Being an incendiary, I’m used to getting unfollowed, ignored and even blocked (yes @mark_to_market blocked me, Lord knows who else, I stopped caring at 2000) and I’m definitely used to seeing the rats scatter across my stats every time I mention [insert firm or company name here] so it’s obvious to me from my various online interactions that some communications departments are keeping an eye on the conversation.
Since we’re all interested in the accounting side of things, I have to say that I notice more “official-looking” Twitter activity from firms based outside of the US (generally Big 4 coming from the UK or Canada) that leads me to believe most of them are at least keeping an eye on the Google alerts. PwC had the large pair to follow me once, very early on, and probably unfollowed when I started ripping on them for bumbling Satyam. Anyway, someone has to watch what’s being said and a company (or organization) can only choose to engage or not engage.
Engaging, of course, comes in several forms but to vaguely pin down what “engage” means, I’d define it as any activity that alerts others they are listening and/or give a shit.
For Comcast, they swarm Twitter responding to complaints about their crappy service, extortion boxes, and complicated remotes. Not all companies choose to take that route, nor should they be expected to. Protecting or guarding your brand means figuring out how much “engaging” is appropriate as any more or less than is appropriate for your particular organization’s needs will come off as fake, lame or just forced. And no one wants to interact with that.
For Dave and Buster’s, I give them credit for totally engaging me by following me. I’ve been publicly ripping on them for at least a week but I’m not doing it just to be mean, I’d really really like to know what went down with E&Y (welcome to your new gig, KPMG). I’ve never actually been in a D&B and any inquisitive tweets on my part were not returned but so far they haven’t sued me so I guess I’m doing well on that front.
Some agencies choose to completely ignore some of the more “questionable” interaction that isn’t exactly a pissed off customer. They’re already trained to handle that (any social media idiot can teach you how to talk to customers who talk about you in a list of 3 items or more) but they aren’t likely prepared for a fake accounting firm to ask them if newly-single D&B would want to try them out as auditors.
I don’t expect Dave & Buster’s to answer or acknowledge that but following me shows that they are at least aware I’m trying to egg them on and aren’t afraid of my bitch ass. Unlike the fake accounting firm, I’m a voice out there spreading whatever I know about [insert company] to a huge audience. They can’t send me 10,000 free tickets to shut my trap and I’m not exactly making a complaint they can resolve so what can they do? Keep an eye on me?
I admire that tactic. And may leave them alone… I’m more likely to do so if I get a tweet about what happened with E&Y but won’t be holding my breath for that particular @.
A repository for shitty memes. Come on GC, you’re better than that (although lately, based on current content, seems like you’re not….)
Been hearing that for 13 years, try some new material.
Doesn’t change the fact that its a true criticism. You’re trying to attract the younger reddit crowd and its silly. And 13 years you’ve been hearing this? How about listen to your user base and fix it? Doesn’t surprise me that I come here less and less.
So what specifically would you like to see? Because you’ve offered criticism but no hint of a solution other than saying we shouldn’t post memes. The numbers we see on the backend don’t reflect your personal opinion but hey, I’m certainly open to hearing it.
And yes, we’ve been hearing it for 13 years because no matter what we cover there will always be people who complain about it. That has very little to do with us and everything to do with the fact that you can’t please everyone all the time. Sure, we’ve posted some dumb shit over the years. That’s kinda the point. People don’t come here to read about lease accounting and practice management for midsize firms. It’s shitposting all the way down, my friend.
While I happen to agree with at least one thing about you, your name. Most of the “content” you’re probably referring to here that you enjoy, is a result of internal communication leaks. So go ahead and start leaking some emails to GC if it’s so important.
Gossip from Fishbowl doesn’t qualify as “internal communication leaks”. Nor does shitty memes.