f you have ever wondered how Social Media can make a difference in the corporate world, I suggest you read an article in Wired Magazine called “The Dark Lord for Broadband Tries to Fix Comcast’s Image“.

The article sheds lights on Comcast, one of the two largest providers of residential high-speed access, and the way it was introduced to Social Media as a way of dealing with negative public perception.

I am not going to repeat the article here, but think it is worth setting the stage and reviewing some background.

1. Comcast is a media behemoth with $31 billion in annual revenue. It is so large in fact, that it is expected that sometime early this year it will become the largest broadband provider in the US, taking the title from AT&T
2. Comcast has been raked over the coals for allegedly blocking file-sharing applications such as Bit Torrent, and effectively discriminating against some types of data that are transmitted over the Internet
3. The file sharing blockage resulted in a groundswell against the company because the Internet is perceived by many as an essential tool, with access to use all its capabilities almost a constitutional right

As the story unfolds, Comcast is slammed in the court of public opinion, with the result that Comcast implements what is called the Comcast Marshall Plan. This includes hiring 15,000 new frontline technicians and customer service reps, all in an effort to put consumer-complaint issues behind them. In a previous time, this may have mollified enough customers to make a difference, but as the article states, “Internet users were an entirely different breed”.

Enter, Frank Eliason, a middle management customer-support executive that is frustrated by all the negative chatter on the social media network Twitter, and wants to do something about it. Frank starts responding to Twitter users, with open dialogue and the offer to help work through customers issues. As stated in the article, he was “actively trying to prevent customer complaints from spiraling into angry vendettas”.

The approach started to work, and word of its existence made it up through the executive ranks. In the end, Famous Frank, as he has become knows, was given the go ahead to add people to his own special forces team. Additionally, Brian Roberts, Comcast, CEO has declared that it is time to be a bit more transparent with customers and start listening to them.

This is an interesting story of a large company that is starting to engage with customers in more open dialog. The company appears to have come to understand that customers are talking about them… in some case the discussion is positive, and in some negative, but it is better to be engaged in the dialog rather than idly watching from the outside, or worse ignoring it.

The Internet and Social Media have changed the rules of communications, both at a personal level, and at a corporate level. It is more and more difficult for companies to hide, and easier and easier to engage with their customers.