Nielsen Online’s Pete Blackshaw gave a keynote speech on Friday, November 14^th, at the WOMMA Summit in Las Vegas in which he stressed the importance of companies’ staying grounded in the “bread and butter,” the core values and core issues of their businesses, and not just focusing on the hottest CGM buzz words. These core objectives, especially customer service and product experience, play a critical role in motivating consumers to spread positive or negative word of mouth buzz.

One brand working hard to improve its customer service and reverse the negative perception that currently exists in the minds of some consumers, is Nielsen Online client, Comcast. During Pete’s keynote speech, he enlisted Frank Eliason, the Director of Digital Care at Comcast, to provide examples of the interesting work his team is doing to improve customer service at Comcast. Comcast’s approach includes a five tier feedback platform including:

1. Comcast Central (email, phone, website)
2. Comcast Customer Connect (Facebook, Twitter)
3. Communities (Peer-to-Peer help)
4. Corporate Blog
5. Blogging on Other Sites (Consumerist, etc)

A few of the important takeaways from Eliason’s presentation:

• Listen to Your Customers
• Create a Rapid Response Culture
• Learn From Everyone in Your Organization

Afterwards, Pete reviewed the six drivers of credibility he outlines in his new book, “Satisfied Customers Tell Three Friends, Angry Customers Tell 3000″ and did a quick round of consulting in front of the symposium audience. (Pete heads Nielsen Online’s Digital Strategic Services). He then highlighted some of the key areas of credibility in which he thinks Comcast is winning with consumers and areas that Comcast has yet to master.

In case you missed it, you can read more about Pete’s keynote and see video highlights at the links below:

http://blog.futurelab.net/2008/11/video_highlights_from_womma_su.html

http://johnbell.typepad.com/weblog/2008/11/womma-approachi.html

http://search.twitter.com/search?q=pete+blackshaw

Nielsen Online’s September results for the top social networking sites include some familiar names - Myspace.com continues to lead the pack, followed by Facebook and Classmates.com. What is interesting is that nearly half of the biggest social networking sites are also among the fastest growing - and they are all most popular (when ranked by composition index) among age groups over 25.

Facebook and LinkedIn, although established in the social networking space, clearly still have growth momentum. Unlike MySpace, which indexes highest among visitors 12-17 and maintains a youthful feel, Facebook and LinkedIn are counting on the integration of social networking into visitors’ professional lives. They index highest among those 25-34 and 35-49, respectively. Reunion.com, a site to reconnect with old friends, classmates and colleagues, is most popular among visitors 55-64. This niche site’s strong growth in the past year is yet another indicator that social networking is not limited to the under-30 set. Finally, Tagged.com, which has really taken off since April of this year, indexes highest among 35-49 year olds. This is especially noteworthy since Tagged was originally targeted towards high school students, but has since been opened up to anyone older than 13.

MySpace is still going strong, but what these up-and-coming social networks remind us is that the story here is far from being played out. Many social networks are launched and fail, but with the right combination of reach and function, there is still room for others to ante up.