Customer support has always been a challenging task for companies, especially when customer volumes and product SKUs increase. As social media becomes increasingly pervasive, how can companies make their support systems more responsive?

Firms including Cisco and Zendesk have developed systems that integrate customer communications functions with social media such as Twitter. Zendesk has a support ticketing system that can turn Twitter posts into support tickets. This integration makes it relatively easy to respond to Twitter posts from customers complaining about a service, while also registering the whole incident in the support system.

Such developments are becoming increasingly relevant as customers choose social media channels to complain about bad experiences with companies. Support desks can no longer expect customers to come directly and privately to them any more, but must monitor Twitter and other social media for information about bad customer experiences.

The new generation of customer support systems feature innovations such as collaborative authoring, in which multiple parties can contribute to a help ticket, which then becomes a searchable part of a database. Support feedback mechanisms are becoming multichannel, and socially enabled, which allows content to be personalized more effectively.

Rather than simply being a means of solving an irritating problem, then, support is becoming a more integrated part of the customer experience. Customers should be able to leave support interactions more satisfied as a result, and this is a key deliverable. Support incidents are pivotal points in the customer relationship, in which individuals can come away from a company feeling looked after, and valued, by their supplier. These incidents are an opportunity to not only recover relationships, but also to enhance them, and perhaps even increase revenues by cross-selling.

This blog first appeared on Orange Business Live we contribute to regularly.

Here’s some interesting tips for companies engaging – or failing to engage properly – in social media. The advice is from researchers Firefly Millward Brown, who surveyed social media users (moderates and heavy users) in Australia, Brazil, China, Colombia, Czech Republic, India, South Africa, United Kingdom and the United States, about their attitudes to online brands and how they use social media.

Based on the consumer research, Millward Brown recommends 10 rules for engaging with social media:

1. Don’t recreate your homepage in social media — consumers want to see something new, fresh or different from brands – not a rehash of the same information they can get on the brand’s official Web site.
2. Listen first, then talk: create a dialogue — by far one of the biggest issues consumers have – or anticipate – with brands is that they will simply talk at them instead of talking with them. They want a conversation where brands listen to what they have to say.
3. Build trust by being open and honest — transparency is key for brands in social media and is the most critical factor in building trust. However, consumers perceive that brands would rather hide behind policies and procedures than admit to their failings or shortcomings.
4. Give your brand a face — brands often suffer in social media because they don’t have anyone that answers to the consumer, a face for the brand. This prevents many consumers from actively engaging with companies in social media.
5. Offer something of value — consumers are more likely to respond to brands that offer them something real and tangible, preferably without wanting something in return. While discounts and coupons are in vogue for brands in social media, they can create distrust. Worthwhile and exclusive content or deals or inside information on new products and services are valued by consumers.
6. Be relevant — consumers want to see content that relates to their life, their interest, their desires and their needs. Interestingly, several respondents commented on the lack of relevance for brands of ‘functional’ products like detergent, fabric softener and household cleaning products within the social media universe. In social media consumers are more critical about content that isn’t deemed relevant and feel that it’s invading their space.
7. Talk like a friend not a corporate entity — consumers want brands to communicate in simple, casual language that is conversational. They do not want technical or sales speak.
8. Give consumers some control — to operate effectively, brands must relinquish some of the control they have held for many years and be comfortable with the fact that they cannot solely dictate the message anymore. Brands that embrace consumer input and promote it will be more effective in managing the conversation.
9. Let consumers find you/come to you — another stark departure from traditional media campaigns, consumers do not want to feel that brands are ‘shouting’ messages at them. The perception is clearly that brands will use ‘intrusive’ and ‘interruptive’ advertising in social media.
10. Let consumers talk for you — brands achieve more kudos when consumers take the initiative and advocate them. The recent Toyota campaign, where real people talked about their stories on Facebook and were then selected to feature in a television ad, is a great example where the brand is not trying to overtly sell but is building relationships by encouraging customers to participate in conversations.

Some people go to great lengths to get away from it all, including climbing Everest. But now Swedish operator TeliaSonera and local player Ncell in Nepal have built a 3G base station at 5200 metres – well within altitude sickness territory. The goal is to serve climbers and residents of the Khumbu valley.

Here’s a vid of a climber talking about how useful 3G will be, compared to broadband satellite.

This does raise some issues though – with such thin atmosphere, will the signals travel for billions of miles? How do you get a steady power supply at that height? Will the snow impact performance? Will data roaming costs be sky high (ho ho), and most importantly, will excessive use of Foursquare and iPhone videoblogging from basecamp bring the network to a standstill? Answers please….

Finding controversy in social media is like shooting fish in a barrel. This month’s firestorm concerns Malcolm Gladwell’s article on using social media for activism. The renowned pop science author argued in the New Yorker that social media was an inappropriate tool for activism and that ‘the revolution will not be tweeted’.

