A few weeks ago, I was having dinner at a restaurant in Austin. Although I’m sure the restaurant is lovely with any other server, my experience was terrible. Before the spiral of bad service unfolded, I had checked in on FourSquare.
Skip to a few days later, the restaurant sends a tweet asking me what my favorite margarita was and setting me up for an “OMG…I love this place” Retweet. I ignored them. But then I started thinking about the dangers of soliciting positive feedback, as opposed to engaging me more along the lines of “how was it?” or “thanks for coming.”
I compare this experience to two other recent unsolicited tweets I received. One was from The Algonquin Hotel (@AlgonquinNYC). Before travelling, I tweeted that I was looking forward to staying there on a certain date. Time went by and on the day of my check-in, they tweeted back with “Welcome! Enjoy your stay!” Way to keep track of your guests on Twitter. Awesome!
Two weeks later, a got a tweet from Delta. I mentioned something about the best part of flying Delta being the leftover Biscoff cookies (I’m lookin’ at you, pretzels and peanuts). An unsolicited tweet from Delta’s customer service account (@DeltaAssist) came back a minute later: “I totally agree; Biscoff cookies, Yum-Yum :-). ^BH” Totally silly, and totally winning me over.
This was a long post. I’ll make my point much more succinct:
Simple, thoughtful interaction is so much more effective than an aggressive hunt for compliments and conversation.
As design director at Cookerly, Tim serves as the creative lead in the development of branding campaigns, print collateral and digital media for clients across a broad range of industries, including consumer, professional services, healthcare and technology.
As a senior vice president at Cookerly, Mike Rieman is a strategic communications leader specializing in media relations and reputation management. With a proven track record of securing high-profile placements in top-tier outlets such as The New York Times, The Wall Street Journal, CNN and USA Today, he excels at crafting compelling narratives that resonate across print, broadcast and digital platforms.
Mike Touhill is vice president at Cookerly Public Relations, where he helps lead traditional, social and digital media programs for B2B and B2C clients in packaging, telecommunications and technology, among other industries. As a communication leader, he develops and executes public relations strategy, provides proactive and reactive counsel to C-level executives and secures earned media coverage for client initiatives and product.
Andrew Agan is a vice president at Cookerly Public Relations, overseeing the agency’s internship program and leading media relations, content strategy and social media initiatives. He provides counsel and executes campaigns for clients across various sectors, including finance, healthcare, hospitality, technology, automotive and many others. Andrew excels at crafting compelling stories and building media relationships, resulting in clients being featured in notable outlets such as CNBC, Associated Press, Business Insider, Fox Business, HBO, Inc. Magazine, Sirius XM, The Wall Street Journal and USA Today, among others.
As vice president of Cookerly, Sheryl Sellaway uses her extensive corporate communications background to lead consumer PR efforts, deliver strategy for marketing programs and share expertise about community initiatives.
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