It’s only been around for about 33 hours, and it was off for nine of them, but Apple’s official support Twitter account has averaged about 1.8 tweets per minute since it premiered yesterday morning.
That amounts to a total (as of this writing) of 3,492 posts, most of which are in direct reply to iDevice users who could use a hand.
Apple launched the AppleSupport Twitter account Thursday at 10 a.m. ET with the kind of understated minimalism we’ve come to expect from the company.
Welcome to… pic.twitter.com/EZA8eRycDs
— Apple Support (@AppleSupport) March 3, 2016
And one of its first “calls” regarded a problem that we all face at one time or another: How can we escape Miley Cyrus?
@AppleSupport apple music "for you" sucks how many times do I have to tell it that i do not like miley cyrus!
— John Covington (@jc3_ky) March 3, 2016
Another came from a person who knows that you have to include as much detail as you possibly can in your service requests.
@AppleSupport i have just spilled a cup of green chamomile tea at my iphone. What i should do now?
— Yano Dava (@frizzby) March 3, 2016
We aren’t sure the exact color of the tea was relevant. Still, it’s better to have too much info than not enough.
As for the helpful tweets themselves, AppleSupport tends to lead with something encouraging, like “We’ve got your back,” “No worries, we can help with that for sure,” or “Being able to read your messages is important.” And then they typically ask for a direct message or provide a link to a support site that can help.
Unfortunately for users who don’t speak English, that’s the only language AppleSupport is replying in currently. But don’t worry; they have a ready-made reply that they just paste and paste and paste:
@D_MIGUELOFICIAL We offer support via Twitter in English. Contact us for help in your preferred language here: https://t.co/LNaG7ThfJR
— Apple Support (@AppleSupport) March 4, 2016
AppleSupport currently boasts about 137,000 followers, which in our experience translates to about 100,000 actual, non-robot, non-spam humans. It’s still a lot for a day, however, and it’s by far the company’s most active page. Even CEO Tim Cook has only sent a couple hundred tweets, but he’s probably busy with those “running the company” and “arguing with the FBI” things at the moment.
So here’s your proper welcome to Twitter, Apple. It only took you 10 years.
Via: Business Insider
Evan Killham is a freelance writer who lives in Nebraska and isn’t interested in football, so he has plenty of time to play and think about video games. He has written for Bitmob and GamesBeat and sometimes, he even goes outside. But not too often because he’s heard there are bees out there. Occasionally, companies send free units for review. Evan subscribes to Cult of Mac’s Reviews Policy and also does not keep the items he receives for possible coverage.
5 responses to “‘AppleSupport’ has been tweeting like tweens”
Please explain: Is there any advantage to using Twitter for support, or is Apple just going with the flow? I really would like to know.
I always get better support from certain companies when I use twitter instead of their support line. Apple already has a great support staff so this is probably just adding to that line. It’s nice to ask a quick question and get a reply while you still do the things you need to do as well. Keeps you from being stuck at a computer to chat or on the phone speaking to someone.
Tweeting like tweens makes it sounds like they are tweeting stupid stuff. I don’t see that at all.
I see it. At least eight times, I have seen Apple support reply to invalid Twitter names which are sent to all of their followers instead of being sent to only one person.
It’s so “new-Apple” to jump on Twitter. It’s a completely useless medium for tech support. Very few, if any, issues can be resolved in 140 characters. Why don’t they just use their own discussion forums for support?! Other than “reboot” or “reinstall”, it’s a non-starter.