not be nearly as useful as the qualitative posts that they are taken from.

Given that, I took a look at Charter's Yelp page:

Throughout their Yelp page, I found mostly disgruntled customers, upset with their service.  There were a few reviews that were actually positive.  This was clearly different than what Samepoint was showing.

Using Twazzup, I found both positive and negative tweets, mostly concerning customer service.






Within the past week, Charter announced that if Internet is out for more than 24 hours, they will give customers $20.  Even with such a positive announcement, they still were not talked about much on social media, as you can see from this Social Mention screenshot, taken today.

Reacting to politics

Joseph Kony

So, Kony 2012 kind of dominated social media last week.  My classmate Annie wrote an interesting blogpost about how Invisible Children's campaign, which seems to be a wholly good cause, actually resulted in controversy centering around the efficiency of the organization.

This controversy reminded me of another time that people were able to split on a seemingly positive situation: Bin Laden's assassination.

I learned of the news through Facebook (not my proudest moment, though not unique).  Immediately my newsfeed was bursting with two very different messages.

The first type of statuses that I saw were celebratory.  They said "Finally!" or "I hope he rots in hell!"

Then, there was the response to that.  There was a strong message coming from my Facebook friends that they "would not, under any circumstances, celebrate any man's death."

Osama Bin Laden

I got that.  I understood.  I am a person against the death penalty and it only seems obvious that we should never celebrate a person's death.  But was this a person?  This was Osama Bin Laden.

I called my Mom.  She told me to take a look and see which of my friends were saying which things.

All of my home friends were celebrating.
Most of my school friends were disgusted by the celebration.

As my mom pointed out, I am from the suburbs of NYC.  My 9/11 experience was notably different than that of my mostly New England friends.

I remember that day so clearly in mind.  I remember my classmates who sat, shaking, because they had a parent, or two, who worked in the World Trade Center.  I remember those same classmates being pulled out of school, gradually throughout the day, only to be given the worst news imaginable.  I remember going to my synagogue that night and praying as a community.  Praying for our temple member's family, who had just lost their husband and father.  Those coming weeks I was surrounded by grief.  Everyone was mourning someone.  Everyone was mourning everyone.  I was 12, confused, sad, and angry.

I can't pretend that I know what 9/11 was like for those not living in the NYC area.  But I can assume that it was not as tragic, if they did not feel the same relief when Bin Laden was killed.







So what does this have to do with Social Media?

Everything.

These events, as they occur, are being responded to over Facebook, Twitter, Tumblr, and more.

The evening of Bin Laden's death a record was set for the most tweets per second on Twitter.  That night averaged 3,440 tweets per second.  That is a lot of tweets.  A lot of people taking their time to voice their thoughts, or share the news, with their cyber followers.

Just like with Susan G. Komen, Bin Laden, and now, Kony, social media users are utilizing their networks to voice their opinion on a complex subject in a simple, short manner.

Personally, I think the more aware and informed people are, the better.  Awareness may cost money, but it leads to more money from more involvement.  Some people will become aware, spread the message and that stops.  But for some it goes further.


This is something that non-profit organizations should consider with their use of social media.  Non-profits with political or human/animal rights based agendas, such as Invisible Children, can present their issue as breaking news and watch as the people react.  Bin Laden was a governmental victory, and as such, the government benefitted from the groundswell.

Power to the People!

The authors of Groundswell have made an excellent point in Chapters 9 and 10.  While earlier chapters in the book have discussed the benefits and strengths of the Groundswell, these chapters explain how to use the Groundswell to your own benefit.  How to listen and interact with the Groundswell.

In all the talk about Twitter, I decided to that I should do an experiment of my own, and took to my largest grievance of all the companies in the world: Charter Communications. 

Let me explain: Charter provides my Internet and Cable.  I wanted to switch to DirectTV, even though I heard some pretty awful things about them, but my landlord wouldn't let me. That left me with the local monopolizing provider: Charter.

Let's just say I have had somewhere between 5-10 absolutely awful and no positive customer service related issues with Charter in the past few months.

So, after reading Groundswell, I did what any member of the contributors would do, and I tweeted.

@CharterCom I'm SICK of reps calling and refusing to hang up when I tell them, truthfully, that I can't talk cause im driving #leavemealone

What am I hoping for by tweeting this?  Well, I guess I'm hoping that Charter will acknowledge me.  Maybe apologize. Maybe give me a free movie.  Maybe.

The point is, as a Charter customer I have a few ideas.  I think that people shouldn't be constantly nagged and bothered.  I think instead of telemarketers insisting that I listen to what they have to say, they they should listen to what I have to say.

