What is your name and official title at your company?

Kayla Selans, Marketing Director

What is the name of the company you work for, and what does it specialize in?

SurpassHosting.com, a web hosting company based in Orlando Florida

When did your company decide to create its online, social media presence?

We first put a forum (which was Invision Power Board) on our site in 2003.

Why did your company choose to establish that presence?

We first put a forum (which was Invision Power Board) on our site in 2003. It was an experimental move that proved to define Surpass as a community focused host. Now our forum, blog and social media accounts interlink, giving our customers a well connected service.

Which social media tool or service (twitter, Facebook, youtube, etc.) has proved most beneficial to your company and why?

When we first got our Twitter account in 2007, not many of our customers were using Twitter yet so it was very slow going. It’s definitely a lot busier now and gets more attention than our Facebook account. I’d say Twitter is the best for reaching out to our customers and letting them know special updates.

Is your company using multiple services?  If so, which ones?

Our main services are Twitter and Facebook. We also have UserVoice to gather insightful suggestions from our customers and use Vimeo to post testimonial videos.

If the answer to the above question is yes, do you feel there is a benefit to having a presence on multiple social media outlets? If so, why?

You should reach out on as many outlets as possible, everyone likes different things and it’s nice to cater to them.

Is your company using these services mainly as a marketing tool, customer service outlet, or just as a way to connect to its customers in general?  In other words, what’s your overall objective for social media strategy?

For us, anything we have done starts out with customer service. Our goal is to make everyone happy and feel welcome.

Do you have someone on your staff entirely dedicated to managing your online presence?  If so, what do you feel are the benefits of having a dedicated social media staff member?

I am responsible for creating ideas and content for new ‘social promos’ and I decide on new outlets. The responsibility of tweeting is between a few team members at our company, since we need to check everything 24/7. It is definitely beneficial to consistently stir up new social ideas and keep everyone on their toes.

What sort of clients or customers do you see embracing these social media tools?  Is it just the geeky type, the brand evangelists, or are you starting to see average everyday people using them to connect to your company?

It started out with the most geeky type but now it’s a really good mix. It’s an exciting time for sure.

How does the volume of communication from social media outlets compare to that of traditional communication sources for your company such as e-mails and telephone communication?  In other words, are more customers calling you, or are they communicating with you through social media?

More customers still use our helpdesk and forum, but we see more requests on Twitter than ever before.

Do you give the customers that contact you through social media means any sort of special treatment such as priority customer service or special incentives? If so, why?

Truthfully, we do. We enjoy the fact that they are embracing social media and helping us react in a different way through these outlets. And sometimes it’s simply just faster to do so. Although we treat all customers equally no matter how they contact us, sometimes coupons issued on our forum, blog, Twitter or Facebook are a little bigger. We want to make them especially happy so they’ll continue to communicate with us in new ways that are more convenient for them.

Thanks so much, Kayla!

(Welcome readers of Kayla’s blog!  Be sure to check out the final paper here in which I included content from this interview.  Thanks for visiting my site!)