Author: Kevin Micalizzi

  • Rule#1: Be Real

    When you’re engaging with anyone online, rule #1 is “Be Real”. The world is full of bots (both human and digital.)  Your customers are people, it’s ok to be a person t00. Be a face, not a name (or logo) Don’t just broadcast, have a conversation Be open and honest Be Yourself!

  • Who does your incentive program benefit and is it clear?

    Some of you know I have a bit of a Starbucks addiction. (I’m even the mayor of several Starbucks on Foursquare). I was never a fan of paying to join member rewards programs, but last year I talked myself into buying the Starbucks Gold card.  By swiping the card at the register with each purchase,…

  • Facebook, enforcing like-ability, inspiring confusion?

    I logged onto the Facebook Page I manage earlier today to find this message. That message made sense to me, but I made the mistake of clicking “Learn more“.  It put me on a 7 section, 30 question FAQ.  I went for the “Liking” a Page section, hoping I was in the right place. Why…

  • Social media: swarm vs. strategy?

    So you’ve listened and maybe engaged in social media, now what? It’s important to be there since the conversations are already happening, but have you integrated that work into your overall strategy?  I was on a call Friday with a PR firm talking about social media strategy.  When I think about what many of us…

  • Make your chats natural

    I had an experience with Comcast‘s chat support a few evenings ago that I still keep mulling over. I’m not certain how much of it was scripted vs. improvised, but it felt somewhat awkward. As someone who spends time writing scripts for others to use when interacting with customers on the phone and via chat,…

  • When is it ok to ignore a comment, tweet, etc?

    There’s a ton of advice out there that you ignore social media (blogs, Twitter, Facebook, etc.) at your own peril.  I’m having a difficult time finding best practices on when you may need to use ignoring as an approach — or is it something you should never do? I’d love to know how you feel…

  • Personal fulfillment through effective communication.

    Communicating your organization’s message, whether that message pertains to a sales, marketing or support function should always take your audiences needs into consideration. The problem tends to be that professionals write professionally. Now, don’t get me wrong, there is a place for technical jargon, buzzwords and catch phrases – but unless your message is specific…

  • Are you encouraging or discouraging online communication?

    When I was studying interpersonal communication at Ithaca College in the early 90s, one of the concepts we looked at was whether your environment encouraged or discouraged communication.  The terms I learned were: sociopetal (environment encourages communication) and sociofugal (environment discourages communication.) Determining if a physical environment encourages or discourages communication is a pretty straightforward…

  • Conflicting messages are not our way of thanking you-learning from apologizing

    Last Wednesday, just before Thanksgiving, I took the time to give thanks to my Dimdim customers (Dimdim web conferencing, giving thanks to you.)  I left the office later in the day to enjoy the long weekend. Everything was good and relaxing until Friday, early afternoon, when I got a call from the office.  I had…

  • A lot of thanks, and a little gobble gobble

    Well, it’s Thanksgiving morning, 2009.  Heading out in a few to spend the day with family, but I wanted to take a minute to say Thanks! Just before last Thanksgiving, I was fortunate enough to start a new job.  Thanks to Steve Chazin, I have had the pleasure of working as Community Manager for Dimdim…