Total Number of Ratings: 7
The New Twitter Stalkers
First Published: Friday, September 4, 2009 4:16 PM
Last Saved: Friday, September 4, 2009 5:14 PM
As Twitter's popularity continues to skyrocket, a disturbing trend is developing. No, I'm not talking about the various ways celebrities vie for and celebrate followers, although that has it's disturbing moments. I'm talking about real live companies responding to random twitters. The Internet isn't the anonymous soap-box it used to be.
A few weeks ago I groused about problems with my cable company:
Even though I didn't flag the name in any way and it's a fairly common word, within minutes this showed up in my mentions tab:
Holy Hell! This is not what I signed up for when I started using the Internet to say what I wanted about anything I wanted whenever I felt like. Charter's welcome to scour the internet for any number of blog posts and forums and even twitters about how disgruntled their customers are, but to directly put me on the spot like that? Creep-tastic. Never mind that only the subset of folks that follow both of us could see the exchange (ie: nobody). It was still there if for no other reason so that UMatter's supervisor could give him a brownie point.
It happened again a few days later. I belatedly remembered a package that was overdue and before going downstairs to see if it was really delivered, I tossed out a Twitter:
Before I got back UPS was already up in my business trying to track down my package (which was sitting downstairs, as expected):
How crazy is that?
You don't have to tell me, I know. It's absurd that I'm complaining about companies using Twitter to give me unprecedented levels customer service. I just find it really unnerving. I've been around the Internet long enough to know that everything is not what it seems and I'll admit I squinted at each response to see if I could determine if this was a bot, a fake, or a real person. If I gave either of these random twitters more information, what would happen? Would I end up on some expose about gullible folks on the Internet? Would I get a call from a "service rep" who would steal my identity and/or all my stuff? Or was I overreacting and could have gotten some real help if I'd needed it? I couldn't just ignore it because the internet would see how rude I was being. In the end I decided that since I didn't have a problem that needed fixing, a nice polite "thanks but no thanks" would suffice.
But it's disturbing, right? Maybe a little? It's one thing when a bot mis-recommends a book, or a local restaurant chain re-tweets your shout-out. I don't mind being followed by companies after I mention a product, and it's hilarious that the Blackhawks follow me, but this is altogether different.
Be careful what you say out there, kiddos. It's not just your mom listening anymore.
This article is in response to In Defense Of: Twitter
I think it's good that companies are embracing new media like Twitter and are communicating directly with their customers. I've had very good dealings with a certain company based off of my mentioning them on twitter.
Initially, I rolled my eyes and thought, "Oh, no! Accountability! When I talk shit in a public place, the people I'm talking about can see it!" Too much time on message boards has made this a hot button of mine; if I had my way, it'd be all real names and photographs out here.
Thinking about it a little further, though, I have to agree there's something troubling (I'm tempted to use the word "Stalinist") about a person whose job it is to monitor communications for negative comments about a company and then report back. It isn't quite sinister yet, but it wouldn't take much.
I'm all for this. Anything they can do (without invading my privacy) to improve quality is absolutely fine by me. I can understand why you would find this creepy, but I have a feeling this post would have looked a bit different if the UPS guy had actually located a missing package for you based on this interaction.
I guess it's a little unnerving, but hey if a company's going to try new ways to offer to help I think it's for the better.
I've only been using Twitter for an extremely short amount of time, so this hasn't happened to me personally. The closest was when my alma mater retweeted me in which I mentioned a dream involving them and Stephen Colbert. It was surprising, but since I had linked to them in my original tweet, it wasn't as creepy as what you're talking about. It did seem inappropriate that their next tweet dealt with the faculty strike that was just brewing at the time. "Hey, check out this funny tweet about a dream, everyone! And now, let's discuss the cancelling of classes." Awkward, to say the least.
I would have been just a creeped out as you if I had gotten the responses that you did from those companies. Next time I give "big ups to Brooklyn," we'll see if ThomasAtUPS contacts me.
I have experienced this first hand with Comcast. I mentioned how terrible they were and I got a "how can we help" response. I kindly informed him I helped myself by not using Comcast. I'm no longer bothered by them. ;)
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It sounds like big companies looking to give better service and at the end of the day you can always just block them.