Who to Connect with and How to Manage Multiple Networks on Social Media
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I agree with you Scott.
The only thing I can see being used by MSP's and clients is FB chat - but I would still fully expect the ticket to be created through either an online portal or email.
That said, you can open tickets through a chat portal with HP on their website - so that same thing could be expanded to work through FB chat as well I suppose.
So the chat portion I think could work, but the general page? it's little more than a Yellow Pages ad in my view - one that now potentially allows people to litter all over their page.
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Universal chat is something that's still missing.
Facebook is quickly closing this gap.
The closest thing we currently have to universal chat is SMS. But international SMSing costs a fortune, and I'm guessing it all but avoided.
It would be awesome to see a platform for universal chat - but I have no idea who would be willing to host it, and how would they be paid for it?
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@Dashrender said:
The closest thing we currently have to universal chat is SMS. But international SMSing costs a fortune, and I'm guessing it all but avoided.
It's funny that local SMS is what I never had for free. Now I have international for free.
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@Dashrender said:
It would be awesome to see a platform for universal chat - but I have no idea who would be willing to host it, and how would they be paid for it?
Google, Facebook, Apple, Yahoo and Microsoft all do that on a huge scale.
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@scottalanmiller said:
@Dashrender said:
It would be awesome to see a platform for universal chat - but I have no idea who would be willing to host it, and how would they be paid for it?
Google, Facebook, Apple, Yahoo and Microsoft all do that on a huge scale.
You're right, but they aren't universal.
Apple for example is limited to Apple's hardware. Google has thus far refused to make a client for Windows Mobile/phone. Yahoo - is that still around, j/k.
FB Chat is the only one that I know of that is on nearly every player out there, and it rides the coat tails of their money maker FB.
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@Dashrender said:
You're right, but they aren't universal.
Mostly they are. Especially Google which uses XMPP. Can't you connect with any client that you want?
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@scottalanmiller said:
@Dashrender said:
You're right, but they aren't universal.
Mostly they are. Especially Google which uses XMPP. Can't you connect with any client that you want?
Sadly this is no longer the case. Link
Google dropped support for XMPP federation in May 2014, meaning that Google Talk servers will no longer communicate with other XMPP servers.[10]
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@Dashrender said:
@scottalanmiller said:
@Dashrender said:
You're right, but they aren't universal.
Mostly they are. Especially Google which uses XMPP. Can't you connect with any client that you want?
Sadly this is no longer the case. Link
Google dropped support for XMPP federation in May 2014, meaning that Google Talk servers will no longer communicate with other XMPP servers.[10]
that's talking to OTHER services, but can't you still talk to it using XMPP?
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@scottalanmiller said:
@Dashrender said:
@scottalanmiller said:
@Dashrender said:
You're right, but they aren't universal.
Mostly they are. Especially Google which uses XMPP. Can't you connect with any client that you want?
Sadly this is no longer the case. Link
Google dropped support for XMPP federation in May 2014, meaning that Google Talk servers will no longer communicate with other XMPP servers.[10]
that's talking to OTHER services, but can't you still talk to it using XMPP?
well, according to that page I linked to, yes you can. Is that important?
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@Dashrender said:
@scottalanmiller said:
@Dashrender said:
@scottalanmiller said:
@Dashrender said:
You're right, but they aren't universal.
Mostly they are. Especially Google which uses XMPP. Can't you connect with any client that you want?
Sadly this is no longer the case. Link
Google dropped support for XMPP federation in May 2014, meaning that Google Talk servers will no longer communicate with other XMPP servers.[10]
that's talking to OTHER services, but can't you still talk to it using XMPP?
well, according to that page I linked to, yes you can. Is that important?
Quite important since that's what would qualify as universal instant messaging. So the answer would be... yes, we have universal instant messaging today.
I just tested and it is indeed open.
