I found this interesting because it is a wonderful example of how social media can be applied to very simply address real business issues. In my opinion, all too often the yardstick for effective implementation of social media has too much to do with if we’re doing something “new” or “cool”, or whether or not it qualifies as murketing and is grass roots enough to really be considered new age marketing.

At the end of the marketing day, aren’t we really just trying to better understand our customers and respond in a way that strengthens our relationship with them? And therein lies the beauty of Comcast’s un-sexy, plain-Jane, but yet strikingly gorgeous implementation of social media strategy. In much the same way as you’d expect a friend at a party who works for Comcast, who after hearing of a problem you keep having with your cable, offers to look into it for you, Comcast are using Twitter to do no more than simply be helpful. No contrived messaging, no buzz-word filled text carefully designed by marketing teams… just a straight-forward offer to help.

Although this example is in the context of customer support, I think it provides a good lesson in the way all social marketing should be carried out. As human beings we respond best to sincere interactions and straight talk, and I think as social media strategists, it behooves us to remember that if brands want to join the conversation, it would be best done with very simple contributions designed to make the interaction worthwhile for consumers.

In other words, we should not see social media as simply one more channel on which to broadcast our standard marketing message. The beauty of social as a medium is that it cuts through all the marketing b.s., and brands that want to employ social to good effect should look for ways to keep it this way.