Rapid social response - small companies can do it too (Glen Ivy)

Earlier today, I had finished reading John Soat's article "Reputations at Risk" in my printed copy of InformationWeek. (An online version can be found here.) Soat's article talks about how companies can monitor their online reputations, and mentions the expected companies - Domino's, who had to terminate two bozo employees after they posted a YouTube video; Starbucks, with its My Starbucks idea initiative; the Motrin Moms; etc. They're all big companies, and many of them employ people for social media monitoring. Southwest Airlines, for example, has a six employee "emerging media group." (Now more than six people, according to Maine Business.)

After reading about all these big companies, I checked my email and saw that I had received a Disqus comment on an Empoprise-IE post on Glen Ivy that appeared this morning at 6:00 am.



Glen Ivy Hot Springs, that away by miheco used under a Creative Commons License

The comment was from "Jennifer S." of Glen Ivy Hot Springs, thanked me for my post, and alerted me and my readers to Glen Ivy's 150th anniversary in 2010.

It turns out that "Jennifer S." is Jennifer Steinhart, Glen Ivy's communications and public relations coordinator. And Steinhart is just part of Glen Ivy's social outreach, according to Juliane Ngan of the Business Press:

Employees blog, post on Facebook.com, or tweet on Twitter.com about the spa's newest services or latest promotions, and people are interested. Glen Ivy's blog sees an average of 76 unique visitors a day....

Their efforts to jump on the social networking bandwagon are fairly new. Communications and public relations coordinator Jennifer Steinhart and social media coordinator Kristen Koman work to keep the social networking sites updated throughout the day.

"We want to put a personal touch on our company and let our (guests) know we're there for them," Koman said.

In just a few short months, they have more than 300 followers on Twitter and another 300 fans on Facebook. The sites have enabled them to get the word out about anything and everything at the spa, from the daily specials to the latest on the March MUDness contest in Corona, and the Grotto contest at the day spa in Valencia.

More here.

Now I'll admit that most of my readers have no interest in a spa in Corona, California, or in its satellite day spas in Brea and elsewhere. But this shows that you don't have to be a large company, or a tech company, to use online tools to communicate with your customers and tech customer. Heck, mud is about as non-tech as you can get.

But if you are interested, here are some ways to connect to Glen Ivy:

Elevating Life Experience blog: http://glenivyspas.blogspot.com/

Facebook: http://www.facebook.com/pages/Glen-Ivy/50658034134

Twitter: http://twitter.com/glenivyspas

YouTube: http://www.youtube.com/user/GlenIvyMarketing

Oh, and don't forget their telephone number: 1-888-453-6489 (GLEN-IVY). And they have mailing addresses. But it's probably best if you actually go there; the Glen Ivy experience cannot be savored in the virtual world.