This provoked heated responses from social media luminaries, including Twitter co-founder Ev Williams, who argued that “Anyone who’s claiming that sending a tweet by itself is activism, that’s ludicrous — but no one’s claiming that, at least no one that’s credible. If you can’t organise you can’t activate.”

Perhaps. But that doesn’t undermine Gladwell’s core argument – that the messy, loosely-coupled nature of social networks makes it difficult to drive through change. The problem, he said, was that painful social changes such as the racial civil rights movement in the US need top-down hierarchies to be effective. Conversely, social media networks are flat matrices of chatterers that say lots, and do little that could be considered cohesive. No one changed the world by typing ‘nom nom nom’ into a status bar.

Making use of an organised mess

Nevertheless, in certain situations, such as inside the enterprise, the messy, disorganised nature of social networks could be advantageous. A CEO may not want to use a social network to organise the workforce towards a common goal (such as increasing top line revenues by 2%). But they may want to leverage such networks to encourage bottom-up thinking.

Top-down hierarchies are good for organising people around a central idea (such as civil rights reform, for example). They de-emphasise the idea of thinking for yourself beyond preset parameters. This is how many things work, from seminal protest movements through to the military film sets and commercial kitchens are organised this way. A central taskmaster delegates to others, who may delegate further, creating a tightly-organised chain of command.

Conversely, social networks are particularly good at two things: social capital, and emergent behaviour. They give people the chance to promote themselves and their ideas. Thinking outside the box is encouraged.

In an enterprise setting, hierarchical structures work when disseminating a leader’s vision and getting employees on board, but it is difficult to use them for two-way communication. For an organisation wanting to squeeze tacit knowledge out of its employee base, or to give people the opportunity to put innovative ideas in play, social networks may be more appropriate.

An employee with a passion for, say, a new product line or a way to remove half the steps from a convoluted corporate process that they know intimately may find it difficult to make themselves heard in a hierarchical structure. But given the chance to develop and run with the idea in an online corporate social network, that employee may gather supporters who discuss and evolve the concept to the point where they represent a significant movement in the company.

This is how loosely coupled groups known as ‘communities of practice’ are developed. Think of them as groups gathering around a digital water cooler, discussing possibilities for aspects of their company that they are close to, and passionate about. Groups such as these can sow the seeds for new lines of revenue, and groundbreaking efficiency measures.

Perhaps social networks are not the ideal tool for top-down activism, but they can still be used to effect radical change. Such developments could be highly valuable for a management courageous enough to give employees this sort of voice – and the technology to make themselves heard. Let’s hope, then, that management is willing to listen.

We’ve just finished a interesting assignment covering Orange Business Services’ annual customer event Orange Business Live! as part of a team of internal and external bloggers from France, UK and Belgium. The idea of the coverage was to show that interesting things happen at shows like this by publicising it to the outside world in real time. Stories,photos and videos were published to the Orange Business Live! blog and to the Orange Business posterous page. I wrote a round up of some of the stories that the bloggers wrote in this post and the social media presence was so successful that the new Orange Business Services CEO Vivek Badrinath came and checked us out himself.

Should CIOs blog? Should they tweet, or otherwise engage with social media? It is a question that IT executives should increasingly ask themselves, as they attempt to fight their corner within organisations that can be sceptical about IT as a function.

Blogging, once a pastime for celebrity followers, cookery buffs, and movie fans, has increasingly become a corporate activity as companies understand and embrace the appeal of social media. It can be used as a way to encourage conversations between executives and others in the industry, and with customers. It can be used as a platform to hammer home a particular message, or to promote a particular category of product. For CIOs, who in many cases are managing a transition for the IT function within their companies, it can be a useful way to make themselves heard. It is a pursuit followed by several high-profile CIOs, including Vivek Kundra, the CIO for the US Federal government.

For years now, IT departments have been considered a cost centre within organisations. IT executives constantly have had to battle boards that are unwilling to spend money on what they see as a cash drain on the organisation. However, in the last couple of years, some companies have begun maturing to the point where they see IT as a potential centre for revenue. The savvy CIO understands this transition, and the associated requirement for a more strategic conversation between the IT function and others in the business. If organisations can be persuaded to view IT strategically – as a business partner which can help to drive growth in new and interesting directions – then CIOs can manoeuvre themselves and their departments into a more advantageous position.

A blog is one way to help demonstrate thought leadership both within an organisation and further afield. It also helps to promote a CIO personally as a strategic thinker who can be relied upon for a visionary approach. Here are our top tips to help new CIO bloggers to make their mark:

Break new ground

There are plenty of blogs that say nothing. An online platform for discussion that simply spouts conventional wisdom is almost worse than no blog at all, because it casts the author in the role of follower, rather than leader. Find something new to say, and say it in an engaging and entertaining way.

