Have a Problem? Bitch about it on Twitter.

I mentioned in a previous post how this upcoming presidential election is going to be dominated by social media. I still believe that it will be, but I want to focus on a specific social network based on a recent string of events that happened to a friend. I want to focus on Twitter.

One of the major draws of Twitter is that regular people (read: non-celebrities) can interact WITH celebrities/companies, assuming they choose to respond. Also, with hashtags and at-tags, you can tag anyone with any topic and it's visible to the entire Twitterverse. This can be great or terrible. For example, if a customer starts bashing a specific company and at-tagging them, all of his/her followers see this and associate the negative with the company. Also, anyone browsing the company's profile will see this negativity on the company's recent tweets. This is terrible for the company's PR. Companies aren't stupid and they have realized this. So much so that they quickly respond to callouts on twitter.

For example, a friend of mine recently was having issues with his online banking. He immediately went to Twitter and at-tagged his bank's account and complained about the problem. Within minutes, the bank had personally responded and notifies him they were looking into the issue. Shortly after, the problem was resolved. Wow. THAT is customer service.

Customer service. That is what I want from the next administration. I'm paying for a service right? Yes, we most certainly do. Taxes, anyone? If candidates and even the current POTUS actually paid attention to tweets, and personally responded to even some of them, they could connect tremendously with the American people. I'm seeing that bitching about problems on Twitter to companies gets things done quickly and effectively. I hope that candidates see this tremendous tool and use it.

I know if a candidate personally responded to me, they would almost certainly have my vote. Did you hear that @BarackObama and @MittRomney?