Using Social Media to Foster Customer Relations

I am an avid believer that companies should use social media to create and foster relationships with customers and prospective customers.

I used http://blogsearch.google.com/ to search for blog postings on OrgSync. OrgSync is a company that provides software to Universities and colleges all around the United States. Essentially the software is handed down to student organizations, which then use the software to manage organization information, planning, and event promotions.

I found a posting about a particular university’s launching of this company’s software. I read through the blog post and found a comment about the post stating:

"Where are all the negative comments that have been expressed at OSA meetings and in personal talks with students? Where is the vote tally where the OSA and the senate voted against "org sink" Thanks for making this story as fluffy, cute and one sided as possible."

This is a perfect example of an opportunity OrgSync can use to gain insights on [prospective] customer’s suggestions, concerns, questions or even praise they may have about the company or their software.

Companies need to monitor social media networks, blogs, forums, and product reviews and ratings. This is free and easy access to customer insights that can positively affect a company’s progression and even direct research and development toward an innovative and very lucrative path. Doing this will allow companies to get deep down into what customers really think and if customers are really concerned about something, it gives companies the opportunity to address these concerns and use it as a method of providing good customer service and public relations.

OrgSync also, uses Facebook to provide their software users with an OrgSync Application to conveniently login to their OrgSync account through Facebook without ever leaving the site. Basically, having the application allows your OrgSync account to be embedded into Facebook. This does two things; it is smart on OrgSync’s part to offer this application to its users because it brings OrgSync to a place where its target users are already, Facebook! This means more logins for the company! Also, this application makes it much more convenient for users to check two accounts at once. After a user makes a comment on a friend’s wall they can check their OrgSync messages to see if they have any important messages from their org president!

I think OrgSync is using social media to create a convenient experience for their user. OrgSync will also need to [or continue to] use social media to connect to their core users and gain valuable insights about the user and their user’s opinions, concerns and needs.

*I am an employee of OrgSync! FYI.

Wal-Mart is Surfing on a Database of Advantages & Ethical Dilemmas!

Wal-Mart has tons of shopper history also known as data that allows them to predict “what’s going to happen, instead of waiting for it to happen,” as Wal-Mart’s chief information officer, Linda M. Dillman says in "What Walmart Knows About Customers' Habits."


Because of the insights made from Wal-Mart’s database the company was able to know what to increase in stock when Hurricane Charley hit. This knowledge is power and equates to profit and Wal-Mart definitely uses it as a competitive advantage.

This of course is a benefit for Wal-Mart but to others all this customer data that is being collected raises debates on privacy issues and ethical dilemmas. Your information as a consumer at Wal-Mart is gathered at checkout, recorded, mapped, updated by store, by state and then by region!

Wal-Mart has 460 terabytes of data stored on their customers! The internet has less than half as much data! In most cases this data is stored for indefinite lengths of time.

Wal-Mart uses this data to answer discount retailing’s rabbinical questions dealing with things such as store operation decisions.

Wal-Mart does share some of its data with its suppliers, which I would imagine strengthened their relationship with suppliers. In 2006, Wal-Mart decided to tighten the reigns on their data and announced it would no longer sell its data to outside companies, which in my opinion was a smart idea because in the long run I’d imagine it would hurt the company’s goodwill if anyone abused its data, which would negatively outweigh any revenue they’d obtain from selling the data. The more control they have over the data the less likely their will be abuse of the data by anyone. Most customers have no clue their shopping habits are being monitored as they shop, which also raises questions of whether this data gathering is ethical. Wal-Mart does take reasonable steps to protect personal information. While the company definitely benefits from customers data, so are customers. The efficiency that is enabled by all of the data drives down costs, and in turn is carried over to customer savings. I fully trust the steps Wal-Mart has taken to protect my information because they not only care about my privacy they care about self-preservation and would not want to deal with law suits and decrease their public image.

Wal-Mart is coined the Supply and Command store because of the power its database gives it. Its data enables the company to operate on a level of efficiency that no other company can match!