Girls In Tech

Talk about “girls in tech” — a new live chat on Twitter hosted and moderated by seven savvy women seems to epitomize the phrase!

Launched just two months ago in June 2010, #luxurychat is a live chat on Twitter discussing the intersection of social media and luxury. The list of all the co-founders of #luxurychat can be found in the image below. The live chat takes place on the third Wednesday of every month. Being a PR and social media consultant for luxury brands, I have been increasingly approached about the void in live Twitter chats addressing the topic of how luxury brands can effectively use, and have effectively used, social media to market their brands.  Having corresponded on Twitter regularly with six other tech and marketing savvy women in similar industries, we banded together and formed #luxurychat.

The response has been overwhelming.

In just it’s very second incarnation, we featured travel industry expert, and social media pioneer Mr. Simon F. Cooper, President of The Ritz-Carlton Hotel Company. We already have plans to feature more high-profile industry experts in the coming months…and believe we have touched just the tip of the iceberg of the scope and reach of #luxurychat.

We hope you join us live for our next #luxurychat on Wednesday, August 18!

Christine Kirk can be reached via e-mail at christine@socialmuse.com or on Twitter @LuxuryPRGal.

Tags: #luxurychat, Christine Kirk, luxury, online brand management, social marketing, social media, Social Muse, twitter, women in technology
Posted in All Chapters, Los Angeles | 2 Comments »

About two weeks ago, I had reached the end of the road with my cable company – Time Warner Cable. For the past four months, my service had been spotty at best, non-existent at worst. And believe me, I wasn’t just upset that American Idol wasn’t being DVR’d…my Internet service, which is also provided by TWC, was experiencing the same spotty service. And being that I run a business out of my home, spotty Internet service is 100% unacceptable.

I had called TWC customer service many times over the months – demanding a pro-rated fee for the service I wasn’t receiving, asking for help, a solution – and the feedback I would always get was, “restart your cable box.” I began restarting my cable box at least once a day – and it never solved the problem I was having. My picture was still pixilated and frozen – my Internet service down.

Over the phone, TWC customer service told me there must be an issue with the signal getting into my house…and, basically, “oh well.”

Oh well? OH WELL??

I did not take this lightly. If I pay for something, in a timely and consistent manner, then I expect to get functional service in a timely and consistent manner. I would have dropped TWC altogether except that they have a monopoly on cable service providers in my area. I was stuck (no thanks to you Fios and Uverse-why haven’t you rescued me yet?).

Until, that is, I decided to take to Twitter and vent my frustrations there. At the very least, I could make myself feel better by telling my 6,300 Twitter followers how frustrated I was.

So, in my frustrated rampage I created the hashtag, #dietimewarnercable and began pummeling out Tweets about my “dislike” for TWC. Harsh? Yes. Did it feel GOOD? Oh yes…

In my rampage, I did a search for Time Warner Cable and could not find any Twitter handles associated with the cable giant. I believe I even wrote a snarky Tweet about corporations who don’t have a social media presence, and how people like me can help contribute to a negative online image.

About 20-30 minutes went by of me Tweeting, my followers responding, asking questions about what had set me off, etc. And then it happened. TWC reached out to me via DM. I quickly learned that Time Warner Cable actually has several active Twitter accounts including their PR person, tech support, a social media expert, among others…all of whom personally reached out to me:

@TWCablePhil @twcablebrienh @twcablehelp @alextwc

They apologized, asked what my service issues were, and how they could help. I don’t say this often, but I was wrong.

I. Was. Wrong.

Not only does Time Warner Cable have a social media and Twitter presence, but they monitor it late at night, and actually responded – in a timely, caring way to my disgruntled Tweets. They scheduled a service call for technician to come to my home and solve my service issues. The technician showed up a day later, fixed the problems, and sure enough, everything has been working perfectly since his visit.

What could not be accomplished on the phone with customer service was quickly and effectively taken care of via social media. To me, this is a wonderful example of how an age-old practice – customer service call centers – can take major notes from a new-age practice, social media.

What the call center could not solve, social media did. And that is precisely why it’s here to STAY.

Christine Kirk is founder and principal at Social Muse Communications, a PR and social media marketing consultancy firm for food/beverage, travel, luxury, technology, and lifestyle brands in Los Angeles. She also holds the position of PR Manager for the Los Angeles chapter of Girls in Tech. She can be reached via e-mail at christine@socialmuse.com or on Twitter @luxuryprgal.

Tags: online brand management, social media, time warner, time warner cable, twitter
Posted in All Chapters, Los Angeles | 6 Comments »