When I couldn’t log onto the Bank of America website Friday to schedule my mortgage payment, my first thought (as it usually is in these kinds of situations) was to check Twitter to see if anyone else was having problems with the site. Well, I quickly realized that I was not alone in my frustration (and I also realized that people who can’t access their money can get VERY angry and say some of the most incredible things!).

To their credit, Bank of America did have a Twitter team responding to the issue. But here’s where the lesson is, so pay attention. The response team’s Twitter handle is @BofA_Help. So every time I searched “Bank of America” or even “bankofamerica” I wasn’t seeing them. All I saw was tweet after tweet berating the bank for it’s down site (and even a threat by one disgruntled customer to burn it down!). I searched BofA too, and somehow never saw their tweets in that search. My tweet about the downed site was actually more to point out what seemed like a huge lack of response:

It wasn’t until they responded to my tweet and included “I work for Bank of America” in their tweet that I knew they even existed. (A sidenote here: BofA Help team, please ask someone if you can take another photo for your profile where it doesn’t look like one of those family portraits where everyone is matchy-matchy. Honestly, until I looked closer, I thought it actually was someone’s family portrait.)

So the simple lesson, as I see it: make sure your company’s name is actually part of your Twitter handle. And if you can’t get a twitter name with your business name (or your name is so incredibly long that it would cut down on your RT-ability because it uses up too many of the 140 characters), you better make sure you know what people are searching for when they look for you…and include those words in your tweets on a regular basis! (But, really, it makes more sense to just make sure your biz name is part of your handle.) Seriously. If I had searched for “Bank of America” and seen tweets like this, it would’ve been a completely different view of the company:

According to the Associated Press, the site was officially down for four hours. But the stream of irritated tweets went on for what seemed like forever… And, unfortunately, if anyone else was searching Twitter like I do, they probably wondered if BofA was even listening.

While at the MediaBistro Circus last week, we heard more than one presenter talk about Twitter. Not only that, we heard more than one (probably even more then two or three) of those presenters share case studies of Twitter being used as a customer service outlet. I’m pretty sure we saw the ComcastCares guy or the Ford guy in a few different presentations. The point of each was that Twitter, for a lot of people, is becoming the face of a company. It can serve as the only place where the public can connect with someone who has a face and actually responds to their needs. (And while Scott Monty of Ford is actually a marketing and social media guy, his presence really does serve a customer service role as he represents Ford as a human with a sense of humor and an understanding of the market.)

I watched the Tony Awards the other night, and followed along on Twitter for a good portion of the show. The magic of the hashtag (#) makes following a live feed fascinating. The whole time, my husband and I kept saying, “I hope the producer is watching the Twitter feed…maybe they’ll get it into gear.” But after seeing yet another boom mic in a shot, or hearing more sound issues, it appeared that nobody in the production booth was aware that somewhere outside the walls of the Radio City Music Hall was an audience of people with valid feedback and insight into how the production was appearing on the screens in their living rooms. Now granted, if I were that producer, I may not really have time to care what all those people think. But how much more would people offer their loyalty to a person, brand, or organization when they feel that their observations, complaints, or grievances were not only heard, but were actually responded to! The reality is, businesses need to be far more aware of the life their company takes on in the social media realm. Their ignorance can be just as detrimental as their lack of response. In fact, Jeff Howe, author of “Crowdsourcing,” tweeted today, “Delta customer service=FAIL. How badly? So bad I bet they never read this tweet.”

Beyond the customer service aspect of the business world and Twitter lies the simple fact that Twitter can improve a business. Take this article from the Wall Street Journal. While some companies are still wondering why on earth they should bother with Twitter, others are figuring out how to use it to their own advantage:

New technology has been a game changer, allowing trucks to pick and move to where the customers are on short notice. Kogi BBQ, a truck serving Korean-barbecued meat inside Mexican-style tacos in Los Angeles, became a media sensation earlier this year in part for its use of Twitter, on which it currently has 28,000 followers. Following Kogi’s example, more truck operators have begun using Twitter to post messages on followers’ cell phones, alert customers of their whereabouts and even ask for tips on parking spaces.

Imagine how Twitter could change your business. (And you really should consider this.) Whether it’s giving a face to your company, connecting customers directly to your brand, or making your business a little easier, why wouldn’t you be all a-Twitter?