Ouidad tweets from Julianne Carell

Nothing makes a brand (or that brand’s agency) happier than seeing how much their customers love their products and services.  And when that love is shared in public via social media, so much the better — especially because that love is so often eclipsed by the increasingly public habit of complaining about bad customer service.

By now, we’re all used to seeing our friends rant about their latest perceived “retail fail” on Twitter and Facebook.  And the proactive approach that companies like Zappos and Comcast have taken to address these complaints publicly has created an expectation among casual customers that every complaint is valid and deserving of a swift response.

In our opinion, this is entirely understandable.  Social media is all about now, and when someone’s upset, they’re justified in expecting a quick remedy from companies who claim to care. In fact, we at Creative Concepts advocate proactive customer service among all of our social media clients, and we strive to help them create and employ practices that will turn those potential negatives into ultimate positives once a customer’s concerns have been alleviated.

But that very practice is what makes seeing unabashed (and unprompted) exhibitions of brand love from our client’s customers that much more rewarding.

Last week, a customer at the Ouidad salon enjoyed her hair care experience so much, she live-tweeted her experience throughout the day, including passing along tips from her stylist.  Needless to say, this made Ouidad’s day — and ours, since we were watching right alongside! ( In fact, it reminded us of a similarly enjoyable moment we observed last year, when a New York blogger shared her Ouidad hair model experience via Twitter and blog format.)

And here’s a helpful Twitter tip: if you really love a brand, make sure your tweets about them DON’T start with the @ symbol.  Why?  Because of the way Twitter categorizes conversations:

  • Tweets that begin with @Ouidad, for example, will only be seen by three kinds of people: Ouidad, the sender of the tweetm and anyone who’s following both the sender and Ouidad.  (That’s probably a small cross-section of people who might see the tweet.)
  • Tweets that include @Ouidad but which start with any character other than the @ symbol will still be seen by Ouidad, but they’ll also be seen by everybody who follows the sender.

Therefore, if you REALLY want someone to know about your awesome brand experience, make sure your tweets aren’t addressed solely to the brand.  That will give your praise the widest possible audience, and put an even bigger smile on the face of the employees who’ll be elated to see just how much you really love what they do.