Einstein sends Charter straight to voicemail

I can do this for any business.  Just because I am not a Charter employee, or a dentist, or a retailer, I can still give the opinion from the consumer standpoint.  Furthermore, I'll give my opinions away for free.  Again, I wouldn't say no to a free movie.

This is what Groundswell is talking about.  All anyone wants is to give their opinion and have it acknowledged. We want to feel special and a part of the process.  And If I hate it, then that means that there are tons of others out there who do as well. 

Listen to me.  Listen to us, the Groundswell.

We all have those companies that we hate dealing with.  Personally, I love Verizon.  I know that many people dislike them, but I don't have much in the way of negatives to say.  Are they more expensive than others?  Yes.  Do my parents pay my phone bill?  Absolutely.  However, I call customer service and I have always been taken care of excellently. 

So, if Verizon were to ask me what I thought, I could tell them the things I like, and they could do more of that.  And I could give them some stuff to improve on, also. 

We are ordinary members of society.  We are the Groundswell. Use us, use our opinions to better your company, and all parties involved will be happier.

Memes taking over!

Right now, our very own Clark University is experiencing a groundswell phenomena of its own.  A Facebook page popped up last week, called Clark University Memes.  

Clarkie's have been posting various humorous memes, all centered around one subject: Clark University.  Facebook went nuts.  All of my newsfeed were different memes, each more funny, but more importantly, more relatable than the last.

But what does this mean for Clark?  What would happen if perspective students saw this? Would "becoming fabulous" entice them or scare them away?

I think that these memes are a good thing.  Even the more negative ones.  The most negative topics considered in the meme's seem to revolve around either Main South being a not-so-safe place to live and the cafeteria food being, well...

Before I came to Clark, I certainly knew that Main South was dangerous.  In fact, I thought it was a lot worse than I do now.  I definitely did not expect much from cafeteria food, given that it is cafeteria food.  

So thinking back 5 years to when I was a high school senior, I still would have come to Clark.  In fact, these memes would have made me more excited to come (and I was pretty excited!)

17-year-old me finding out that Clark was giving me a scholarship.  SO excited!

The meme-phenomena that has taken the campus by storm this week may be, to some, getting old.  To others, it is a fun, exciting way to share creativity.  To think of silly-Clark things and see how many other people think of those things to.  Like the penguin meme above about climbing the stairs in JC.  A friend of mine and I used to joke about this constantly, but we thought we were the only ones out of shape enough to actually get winded going to class.  Nope, there's a meme about it now, and that means  its real.

Clarkies, the groundswell, feel passionate and connected enough to the University right now to spend their spare, non-class time (or rather, procrastination time) making memes about Clark University.  That's kinda huge.  They're not about one particular facet or person.  Other schools that are experiencing this sort of thing are in danger of all of their memes concentrating on social life such as a frat or sorority.  Clark is a small enough community, however, where one meme can relate to a whole campus of people.  Pretty cool.

One group that I am, Choices, a sexual education group, will momentarily be rolling out an unofficial meme-inspired Facebook campaign.  It will remind Clarkies that they have this awesome sex ed group here on campus that has a whole lot to offer!  This is a campaign that will seem like it is a part of the groundswell.  I suggested doing this when I realized, hey, this thing is getting big.  If its getting big then that means that Clarkie's will see our meme's, and will have a quick way to learn about what Choices offers.  

Now we just need to sit back and see how the groundswell reacts.

The Social M. Groundswell for the Cure Foundation

Reading Groundswell has been making me think about one particular event that took Social Media by storm.

Last week, the Susan G. Komen for the Cure Foundation announced that it would be cutting off funding for Planned Parenthood pre-screening services. 

The groundswell went crazy with this information.  The conclusion everyone was coming to (which Planned Parenthood provided) was that it was a political move.  That the Komen foundation is so staunchly Pro-Life that they would stop funding a non-abortion related service to an institution that is known to provide abortions.

Now, wait, let’s be clear here.  Komen was funding mammograms.  These are breast cancer screenings.  Breast cancer happens in the breasts.  Pregnancy happens in the uterus.  Komen was never funding abortions.

So now that we now the difference between boobs and babies we can move on.

Lots of people already knew this difference, and lots of people were outraged.  Lots of these outraged people are the same people who donate to Susan G. Komen.  They are the same people who buy pink pens, ladles, t-shirts, ribbons, ANYTHING to support finding a cure for breast cancer.

