The Reader Appreciation Project

Comcast is the largest internet and cable services company in the United States, with around 16 million customers in its internet division alone. With such a massive number of customers, in addition to over 23 million customers who have Comcast TV, it can be pretty hard for the company to keep up with support. Phone support is the main form of getting help from Comcast, though Comcast is working on changing that.

The new age of Twitter has brought in a lot of publicity for Comcast, with hundreds of thousands of people on Twitter and other social media venues complaining daily about the bad service or support they get from Comcast. Comcast is paying attention to such publicity, and has in response launched a set of Twitter accounts that have the central tagline: “Comcast Cares!”

In real life, does Comcast really care? Does the new @ComcastCares channel help users in ways that the Comcast telephone support cannot? Does Comcast really appreciate its customers through @ComcastCares? Is @ComcastCare effective in helping customers with their problems? This RA Project review of @ComcastCares will help you decide.

What is @ComcastCares

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Twitter has quickly became a household name for millions of people, probably including yourself and your friends and family. From marketers to friends and confused people, Twitter allows almost anyone to go online and to try and spread or communicate some sort of a message.

Because of the different reasons people may be online, the reason you are on twitter may be different than the reason I am on Twitter. This results in the same types of online messages to have different meanings, due to the nature of the tweeter.

If you could figure out one single reason why you are on twitter, it could help you figure out whether you enjoy being on twitter, or if someone you know on twitter is being honest, loyal or even accurate in their tweets.

What is the single reason without which you would not be on twitter?

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To follow, or not to follow. That is the question.

This past week I gained about sixty or so followers thanks to Jeff’s Twitter post over at WeblogToolsCollection.

After scanning through each of my new followers, I was faced with a decision. Do I follow just because they’ve followed me? Or, do I follow because there is a genuine, and hopefully, mutual interest?

It’s really the same dilemma I find myself facing when it comes to feeds. I would love to subscribe to each one of my readers’ blogs, but I typically only subscribe if I can relate to the subject matter in the areas of interests, language, and material.

If you are on Twitter, what is your criteria for finding people to follow? Also, what would cause you to unfollow (is that a word?) someone?

For those interested, here’s some of the RAP contributors’ Twitter profiles.

• Andrew Rickmann
• Isabella Mori
• Ronald
• Simonne
• Vivien

I suppose social media is meant to give people a channel for socializing.

Socializing is like going to a party. You dress yourself nicely, put your best avatar for the night, perfume your account with your latest accomplishments, pick up your partners and go for it.

What if, instead of the host, you’d be welcomed by some robots, wishing you to buy the latest brand of detergent, or to read the newspaper before you step inside? What if, the host itself, would insert into the conversation some fragments like “you know I’m right, my darling, please see my yesterday’s post, and make sure you click on my affiliate link, since you are there”?

Well, this must be annoying, as you actually went to that party to interact with humans, not to witness a sample of the latest technology in matter of automation. As antisocial as I may be, as much as I cannot see the benefits of using Twitter, and I like to joke about it, I cannot stop myself from thinking that Twitter set on automation is a real freak.

How would it be to record my voice saying some promotional messages for my clients, or for my own blogs, take with me an mp3 player, and each time I meet an acquaintance, play him the morning tune, or the afternoon tune, or the evening tune?

Where’s the line between marketing and over-marketing? Maybe it’s us, the marketers who should draw it, who knows? And maybe we will, when we’ll realise that a pissed-off client is very hard to bring on your side again.