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Telstra does Twitter - reads like a bot. Yuk.

Telstra is twittering, but it reads like a bot. Don’t they know anything about the social web??

This entry was written by Alister Cameron and posted on 26 September 2008 at 2:56 pm and tagged: australia, bigpond, telstra, twitter. // Bookmark the permalink. Follow any comments here with the RSS feed for this post. // Post a comment or leave a trackback: Trackback URL.

9 Comments

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Peter Habib (Telstra)

Posted 1 month, 3 weeks ago // Permalink

Hi Alister,

Yes - we are Twittering here at Telstra BigPond.

The even better news is, we actually don’t need bots because we have some really fantastic people at the end of the keyboards here at BigPond who are posting our tweets.
Alister Cameron

Posted 1 month, 3 weeks ago // Permalink

Thanks for dropping by, Peter.

I suggest that — to the degree that you can practically do it — you do not use the same standard “canned” reply to each person. Looking at your tweet history and it almost looks like someone has retweeted the same thing 20 times. I understand the need to save time, etc, but it really does look like a bot!

Good on you for tweeting anyway! Do you guys use an outside Social Media Marketing consultant? I’m curious to ask

-Alister
Nick Hodge

Posted 1 month, 3 weeks ago // Permalink

a good move by telstra… I agree with Cameron: it needs to be a little more personal. The (r) and the ™ are forced. and take up character lengths.

Someone at telstra must have heard about the comcast experiences of techcrunch! LOL
Peter Habib (Telstra)

Posted 1 month, 3 weeks ago // Permalink

Thanks for the suggestion.

I’ll definitely pass it on to the BigPond twitters.

Not too sure about consultants, but Telstra is quite active in the new media / social media with our Second Life presence, YouTube sites, Facebook pages and now Twitter.
Robert Witham

Posted 1 month, 3 weeks ago // Permalink

I would definitely have agreed with your opinion that those tweets were created by a bot! I really cannot see that being of interest to too many people. I sure would not follow anything that unoriginal.
John Lacey

Posted 1 month, 3 weeks ago // Permalink

Ah. I read things like this and cringe a little when I recall the days when I had a Bigpond connection… Internet Gods, forgive me!

I’m intrigued to see what kind of form letter responses people who follow the twitter account’s advice (to follow a link and leave some details) receive. Large corporations have routinely had problems trusting the judgment of their staff, hanging up on people daring to record customer service conversations and have avoided doing things that would allow paper trails to exist.

Meanwhile did you see Bigpond’s advertising spree on Uluru?
Lid

Posted 1 month, 3 weeks ago // Permalink

Hi Alister

I think he missed it: “we actually don’t need bots because we have some really fantastic people at the end of the keyboards”

Fantastic people that seem to have one ability; regurgitate the same thing over and over and over again - ‘thank you SO much for your twitter - now go away to THIS link - and fill out a form - we’re just here to say we’re involved in social media’

Yeah; that’s what Twitter is about…providing a lackey to deliver a URL

I mean seriously?

Sorry.

I’m not trying to be mean; I’m just tired of these huge corporations that think they have it all worked out when it comes to social media.

You would think, would you not, that Telstra has a customer support group. Why would they not dedicate a couple of people, split over several shifts, to provide ANSWERS?

/rant
Yolanda Smartie

Posted 1 month, 3 weeks ago // Permalink

Telstra have no idea when it comes to social media and user generated content. The people, clearly devoid of any social skills, that built SecondLife, are an embarrassment (the internal people Telstra not the developers).

The “machine” has little ability to have human conversations with its customers, Habib’s response above a perfect example of PR Bot Dross … “we actually don’t need bots because we have some really fantastic people at the end of the keyboards here at BigPond who are posting our tweets”. What utter crap.

If Telstra were human it would speak in a human language.
Phillip Molly Malone

Posted 1 month, 3 weeks ago // Permalink

I am sure there are great people at the end of the keyboards, but free them up to show how great they are! Let them show there personalities. Let them show what they know. Instead of forcing people to a form, at worst, log the call for them and hand back the call number and let them know another great person will contact them later, or better yet, heres a possible fix. Or a joke or something.

If you don’t free the people up a bit, you would be better off with bots as they are cheaper and you could use these great people in better areas!

JMTC
Molly

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