Thursday 2 August 2012

Twitter Power


I’m waiting to hear back from my chosen charity regarding my fundraising mission, but wanted to write a bit about social media.



Trolling

This week saw a huge uproar when Olympic swimmer Tom Daley was a victim of some rather terrible trolling (internet bullying) and there has been a huge demand from the public to ban these people from Facebook and Twitter. Of course the media in general are having a field day publishing the pit falls of the social media society citing that if you’re going to put yourself out there as a celebrity then “get over it”.

Why should they just get over it? I’ve had some very nasty messages via my blog from anonymous idiots and I’m not famous; but on the flip side for every cruel and spiteful message I do receive I there are 20 positive and uplifting ones.

Support

As the RSD continues to take hold of my physical being, I am constantly supported by a cheerleading team of twitter/facebook friend’s with various chronic conditions – a wonderful side to the often criticised internet community.

In fact through twitter I met up with a fellow RSDer and Blog Writer Dominic . We met on Twitter and saw that we both lived close to the Southend town centre. I’d never met other RSD/CRPS sufferer in person so it was an experience to meet, compare notes on medication, ways to relax, alleviate pain and even a shared medical team – we’ve planned to meet again soon along with Mike and Doms lovely family – hooray for Twitter again!


Another social media upside is being able to be in contact with your favourite companies and service providers who now dedicate whole teams to chat, comment and link with their customers on an instant basis!

I Tweeted Odeon Cinemas this week.

I’m an avid cinema goer, I have been known to  not only visit up to 4 times in one week but to come out of one film go straight back to the booking counter to see another film minutes later.

Although I’ve always had great service from the Southend Odeon staff and the Odeon website I was always confused that you could only book two friends alongside a wheelchair space. Although probably just a glitch that hadn’t been pointed out before a small part of me felt that it was a cheek as though I only visited with a carer or two not a bunch of friends and family.

This week I went with my sister and our two nieces to see Ice Age 4 (Fun but you can’t being the first two films!!) and went to book the family deal of two adults and two children in the disabled section which of course we couldn’t do because of the two person rule.

I thought it must have been just a website thing but when he got to the cinema our seller Michael (Friendly, helpful and funny – Note to Southend Odeon) had the same issue having to book three of us then a separate child booking loosing us the family discount. So I took to Twitter.

I’ve just had replies from their online team saying it was just a glitch that you can now book the family deal in the disabled section and they’re working on being able to book more people together when there is a disabled member of the party – brilliant and quick work on Odeon Cinema’s part and a small Kudos to myself!

L x

2 comments:

  1. Great job with the Odeon - there appear to be gliches in all sorts of places when they try and pigeon hole (ouch) folk with a disability or any additional needs. Thank you for sharing !

    ReplyDelete
  2. You're right about contacting companies on social media platforms, I did it with Argos over Facebook a few weeks back and had someone from Argos ring me within an hour.

    I think because it is so public it's a great way to get a thorough response.

    ReplyDelete

Thank you for posting. Should you wish to contact me privately e-mail Lynsey_Ellard@hotmail.com