Firstly thanks for taking the time to comment her and other place and showing a human face to Telstra.

My comment on a complete failure is around the way it was implemented, vs the service will be a failure. Yes the last week has produced lots of interactions with the blogosphere, my point is having those interactions before the launch would have more than likely produced a much better initial product. Just a thought.

I am not aware of the cultural values being developed inside Telstra, one of anything is possible is fantastic. If that is being driven broadly then we need to get that message out more so we can help you implement the vision.

Many of the people in the blogosphere are either your customers or directly influence purchasing decisions by your customers. So it is great to see you building the relationship.

I would be very interested to find out if Telstra is finding that their employees who are engaging in social media are feeling more engaged and satisfied. See my post from today.

I am the blogger that posted the BigPond Twitter blog on Now We Are Talking.

I disagree with your inference that Telstra has a poor culture.

I think Telstra’s use of Twitter is driven by our cultural focus of ‘anything possible’ – providing the customer a better experience.

The BigPond team is a case study that our ‘anything possible’ cultural value is alive and well.

You also mentioned our Twitter service is a ‘complete failure’. That’s pretty strong words for a service that’s been up for a week.

I’ll refer to my blog – ‘since the early stages of development, BigPond’s primary concern has been protecting the customer’s privacy’.

This last week has produced a lot of great interactions between Telstra and the blogosphere.

While building relationships in the blogosphere is important, our first priority will always be the customer.

Regards,

Mike Hickinbotham

http://www.nowwearetalking.com.au/blogs/the-scrum/listen–evolve-insights-from-launching-bigpond-twitter

I’ve been looking into this a fair bit lately, even more so after my post. I like your definition of “consent”, but I think the Spam Act sees it differently. From what I’ve read, not saying no does not count as consent. However consent is given when the consumer approaches the brand where a reply would be reasonably expected.

So if Bigpond initiate contact; illegal. But if they respond; legal.

But, this doesn’t matter. I’ve been in touch with the ACMA and I’ve been told that a post on Twitter is not a “commercial electronic message” and therefore is not subject to the Spam Act.

Interesting, eh? I’m going to keep reading up on this stuff. And thanks for the link!