Casey Cheshire

In a previous post, I introduced my two Twitter lists which identified the superstars and blooper-stars of Corporate Social Media.  These follow on posts detail how a company has earned it’s place on either lists.

A recent Domino’s Pizza television commercial really impressed me.  The staff of the mega-chain acknowledged the complaints about their pizza.  After coming clean, they introduced a little wow-factor into their new pies.  Extra love on the crust, legit fresh ingredients, and more.

Great job on the campaign and great job with social media.

We ordered pizza the other night and wanted to give Domino’s a shot at it since their “makeover.” It turned out great!  Today, I sent them a message about their great job:

@CaseyChesh: @Dominos Good job with the Pizza Upgrades!

Six minutes later I received a response:

@dominos: @CaseyChesh Thanks so much!

Excellent use of Social Media and it’s more than a quick response to a compliment.    It shows that they’re actually listening.  I feel confident that if I had issues they would have easily been cleared up.  Literally, Social Media, done right, is as simple as this.

In the highly competitive pizza world, Papa John’s started making waves with taste and freshness.  It became trendy to order that over the “old expensive standard.”  Domino’s is quickly regaining the trend points with excellent use of technology (Pizza Tracker) and now, a Social Media win.

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In a previous post, I introduced my two Twitter lists which identified the superstars and blooper-stars of Corporate Social Media.  I also invited everyone to send me suggestions- and send you did!  This report, however, is of my own personal experience with Panera Bread (@PaneraBread).

This was a tough one!  I am a huge fan of Panera’s “Pick Two.”  I always get the Grilled Chicken Caesar and the bowl of Broccoli Cheddar Soup.  It’s quite literally my quintessential lunch, and I’m the Mayor (on FourSquare) of my local Panera. For those not on FourSquare, it means I go there too much!

So what happened Casey? Nothing major, nothing dirty or disgusting.  I called in on my way and got lunch to go.  Did the Pick 2- of course!  And while the soup was tasty, this is what my salad looked like:

Click here to see a larger image.  From my CSI photo with pen for measurement, you can see that the Chicken Ceasar Salad should have a small “c” for chicken as there is barely any there!  This is not routine for dining at Panera Bread.  When eating there, my salad bowl is full of goodness and yes, Chicken (capital C!).  I have however noticed that the take out salad is usually a bad value.

Normally I just put up with the salad’s issues, but this particular day the chicken was so spare (and thinly sliced) that I decided this is it! Rather than call up and complain, I had previously found & followed Panera on Twitter and decided to use Social Media to inform them.

I took a photo with my iPhone, uploaded it to TwitPic, and Tweeted:

@panerabread my chik cea salad frm Nashua makes me sad. And I’m the mayor! http://twitpic.com/x2mbs

Would you like to see the response I got?

Their response was:

What was that? You can’t read it?  I didn’t type it?  Oh, so sorry!  Here’s a graphical version:

No, they didn’t send me a t-shirt.  They didn’t respond at all.  Crickets! Chirp chirp.

I wasn’t mean, didn’t demand a refund, and actually took the time to take a PHOTO of something they should probably fix.

For their lack of response, Panera Bread earns a Social Media Fail.

Let that be a lesson to all of those responsible in Corporate Social Media.  Twitter is all about a 2 way conversation.  If you don’t want to hear from your customers- and respond back, stick to your print mailers and avoid Social Media.  Because it’s not about what you say back as much as it is about you responding at all.

This blog is a second test of Panera’s Social Media program.

Nothing would please me more to hear from them because they saw this article- which means they’re out there, and listening.  I’d be happy to take them off the fail list and post an update.  But until that time, until you see an update below these words, Panera Bread will remain in the list of companies who have failed at Corporate Social Media.

As 2009 draws to a close, the social web is abuzz with predictions and reflections.  I had a fun conversation with Doug Haslam about 2020 predictions.  Rather than go with the flow of 2010 foresight, I challenge him to predict 2020.  His great response was: “Flying cars! Automated homes! Robot maids!”

To me it seems over-done to predict 2010 as it was a big trend on Twitter and Blogs recently.  There is, however, a set of predictions publicized by Fred Wilson on the importance of three elements in the future called the Golden Triangle:

The three current big megatrends in the web/tech sector are mobile, social, and real-time.

There is an excellent post by Brian Solis on how these 3 areas intersect.

This brings me to the subject of this post, family.  I’m writing from my folk’s place in Washington state, just south east of Seattle.  It’s a little overcast today, but I was able to catch a glimpse of my old friend Mt Rainier yesterday.

Without a doubt, 2009 has been one of the most instructional years of my life.  I’ve refined my broad interests into a wildly progressing career in Online Marketing, adopted and utilized social media to connect and share information at a rapidly new pace, and I’ve grown in my own type of Golden Triangle: spiritually, personally, and professionally.

It wasn’t until I was nestled away in WA, surrounded by the love and warmth of family, that I’ve been reminded the importance of family.  The speed of life increases and we’re more likely to forget to call on our family than to tweet what we had for dinner.  Sure 140 characters is easier than a phone call, but far less rewarding.

In the World of Social Media, it’s far too easy to forget and neglect those who haven’t fully adopted the tools we use daily.

My parents are on Facebook and it has helped keep us in touch- or at least informed.  There’s a marked difference between those concepts too.  Knowing the latest highlights in someone’s life is great, but it’s like reading their personal newspaper.  Without a conversation, you might as well be reading about the latest happenings at the White House.

My grandmother doesn’t use Twitter, so I don’t follow or @ reply her.  Social Media empowers adopters to converse, but I’ve been reminded to not let this be an excuse to not connect with everyone I care about.

I lot of the tools and concepts I blog about on Waterski The Web revolve around the concept of keeping you informed about what you care about.  I should expand this to “who” you care about too!

In conclusion, my thought going forward for 2010, is to remember that family, whether they are on Twitter or not, are important.  Even as Social Media becomes the ‘norm’ we must not forget to reach out and have a conversation, on or offline, with those that we care about.