Perfect if invited to a breast black-tie party

These people are, for all intents and purposes, Susan G. Komen’s customers.  And they spoke.

Familiar images from past times when Planned Parenthood has been under scrutiny popped up declaring the same statement: I Stand with Planned Parenthood.

Women and Men alike pledged to give their money to Avon walk or directly to Planned Parenthood.  Or to any other organization that’s main agenda is actually curing breast cancer.

Mayor Bloomberg pledged to match donations up to $250,000 towards Planned Parenthood.

Then, within 72 hours, The Susan G. Komen Foundation for the Cure reversed their decision.

They assured the nation that Planned Parenthood and other organizations currently receiving grants will continue to receive grants.

So what happened here?

As Groundswell explains, companies and organizations have to listen to their consumers. 

Your brand is what your customers say your brand is.

Susan G. Komen was synonymous with finding a cure.  When they cut off that funding, they clearly had no clue how the groundswell would react. 

They didn’t know who they were to the Groundswell.  In that decision that they made and so rapidly reversed, their brand changed. 

Upon further reading, what hasn’t been mentioned is why Komen claims to have taken away funding.  They had new guidelines (which they assigned themselves) which stated they would not give grants to any organization currently under investigation.  Planned Parenthood is currently under investigation.

Whether or not this was a deliberate ploy in a Pro-Life political move is something that we may never truly know.

However, the Groundswell has spoken.  And now they have basically been re-branded as the Susan G. Komen for Life Foundation.

Komen’s image is so set now as an Anti-Choice group that they are unlikely to ever reach the amount of donations, but more importantly, the brand that they once had.

Chapter 5 and 6 of Groundswell explain listening and talking with the groundswell.  Komen listened to the groundswell when they reversed their decision.  They were listening when an executive resigned.  Now they need to talk with the groundswell.
Or do they?

Chapter 6 suggests that those who are not sure where they stand with the groundswell should be hesitant.  If people were happier with them then it would be no problem to jump right in.  This means that they should, if they choose to join, have direct, key talking points.  Engage the groundswell, but do so in a structured environment such that they can limit the negative feedback.

Much like other PR fiascos, social media may have a chance to recover this.  Komen foundation needs to start apologizing and explaining.  They need to do it fast.  They need to have people outside of their organization accepting the apologies.  They need cancer survivors who they helped to have videos on Youtube.  Most of all, they need to be prepared for all the hatred that the groundswell with throw at them.  It may be a risky move.  However, at this point, the internet is so abuzz against them that putting themselves out there may just be the only move possible.

To be or not to network...

While attempting to decide exactly what to write about under the vast subject of Social Media, I became distracted.  I did as most people do, and I turned on my television.  Luckily for me, my television slapped me back into reality because within moments I watched this scene from the 2008 movie Yes Man:

powered by Splicd.com


Do we really exist outside of our networking? What is a presence if it is not online?


Thinking back on my college experience, all forms of socialization happened through Facebook.  While Facebook chatting with friends who were sometimes a mere dorm room away, the popular social networking site basically became my social calendar.  It was over Facebook that I would get invited to parties. It was over Facebook that I would hear about club general interest meetings, on-campus events, or even social protests.

Which begs the question: How did people find out about these things before the internet?

To answer this question, I turned to the coolest college student of 1981…my mother.

Naturally, I asked her this question over iChat.

“hmm, I have to remember back that far, lol.  Parties, word of mouth, definitely.  Other things, I think flyers.  Maybe school newspaper”

Parties may still have word of mouth promotion.  There may still be some flyers put up in central locations on campus.  However, given that many upperclassmen at my college campus often do not frequent dorms or the University Center, it is unlikely that a flyer would have nearly as lasting of an impact as an event on Facebook.

So where do college students who abstain from social networking stand?  Where does anyone stand?

In this web 2.0 world, there is a place for everyone and everything. So why isn’t everyone and everything online?  Why isn’t everyone networking?

Over the summer, I “liked” Pier One Imports because they had a $10 coupon available for everyone who “liked” them that day.  Pier One was a place I seldom thought about or considered shopping until then.  However, since then, I think about them everyday.  How could I not?  They’re on my news feed.  Without Facebook, they would just be another company that would never cross my mind.

Today, people are turning to Facebook and Twitter not only for enhancement of friendship, but also for consumer-related decisions.  Without social networking, a person or company won’t even be an option in the Web 2.0 world

. 

After all, as Zooey Deschanel’s character in the clip above alludes, without social networking one's mere existence is questionable to the point of negligible.