I Are Geek

When the Social Media sites first launched (think MySpace rather than Facebook) they were considered kids and hipster hangouts.
Along came Facebook and social media became truly mainstream. Twitter? Well that’s just for geeks to talk about their latest geek hacks isn’t it?
No.

Whilst its popularity has never, ever, been in the same level as Facebook et al, the 140 character messaging service. Has been popular since the first days of text messaging. With the advent of smartphones twitter stuck with the 140 character limit and minimal/no advertising. This makes it much more appealing to many who hate the heavily advertisement supported Facebook. Me included.

Yes, I hate Facebook. Yes I am on there but mainly due to the podcast, and not for the games and myriad stupid applications to help one procrastinate.

Recently though there has been a subtle change in the way twitter is used.
A while ago I bitched about the quality of Virgin Media’s products on twitter. A “social rep” saw my tweet, responded and sorted my issue.

Yesterday, at work I wasted nearly 20 minutes on hold to the Dell Pro Support (DPS) line. Wanting to whine about it, I turned to twitter.
In their hold message DPS mentioned their twitter account and I though it would be good to whine at them. I also posted a pic of my issue, saying “all I want Is a new hard disk!”

Not expecting any response as this was just a flippant comment I was rather surprised to see a response asking me to follow and the DM the computer’s ID tag to them @dellcarespro (they have a non pro feed too). With nothing to lose, I DM’d them (and followed) with the ID and my email address.

A lovely man called Alasdair pinged me an email asking for a couple more details and a new hard disk would be delivered via courier, next working day.

That Hard Disk arrives this morning, is now in the computer and I have a happy user again!

So, if you’re stuck on hold for 15 minutes and the company happens to mention a twitter account, give it a go.

By the way, if you’re on Twitter, follow me (@yesthatfinch as in “yes, that Finch!) and then find your local police twitter account and follow them too!