Find a cause

One way to demonstrate a visionary approach and develop a distinct personal voice is by embracing a subject as yours, and using your blog as online platform to help win over others in the industry. Think about broad topics, such as accountability, service culture, or operational security – something that will identify you as a pioneer with a passion.

Market your blog

Develop reciprocal links. Twitter your blog, and use the blog to expand on some of your Tweets. Comment on other peoples’ blogs and add value to the conversation, rather than blatantly using others’ comment sections as a means of promoting your own outlet. It is also a good idea to promote your blog in areas that will attract like-minded people. User group web sites and discussion boards might be a good example. Measuring and monitoring is part of a good marketing strategy. Services such as PostRank Analytics provide analytics services that can help you to monitor the coverage that your blog posts are getting across various social media services.

Blog short, and blog often

Short, snappy posts of a few paragraphs are better than infrequent, longer posts. Busy readers like smart, informative content that they can digest easily, but they also like to keep coming back for more. Infrequent blogs make you seem inconsistent, and will discourage people from subscribing.

Check in with HR

You don’t need to rock the boat to make some interesting waves. Even bloggers that do not promote themselves as employees of their particular company can be subject to disciplinary action if they overstep the mark and say things that may bring their employer into disrepute. It is therefore imperative that bloggers capitalising on their executive position within a particular company should ensure that what they are saying does not cause any conflict with that company’s message. It would be wise to check in with human resources and with other board members to get the go-ahead to blog as an executive within your organisation

Make your blog last longer than your job

Your vision should outlast your tenure at any one company, and so should your blog. Use a personal URL wherever possible, so that you can take your online location and your blogging history with you where ever you end up. Phil Windley started blogging when he was the CIO for the State of Utah, for example, but has since maintained it while in multiple positions and roles in the tech industry.

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There’s a great article on Silicon.com about the dwindling interest in Twitter, and why companies should stay committed to social media. I say “great” because it’s by me :)

To read the full article, go to: http://www.silicon.com/management/sales-and-marketing/2010/03/22/is-twitter-on-the-wane-39745616/ and add your two bits to the comments.

Here’s the article….

While activity on Twitter continues to increase – the number of tweets per day is now approaching 50 million – this is largely due to an active core of one-in-five registered users who are becoming more and more engaged. According to marketing software company Hubspot, the average Twitter user in January 2010 had 300 followers compared to around 60 last July.

Twitter’s problem is adding to its 75 million users. Yes, it’s a considerable number, but in social media, scale is everything.

A report from research firm Barracuda Labs found that the number of new Twitter users grew just 0.34 per cent in December 2009, down from a peak of 20 per cent new users joining in April 2009. Hubspot’s figures show that the peak of new users was in March 2009 (13 per cent) and fell to four per cent in October 2009.

And these are not the first reports to identify the problem. A report in September last year from research firm Hitwise found that in 2008, Twitter accounted for 0.01 per cent of visits to all websites. By June 2009, this had climbed to 0.20 per cent before falling to 0.17 per cent in September.

I realise it’s pretty hard to get accurate stats on Twitter use because so many access the service via desktop software, but there is enough evidence to suggest that the number of people who want to use this social networking tool based solely on status updates which are broadcasted (i.e. you don’t really have control who follows you), has reached its limit.

Can you hear me?

Twitter users may have already noticed that it’s getting harder to be heard. Some highly engaged social media practitioners I know, tweeting many times per day, are reporting that it’s getting more and more difficult to grow their followers organically, especially with people who are genuinely interested in what they have to say. Instead, they are being followed indiscriminately by people who want to gain social capital, with a trigger-happy ‘retweet’ finger.

The problem may be that the noise has reached a threshold. The cacophony created by status updates from hundreds or thousands of people, proffering links to interesting articles, dipping into conversations half-way through and dull missives about lunchtime sandwiches, is obviously getting too much for some folk.

To filter out the noise, Twitter users tend to engage or converse with a smaller number of people than their following count would imply. There’s some science behind this – it’s called Dunbar’s Number, a concept coined by cognitive anthropologist Adrian Dunbar who posits that the average person cannot sustain more than 150 friendships. His work correlates with animal studies showing that this magic number crops up all over the animal world too.

Twitter: Not just for status updates anymore

So what should we read in to this? Is Twitter really on the wane?…

It’s hard to say just yet but one good sign for Twitter’s long-term health is that Twitter itself seems to recognise that being a tool that only distributes status updates is a one-trick pony. All kinds of social media from Facebook and LinkedIn to web giants like Yahoo! and Google are homing in on status and buzz. And they have a lot more to offer than Twitter.

