My company, GasPedal, recently hosted BlogWell: How Big Brands Use Social Media in San Francisco, a fantastic event featuring eight case studies on corporate social media from some of the world’s biggest companies. As we gear up for our next BlogWell in Minneapolis on Aug. 13 — featuring case studies from McDonald’s, H&R Block, Walmart, CME Group, General Mills, and Progressive — I’m sharing some key lessons from San Francisco.
Here’s what we learned from Kira Wampler, Intuit’s word of mouth and social media leader, Small Business Division, on how Intuit is engaging customers through social media:
- It’s no longer OK to say, “That’s not my job.” When it comes to engaging online, customers don’t care where you are within an organization, they care that they’re having an issue with their product or service and just want the problem resolved. It’s up to the company to have the process to direct these questions and concerns to the internal experts.
- Your presence makes it easier for fans to speak up. As Kira explained, because her team is present online, they draw the heat from the “professional haters,” making it easier for the regular fans and promoters to speak up without drawing fire from the critics.
- Bottom line: WOM and social media represent human nature. Kira calls this the “new normal,” because at the bottom of it all, it’s people talking about products and experiences — something they’ve been doing since time immortal.