Thursday
May012008
How Twitter Is Humanizing Comcast And Why That's A Terrible, Terrible Thing
Thursday, May 1, 2008 at 19:15 | baratunde | tagged Comcast, Corporations, Humanity, Net Neutrality, PR, Social Media, Twitter in Technological
So the web is all abuzz with news of Comcast's customer service wading in amongst the people with its shiny new Twitter account. Valeria Maltoni at Conversation Agent is the latest to weigh in on what many see as a positive development.
Comcast is diagnosing modem troubles and providing information on new features and even shooting troubles. That's all well and good, but the company is also engaging in small talk and using emoticons and generally exhibiting human behavior, all of which I find quite troubling from a billion-dollar corporate entity.
Last night, I had a "conversation" with Comcast. I noticed Comcast engaged in an exchange with someone named Robbie.
Can you not see the horror that this portends? I made a corporation laugh. This is antithetical to all I have worked for! I'm a political comic and activist, and I have not honed these skills for the pleasure of moneyed non-personages. I'm here to inflict pain on corporations, not mirth!
Now that Twitter has allowed corporations to express joy, what is next? Will comcastcares ask if I'm feeling down on a rainy day? Will it, yes IT, offer condolences for lost loved ones? Now that it has laughed, will it also cry? Oh I cannot even imagine what the tears of a multichannel service operator would look like.
Most terrifyingly, having expressed joy and soon sadness, what will an angry Comcast do. You know anger is just around the corner, and I don't think it's too soon to prepare for the Wrath of Comcast. Will it tell us to "talk to the hand," or will it merely raise our cable fees at a rate exceeding inflation for the next 10 years?
Will it give us the evil eye and curse us under its breath, or will it instead stack the audience at net neutrality hearings with its employees in order to prevent critics from having their voices heard?
Might its anger manifest in a violent fit or, more dangerously, through astroturf lobbying designed to deceive the public into thinking there's real, grassroots support behind its interests?
Do you see what Twitter hath wrought!?
Comcast is diagnosing modem troubles and providing information on new features and even shooting troubles. That's all well and good, but the company is also engaging in small talk and using emoticons and generally exhibiting human behavior, all of which I find quite troubling from a billion-dollar corporate entity.
Last night, I had a "conversation" with Comcast. I noticed Comcast engaged in an exchange with someone named Robbie.
comcastcares: @Robbie the next version is really cool! Check out Smartzone http://www.comcast.com/ces
robbie: @comcastcares @comcastcares wheres my beta invites to all that!!! i want it!!!
comcastcares: @Robbie I want it too!
me: @comcastcares you are not allowed to be a real person socializing among real people. you are a nameless, faceless corporation. stop it.
comcastcares: @baratunde That just gave me the biggest laugh of the day!! Thank you!
me: @comcastcares there you go again. CORPORATIONS DON'T LAUGH. THEY EXPLOIT. Stop acting like people! stop "talking" to me!!
Can you not see the horror that this portends? I made a corporation laugh. This is antithetical to all I have worked for! I'm a political comic and activist, and I have not honed these skills for the pleasure of moneyed non-personages. I'm here to inflict pain on corporations, not mirth!
Now that Twitter has allowed corporations to express joy, what is next? Will comcastcares ask if I'm feeling down on a rainy day? Will it, yes IT, offer condolences for lost loved ones? Now that it has laughed, will it also cry? Oh I cannot even imagine what the tears of a multichannel service operator would look like.
Most terrifyingly, having expressed joy and soon sadness, what will an angry Comcast do. You know anger is just around the corner, and I don't think it's too soon to prepare for the Wrath of Comcast. Will it tell us to "talk to the hand," or will it merely raise our cable fees at a rate exceeding inflation for the next 10 years?
Will it give us the evil eye and curse us under its breath, or will it instead stack the audience at net neutrality hearings with its employees in order to prevent critics from having their voices heard?
Might its anger manifest in a violent fit or, more dangerously, through astroturf lobbying designed to deceive the public into thinking there's real, grassroots support behind its interests?
Do you see what Twitter hath wrought!?
Reader Comments (5)
Maybe Comcast will start a LiveJournal to talk about its cutting.
YES! IT is engaging me! ACK! IT said IT liked my latest blog post! IT just linked me here!
I'm having a bit of an existential social media crisis here. IT's twittering is brainwashing me into thinking Comcast really does CARE about me!
This is a cult, isn't it?
(LOL Timmy Mac, yeah a LJ about cutting cables and broadband speed!)
Hey Baratunde!
Gotta admit, your post made me laugh. You'd be a good addition to the staff of The Onion (www.theonion.com), my current favorite satire site.
True, Comcast is a pretty big company. We don't always get it right, but our goal is excellent service and value, one customer at a time.
What makes this happen is over 90,000 human beings. All of us want to do good work and take pride in the continuing improvement and innovation that's going on here.
We don't see ourselves as a faceless corporate entity and are proud of Frank Eliason (out Twitter geek) and the thousands of other folks who work one-on-one with the individual customers who make our careers possible.
BTW.. I'm not part of any corporate PR machine, just another Comcaster who shares our team's passion for service. If you or any of your readers run into an issue that our excellent local teams can't fix, send us a note to we_can_help@cable.comcast.com.
You can flame or dialog with me directly at the email address below.
Best regards,
Scott Westerman
scott.westerman@comcast.net
Holy shit. They're EVERYWHERE.
[...] I’m not the only one who’s a bit unsure of how to handle this. In a blog post titled How Twitter is Humanizing Comcast and Why That’s a Terrible, Terrible Thing at goodCRIMETHINK, self-proclaimed “conscious comic and vigilante pundit” Baratunde [...]