Week 3 1A Blog Post

Often times communicating with a business can seem like an impossible task. You call the customer help line to ask a simple question and you get put on hold for 30 minutes listening to elevator music. It seems like you can never get in touch with an actual person, and even when you do, half the time your problem doesn't get resolved. I can personally say I've experienced this scenario plenty of times. It's frustrating, and it makes you resentful of the business as a whole. If only there were an easier way to get in touch with a business, or to make your complaint, question, or comment seen or heard better, to more than one person.

Social media has changed the game in terms of communicating with businesses. We have seen fast food chains replying to people's tweets on Twitter, businesses "liking" or replying to comments on their instagram posts, and companies personally answering direct messages on Facebook. In my experience, social media has made businesses feel more personal, more like real people that you can contact with whatever need or inquiry you have. I've replied to business' stories multiple times, either letting them know how much I appreciate their products or services, or tagged restaurants and shops I've posted on my Instagram story to receive either a share or a reply, showing the business that I enjoyed my experience there. People and businesses can now communicate much more effectively and be part of the same playing field. There are still the instances of being put on hold and only ever being able to get a hold of an automated message system, but overall, I believe social media has made communicating with businesses much more efficient and effective.

As I do run an Instagram page and YouTube channel that are both personal and business-related, I deal with both negative and positive comments all the time. I try to be as personal as I can, and reply to as many DMs as I can to form connections with the people who follow me. As for negative comments, I find that unless they are constructive criticism, to simply ignore them and not take them personally. If a person is upset about a certain product or service they received for a business, I do think it is the business's responsibility to address the concerns and make sure the customers are being treated fairly and receiving what they paid for, as it will only help the business thrive and show other customers that the business cares for their customer's wellbeing and satisfaction.

Comments

  1. Hi Angelina! I haven't had much experience with communicating with a business over social media. I don't know, maybe I'm still too old school. Or actually to be honest, I just find it a little challenging to find the time to learn how to use new social media platforms to communicate with businesses. I personally would like to just speak with someone. I'm the same way in my personal life also. I hate texting! Okay, maybe not hate texting because sometimes I really don't want to speak certain people or whatever, but I would much rather just speak to someone under normal circumstances. It's so much faster that way.

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