Brand Saftey

This week we had a guest speaker who works for St. Mikes and is in charge of social media and marketing for the college. He had some interesting ideas about the value and numerical postings for social media. He has proof that if he posts every day for St. Mikes there would be less following, but if he posts once every 2 weeks there is more traffic to the post. He also had a wonderful story about how to get into contact with a company.

Rewind a few days.

I had to replace my phone last week. I dropped it and wasn't trying to hide that fact. The screen wouldn't turn on in any way. I went over to Verizon and they shooed me out the door saying it was my phone insurance that I had to contact. I get on the website to go through the steps to replace my phone, and it is immediately stopped by the dates of when I purchased my phone, and I get told to contact Verizon. I get back in my car and drive over to Verizon, they assured me it wasn't them and it was my insurance who I have to get to replace my phone. In stead of getting back in my car to head home, I stand in Verizon and make the phone call. I am on hold for 20 min or so and get in touch with a rep who then gets the information that is needed in about 5 min, and sends me a confirmation email. I have to drive back home just to respond. I have to fill out an affidavit and send in an ID. They had a nice little post saying I can take a picture and upload it to an email. The best piece of technology I had to do that was my non working phone. I then have to drive over to the school library to print, sign, and then scan this document just to email it to them. The only beautiful thing about all of this, was I got my phone the very next day.

Back to the guest speaker..

He expresses that brands are always happy when you post about them in a positive manner on social media sites. They have numbers to back up their marketing and are creating brand loyalty. He also told us that if we have a problem with a brand not to call them, but get on social media and just bash away. While this lecture was going on, I did just that. I got on facebook and typed the above paragraph on their facebook page. The 4 hours I spent trying to figure all the phone insurance out the previous night. The 20 - 30 min they had me on the phone directly was just an infuriating process. I post on their facebook and within 10 min I get a private message from a rep there asking to contact me directly. I eventually get my phone and get a direct line to a real person. They helped me with my issues, I told them about their crappy process. In the end I think what happened was good.

I got helped, I got to speak to someone directly, and I got my phone back quickly.

I think if you need help with a company, and you're getting no where. Get on social media and start spewing the wrongful things that are happening. I can bet that someone will get a hold of you soon to try to fix the problem.