Twitter, & Why Certain Things Shouldn’t Be Seen

Less than a month ago, a post on ZDNet was found exhorting us to follow ten people who were deemed ‘worth following’ on Twitter, the last stronghold of the insipid and incoherent. This morning I see that someone else is all “twittipated” about the less than universal use of the ’service’.

Twitter isn’t just about finding out about plane crashes and what your best friend ate for lunch. Its uses are evolving, and big corporations are joining the fun. Some corporate accounts serve as a boring PR tool that spews press releases and follows everyone who tweets about their company. But others have found interesting, inventive ways to engage customers on Twitter.

Some corporations, namely @Palm_Inc and @WholeFoods, have used the service to release news and answer questions. Others, such as @DellOutlet and @MotoDeals, have become a hot place to go to find great deals on merchandise. And not to be outdone, companies like @ComcastCares, and @HRBlock, have used Twitter as a new extension to customer service, allowing near real-time responses to difficult questions.

We’ve compiled a list of 10 corporate Twitter accounts that can either help you in a jam or allow you to give instant product and service feedback to someone who will actually get the message.

1. @Palm_Inc – Palm has taken the inventive step of using Twitter to break news. It also uses the account to respond to customer queries.

2. @JetBlue – JetBlue gives travel tips and answers customer questions all day long.

3. @WholeFoods – Whole Foods gives trivia tips about its company, answers questions, and makes suggestions on where to donate to charity.

4. @HTC – HTC answers customer questions and lets them know about the latest product news, often before it lets the media know.

5. @DellOutlet – Dell’s Outlet Twitter feed has more than 100,000 followers, and rightly so. It lets users know about incredible, and often very brief, deals.

6. @HRBlock – Just in time for tax season, H&R Block has a Twitter account that answers your tax prep questions and gives helpful hints.

7. @SouthwestAir – Southwest Airlines answers customer questions and gives a glimpse into the lives of Southwest employees.

8. @MotoDeals – Motorola’s deal Twitter account gives followers links to great offers and tips on using the company’s products.

9. @ComcastCares – The official Comcast Twitter account is a useful extension of its customer service outlet. One of our very own staffers tried the service out and was able to lower his cable bill through it.

10. @Starbucks – Starbucks uses its account to receive customer feedback, give information about new products, and quickly answer questions.

above from PC Magazine

Do I really have to take this list apart, piece by piece? Other than perhaps Number 8, there is absolutely no reason, other than too much time on one’s hands, to ever visit.

This reminds me of the Garry Shandling comedy once featured on HBO called “The Larry Sander’s Show”. While it was entertaining, it also showed the cracks and ’soft, white underbelly’ of the average talk show, with all the quirks and foibles. Sometimes it was just too excruciatingly difficult to watch, as the number of gaffes, screw ups, and problems were so numerous as to defy credulity.

From the small number of things I have seen, albeit recommended as the  ‘best of the best’ to pay attention to, it seems that this is designed for those who enjoy the most miniscule of details about things most would pray to never know. It exposes the poor grammar, bad ideas, and thoughts better left unstated for all the world to wonder about the basic intelligence of the person at the other end.

So as with other things superfluous, it calls into question the ultimate motivation, money. As far as I can see, no money is to be made with this. So what is the point, exactly?

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He who believes in freedom of the will has never loved and never hated.Marie von Ebner-Eschenbach