This is probably why Twitter recently announced @Anywhere, which will allow Twitter feeds to be linked into other websites using a common API. These sites include AdAge, Amazon, Bing, Citysearch, Digg, eBay, The Huffington Post, Meebo, MSNBC.com, The New York Times, Salesforce.com, Yahoo! and YouTube.

And if you are a LinkedIn user, you’ll know that you can already get your Twitter feed on your LinkedIn profile.

Ultimately what is happening is status updates are being commoditised, which I wrote about in more detail in a recent blog post about the future of social media.

Now I don’t think Twitter is necessarily a lost cause and will go the way of Friends Reunited. It is still a very powerful tool, and one that should not be ignored by anyone working in sales, marketing, PR, customer service or product development.

More importantly, status updates are here to stay, whichever the social network they originate from.

Keep listening and reacting

So businesses still need a Twitter strategy. But really what they need is a strategy for listening and reacting to all the social media conversations about you – whether they are on Twitter, blogs, Facebook Groups, forums, Posterous and so on.

Status updates are a revelation: you can hear what people say about you and your competitors, you can discovers flaws in your products that you didn’t realise were there, and you can find out exactly where and when customers are disgruntled.

And you can act on what you hear: change the product, contact the customer, warn the helpdesk and so on. (Marketing guru Olivier Blanchard has some interesting advice on how to turn social media listening into pan-organisational acting.)

But let’s remember the Dunbar Number and ultimately, that social media is a personal media, and companies are not individuals. You can listen, you can broadcast offers, you can respond to complaints, but don’t expect social media users to want to be your friend. They can only engage with a few people at a time, and unless you have the resources to develop a one to one relationship with your thousands/millions of customers, you will end up disappointed.

You can find other Silicon articles by myself here: http://www.silicon.com/search/stewart+baines.htm and by Anthony here: http://www.silicon.com/search/anthony+plewes.htm

Sometimes we get the opportunity to stand back from our most pressing work commitments, and gaze across the technology landscape at the changing Internet. We are frequently told that social media is a work in progress, and is still its infant phase. So let us ponder where it may go in the coming years. What follows is idle future pondering, scenarios almost. Please do not take the following as a forecast.

Twitter will not last without a radical reinvention

The increasing openness between networks – LinkedIn, Facebook, Twitter – will increase. Status updates on one will be seamlessly available to all, and also embedded in Microsoft Office applications, in collaboration tools, with SMS and so on. Status will be your thoughts, your retweets and @’s and also your car’s GPS location, and your appliances’ status (you’re washing machine will let you know when the cycle is complete). In fact the ability to display status updates will be as common a function as voice: completely commoditised.

Imagine a future Facebook interface which selects your real friends, the people you have interacted with on Twitter (or the like), or that have used common hashtags. Powerful algorithms will serve up only the status and conversations you are likely to find interesting. So what value in having an army of followers that is not listening to you? Will those that are currently trying to greedily acquire social capital now find their efforts were in vain?

I believe the effect of this evolution in social media interfaces (not the networks behind them) will help to cut down a lot of the noise.  In terms of which social media applications will dominate, the winning environment will be the one with the best usability and the best distribution because being a walled garden isn’t going to last.

Junk content will get worse before it gets better

Ever wonder what happens when you pay “writers” $1 for a 1000 word? It ends up as a How-To article on websites funded by Google Adsense revenues.  Many (not all) of these sites operate without any accountability whatsoever. What’s wrong with this? People are paid a pittance to plagiarise, cut corners or simply write with fake authority about subjects they know absolutely nothing about. Hundreds of millions of pages of junk content is clogging up Google. While bedroom publishers can build an economic model based on Adsense, don’t expect any self restraint.

This is not to say that How-To sites are the only ones manipulating or exploiting dubious online content to gain Adsense revenue. There are many technology sites doing this also, grabbing articles about popular brands and scurrilously twisting the meaning into something sensational. The best of the Adsense-funded sites are enthusiasts with not enough time to check facts; the worst simply don’t care at all about veracity. Their only interest is traffic because now they have a direct correlation between views and cents.

Eventually we will stop reading and the noise will quieten down

Looking further ahead – 10 years for instance – and the verbal diarrhoea generated by UGC and copy factories will be on the wane. As more and more of the content we will view becomes video, audio and spoken-word menus, our reliance on scanning stories for what we want to know will dissipate. Natural language-based search (sometimes called the semantic web) will make it easier for us to go direct to the information we want. Intelligent agents will learn our habits and interests and will interoperate with these search tools to ensure that each search is really, really targeted. And the widespread deployment of touchscreen interfaces – in work PCs, the living room TV, in-car computer and the home control panel – will gradually break our century-old connection to the keyboard. Intelligent speech, search, profiling and interfaces could combine to end the rule of the Word on the Internet

So which of these scenarios could come true? What other futures for media/social media can you envision?