I like it when I can quickly find what I'm interested in on a website. Especially when it comes to social networks. I'm certainly not the only one, otherwise Facebook, Twitter, YouTube and the like wouldn't be so popular. These platforms are the best way to have a dialog with customers, as they are accessible all over the world at any time and information can be disseminated quickly.

Now there are companies that do not yet seek dialog with their stakeholders as much as they could. That may be ok. Time will tell. But when a company makes the following promises: "We connect people" and "We enrich and simplify the lives of our customers", it surprises me when I have to click through until I find a social link.

That's how I feel on the website of Swisscom, probably the best-known telecommunications group in our country. Mobile and Internet provider. It takes about four clicks (depending on what you try first) to find buttons for the social networks that you could use to communicate with Swisscom. If you don't do this, which is more likely to be the case, you can quickly get lost on this relatively impersonal homepage, and there is a risk that you will give up before you reach your destination.

Anyway. When I find the page and click on the icon, I am finally redirected. To where? To the official Twitter page @swisscomnews. But there are about nine of these (official pages) (if you search directly on Twitter). In all three national languages and of course for every area. Why does everyone always want to sell me everything from a single source when they talk to me separately? The official site speaks English, by the way. To me. Not to me, because they simply repeat media releases. Not a trace of dialog.

If you look further (on Twitter), you will find something like a personal customer service on @Swisscom_Care. "Help simple and uncomplicated" is the motto, but only "Mon-Fri (8-17h)". Exactly when you need it. To be fair, TizianaD^TD, NunoP^NP, SteveD^SD and DennisA^DA respond relatively quickly and try to provide competent information. I think it would be great if you could benefit from this service 24/7.

One last comment concerns the maltreated CI on the social networks. @Swisscom_Care, @swisscom_de, @swisscomnews, @swisscomlabs, @swisscom_fr, @swisscom_it, @JRZ_Swisscom, @swisscom, @swisscomITS, @SwisscomDiv are the names on Twitter. swisscom, Swisscom, Swisscom Labs, Swisscom TV are the names on Facebook. Perhaps it would make sense to agree on lower and upper case at the beginning. And to use names that are easy to understand.

From these and other examples not listed for reasons of space, it is clear that the Swisscom/social media relationship still has a lot of potential for optimization. As a loyal customer, I hope it does. Because as with the #fail comments on Twitter. Sometimes they are pure bashing. Most of the time, they are valuable input for improving a service. It's always worth taking them seriously. 1921 L'illustré will be published on September 10

The Super Bowl is to communication professionals what the Oscars are to fashion victims. A must. And not because of the anthem (rather poorly performed by Christina this year) or the game (really exciting right to the end this year). But because of the half-time show, which always features a spectacular performance (rather average this year with the Black Eyed Peas). And because of the commercials, in which companies with petty cash of around 2.5 million USD compete for 30 seconds for the favor of buyers (this year, apart from VW, rather well ...).

However. The Super Bowl always sets new benchmarks. This year, it also set new benchmarks in terms of social media: for the first time, an event of this magnitude was simultaneously broadcast live on Twitter and commented on, as the National Football League has set up its own Twitter section on the official site (sbtwitter.nfl.com). It said "Join the conversation". So I joined.

I spent the whole night switching between the screens: the small one on my iPhone to tweet along, the middle one on my laptop to follow the pundits' commentary and the big one on the TV to follow all the moves live and then tweet what I thought of the score, the moves, the players and so on. And if I didn't catch an important attack one hundred percent, I could read up on it immediately afterwards.

Every second, enthusiastic supporters of both teams (this year the Packers and the Steelers) gave their opinions on plays and players. Many opinions were funny and entertaining. Others were professional and well-founded.

In the tweets that viewers posted via the official site, the players could be tagged immediately so that their names would light up in color in the mentions of the fans and readers could see what the tweet was about as they skimmed through it, allowing everyone to read or ignore tweets according to their interests. Of course, it was also possible to follow in real time which topics were currently being discussed the most.

Organized by "Players," who were currently battling for the ring on the field, "Media/Celebs," where people from the press expressed their opinions, and "NFL Personnel," where advertisements for the whole event were made, the NFL covered every area of fan interest.

40 million tweets were made about the Super Bowl (#sb45) during the almost five hours of the final game. This showed that the opportunity for football fans from all over the world to share their thoughts on Twitter was "social media at its best". After all, sport is a very social affair and what could be more social than when the whole world can not only watch a football game together, but also talk about it? A global dialog as it is written in the picture book.

Manuel P. Nappo, Head of Studies CAS Social Media Management HWZ.