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@scottalanmiller said:
@Dashrender said:
@scottalanmiller said:
@Dashrender said:
@scottalanmiller said:
@Dashrender said:
You're right, but they aren't universal.
Mostly they are. Especially Google which uses XMPP. Can't you connect with any client that you want?
Sadly this is no longer the case. Link
Google dropped support for XMPP federation in May 2014, meaning that Google Talk servers will no longer communicate with other XMPP servers.[10]
that's talking to OTHER services, but can't you still talk to it using XMPP?
well, according to that page I linked to, yes you can. Is that important?
Quite important since that's what would qualify as universal instant messaging. So the answer would be... yes, we have universal instant messaging today.
I just tested and it is indeed open.
It's universal because the XMPP protocol is open and anyone can write a client for it?
next question - how do you get users to move to it en masse? it's not worth much if people aren't there.
I constantly hear people saying how they hate facebook, but they are only there because that is where everyone is.
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@Dashrender said:
It's universal because the XMPP protocol is open and anyone can write a client for it?
It's universal because:
- It's open and free to the public.
- The protocol is open and free.
- The protocol is effectively human readable if you want to forego a client (ugh)
- Clients and web interfaces are provided for essentially any viable platform.
- Clients can be written anywhere that they are needed.
- Clients have been written and are native on all platforms except Windows where nothing like that is included.
It's really hard to come up with how anything could be more open or universal.
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@Dashrender said:
next question - how do you get users to move to it en masse? it's not worth much if people aren't there.
You can't, people don't want a universal system
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@scottalanmiller said:
@Dashrender said:
next question - how do you get users to move to it en masse? it's not worth much if people aren't there.
You can't, people don't want a universal system
You don't think people want a replacement for SMS, the only universal chat platform in the US?
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@Dashrender said:
You don't think people want a replacement for SMS, the only universal chat platform in the US?
Nope, they had universal IM before anyone uses SMS and they switched to SMS anyway because people hate technology and things that work well.
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@scottalanmiller Why does it have to be a complaint? How about praise for a job well done? Or maybe it isn't the social account of the SMB, but the business owner's personal account.
Imagine the owner of that corner store sounding off on their own personal twitter account about a technical issue they are having and being able to find a quick and easy resolution via a reply.
It's about positioning yourself as a problem solver and building strong relationships.
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@GlennBarley said:
Imagine the owner of that corner store sounding off on their own personal twitter account about a technical issue they are having and being able to find a quick and easy resolution via a reply.
So you think that, and I'm being serious because this sounds crazy...
- Local business owners use computers and have Twitter.
- The guy at the corner store is announcing randomly in public that he has issues running his business and doesn't know how to hire the needed people to help.
- That any MSP can monitor all businesses looking for people like this complaining.
- Could then contact him and offer assistance.
- Could actually win the work.
- The profits could offset the cost of doing all this?
Do you have any examples where this has happened in the real world?
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@GlennBarley said:
It's about positioning yourself as a problem solver and building strong relationships.
Exactly, and I can't see how Facebook or Twitter could possibly do that. Neither builds business to business relationships with viable businesses nor does either lend itself to making you look like a problem solver, it makes you look like an idle teenager who doesn't have any paying clients. The cost of looking around on social media for poorly running businesses would be very high. And failing businesses don't make good customers.
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@GlennBarley said:
@scottalanmiller Why does it have to be a complaint? How about praise for a job well done? Or maybe it isn't the social account of the SMB, but the business owner's personal account.
Because you don't need to respond or monitor if it is a praise. And, realistically, when have you seen business customers going on social media to praise their IT vendors. Do you have concrete examples of MSPs getting genuine, unsolicited praise in this way?
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@scottalanmiller The reason is to build a strong relationship with your clients and help increase the chances that they are going to stick with you as a service provider.
It may seem worthless, but giving clients the feeling that they have a back and forth with their provider is valuable, regardless of the platform.
We have plenty of examples of our partners either voicing a disappointment or a praise on social media and we actively respond to both.
