New Twitter. Yay or Nay?

This post is long overdue considering the fact that Twitter launched its new layout and some new functionality last week. I’ve been in the process of moving and working nutty hours, apologies for the absence, gals. But I’m back!!

Twitter’s new “look” is all about user-friendliness, finding stories that are relevant, connecting with others easily and making your Twitter voice front and center with the new look of your Twitter profile.

How are you liking the new Twitter? I like it. It’s growing on me!

User-friendliness and new profile layout –

• Bold new menu on left side of our Twitter Profiles. The lay-out is similar to how we interact with online retailers. While online shopping, you’ll often find the menu and filters to help find items on the left-navigation bar. We’re familiar with this type of click behavior.
• A nice giant button to help us make edits to our Profiles. Create a new blog? Website? Make the change easily with one click on the giant Edit Your Profile button.
• Three simple call-outs on the top navigation bar: (1) Home, (2) @ Connect and (3) # Discover. It doesn’t get any simpler than that.
• The tweet window is now on the left side beneath our avatars. We’ll see how this works since having the tweet window at the top may have been easier for drafting.

Finding stories that are relevant and connecting with others –

• Visit the “Discover” tab on the top navigation bar and find the day’s top Twitter stories.
• Get access to your friend’s Twitter activity…who followed who, who favorite’d what
• Browse categories such as Sports, Entertainment, News, Health etc. Which categories do you often frequent?
• Visit the “Connect” tab and learn about your most recent interactions such as replies to your tweets, RTs from others and who recently followed you.

Customer Service and Social Media

It’s not often you’ll find exceptional customer service these days. You may end-up speaking with a customer service rep who clearly dislikes their job or a rep who is simply apathetic to your need. In fact, good luck if you even speak with a human. Many customer service phone lines are touch-tone menu with the expectation you’ll resolve your issue on your own. Bah humbug to crappy customer service, right?

Social media has opened the door to personalized customer service, timely responses to customer needs and wants, trouble-shooting tech issues and cultivating a relationship with customers.

Suggestions for how you can improve customer service via social media:

• Respond to questions and comments on Facebook within 24 hours
• Reply to tweets within 24 hours
• Retweet your answer if you feel it adds value to the rest of your customers/followers
• If you don’t know the answer, reply that you’ll circle back shortly with the information
• Be honest. Customers do not like “playing games” or “feeling in the dark”
• If a big issue erupts, affecting a majority of your customers, it’s best to simply do a Facebook update acknowledging the issue and your commitment to find a resolution.

Some brands that get customer service right on social media:

• Zappos: Facebook and @zappos_service
• Hootsuite: @hootsuite_help
• Zazzle: Facebook and @zazzle
• Best Buy: Facebook and @twelpforce
• Jet Blue: @jetblue

What brands have you seen do customer service right on social media?

Shop. Click. Submit. Repeat. #CyberMonday

Raise your hand if you took advantage of the Cyber Monday deals!

If you’re not familiar with Cyber Monday, it’s the Monday after Black Friday when eTailers share ridiculously crazy deals. It’s bananas! Deals like free shipping on your entire order, free upgraded shipping, buy one get one free, additional 25% off, etc. Crazy good deals people. According to the National Retail Foundation, more than 122 million people will shop online today, Cyber Monday.

Did you get some shopping done? What are some deals you enjoyed?

All day on Twitter people were sharing deals via #CyberMonday hashtag and many enjoyed receiving alerts from eTailers such as Juicy Couture, Food Network and more.