FredMcKinnon.Com

I’ve got a personal rule:
If you’re going to blast a company in public, you’d better be prepared to praise them.

A few weeks ago my internet speed at home took a drastic nosedive.  My upload speed was non-existent and it was taking forever for sites to load.  Dreading the automated phone tree and “Tier 1″ techs who, with all due respect, make me do everything I’ve already done … I made the call.  As expected, I pushed all the buttons on the phone tree only to hold for 20 minutes and finally get redirected back to the “main menu” for no reason.

Long story short … the Tech says that my modem is so old, it’s not supported anymore … it’s “end of life”.  His suggestion?  Go down to the local Comcast office and swap it out for a new modem.

So I get up bright and early so I can be in Brunswick (about a 30-minute drive, one way) when the local Comcast office opens.  And what do I discover?

“Oh, I’m sorry … we don’t have any modems here, they are all gone”.
“We will call you if we get any in”.  (still haven’t received that phone call)
“And we don’t have a number you can call locally to make sure we have them in stock before driving over here”.

As you can imagine, I’m pretty ticked off.  So I vent … publicly … via Twitter.

My tweet went something like this:
“Comcast, thanks for wasting the first hour of my day” #comcastfail

Let’s face it, folks.  Sometimes, things just go wrong.  I own a company, and I get the blunt of both positive and negative feedback EVERY SINGLE DAY on our Ebay, Amazon, and Buy.Com accounts.  Negative feedback hurts … really.  But … even if we screw up … even if we fall short … what really counts is this:

HOW DO WE RESPOND?  HOW TO WE RESOLVE?

It’s no secret that companies have folks whose job it is to search Twitter and Facebook for references to their names and trademarks. So what happened next is pretty fascinating.

About an hour after my tweet I get this @reply on Comcast:
from @comcastMelissa:  that’s terrible, how can we help?

In a bit of a sarcastic jab, I reply:
“I seriously doubt you can help, unless you want to OVERNIGHT a BRAND NEW MODEM to me since our local office has none”.

About 3o minutes later, I get this:
from @ComcastBill:  hey, please follow me so I can get your account info and dm you.

I followed Bill’s instructions, and within an hour, I have a UPS tracking number for a BRAND NEW MODEM, being sent NEXT DAY AIR to my home.

Comcast may have been lacking in the local office and their phone support was a bit frustrating … but as for the team of Comcast folks who are utilizing social networking platforms to monitor their brand and provide customer service, all I can say is …. HOME RUN.

That’s how you keep a customer for life, Comcast.  Great job.  Thanks a million.
By the way – my internet is FLYING fast!

My buddy, Joel Klampert … well, he started this conversation.  It’s one that I’ve been having “in my head” for a while.

Let’s face it.

Twitter and Facebook.  They have really changed the way we experience “community” online.

For a season, you learned what you know about me, and about what I know (which isn’t necessarily all that much) through this blog.  Now, if you follow me on Twitter (which also connects via Facebook) you get a LOT more information.

According to Google Site Analytics and Feedburner Stats …. there are more of you subscribed to and visiting this blog than ever before.  Thousands.  Can I say thanks?  Thanks.

Yet … there is less commenting and community …
I have to confess, I rarely have time to visit many of your blogs these days, but I see your tweets.  Sometimes, I click on them and read your blogs.

So … is this horse dead?  Why keep riding it?  Why keep blogging?

That’s the question I’ve asked.  Soul-searching.  Pondering.

But, I’m still doing this thing called “blogging”.  Why?

Because …

* I can’t tell you some of the stories of my kids in 140 characters or less.
* I can’t ask the questions I have about Scripture in 140 characters or less.
* I can’t share vision and invite you to be a part of in 14o characters or less.

For those who know me personally, I can’t answer the simplest question in 140 WORDS or less, much less 140 characters.  My childhood nicknames were:
Motor Mouth
Mouth of the South

So, there you have it.  292 words to explain why I can’t condense my community to 140 characters or less.

Will you help me make this blog a better community, where we can go a little deeper with one another than 140 characters allows?

Jump in.

I hear it several times a week from friends, co-workers, and others …

“You must be on Facebook all day – how do you get any work done”?

So this blog post has been “brewing” in my toolbox for a couple of months now.
(my toolbox, and what’s in it – coming soon)

Here’s the deal.  If I were on Facebook all day, I would NEVER get my work done. If I didn’t get my work done, you’d notice.

So here’s how I seemingly stay connected throughout the day (and even throughout the night, or midair during flight!) to Facebook.  (go to my Facebook Profile)

1.  Twitter
Plain and simple.  I have “Tweetdeck” on my Mac, and incredible application that allows me to view multiple twitter accounts simultaneously, including my Facebook feed.  (which I have turned off, by the way).  When I take 30 seconds to post Read more »

Today I continue my 2-part series on Twitter.  Yesterday’s post discussed my “Revised Twitter Follow Strategy“.  I talked about how the use of “Auto Follow” caused my Twitter feed to explode with irrelevant, irreverent, and spammy tweets.   Despite the fact that I could always overcome this by simply adding people to a special “group” in Tweetdeck, I still couldn’t stand seeing myself as a “follower” of all those various accounts.

As promised, today I bring you ten reasons I would stop following someone on Twitter.  These reasons Read more »

Hey Everybody,

(special request:  to all of my readers, I’m trying to determine the effects of “StumbleUpon” on readership – after reading and commenting on this post, please click the “Share” button at the bottom and give a “thumbs up” to this post on StumbleUpon.Com – or you can simply click here after reading this)

In lieu of my traditional “FreePlay Friday” or “Fitness Friday” posts – I want to take today and tomorrow to discuss some changes to the way I’m using Twitter.  I’ve been planning this post for a couple of weeks and just today, received an email from someone via my website. They said “I tried to dm you on Twitter, but you aren’t following me” ….

For those who have no interest, I hope you’ll join me back here on Sunday for “Sunday Setlists”.

My Original, Follow-All Twitter Strategy:

Several months ago I jumped aboard the strategy that many prominent bloggers promoted – the “auto-follow” or “follow everyone” strategy.  Using TweetLater.Com, I setup my @fmckinnon to follow everyone who followed me.

I started following A LOT of people – including Read more »