A 20-something's Perspective

I have been an ATT* customer for the last five years, and rarely received mail that was not a bill, so it surprised me to see a magazine from them in my mailbox. The magazine had articles like "Texting & Dating: the New Rules" and "New Offers that won't Break the Bank!"

I was confused. First, I had never received a magazine like this before and second because I am signed up for paperless billing. Wouldn't an e-newsletter be a better choice? Clearly, they don't know their audience. With all the crap ATT has gotten for their 300 plus pages of iPhone phone bills you would think they would be a little more conscientious about printing materials.

I know some people would still rather get a hard copy, but for those who clearly do not want to waste the paper wouldn't you distribute the information electronically? That really got me thinking.

Sending a newsletter is a pretty old tactic. To be honest, I don't think many people read them. Sure, you might scan the headlines but a newsletter from my cell phone provider is pretty low on my priority list. Isn't there a better way to reach me? Creating a Twitter account might be a good start. What about creating cool apps that only work on the ATT network? ATT has started to use Facebook, but in my quick search I couldn't find an official fan page.

Here's an idea. One of the things ATT is known for are their rollover minutes. In fact, I have hundreds of rollover minutes that expire each month because I never use them. (Many Gen-Yers would rather text than talk. Most of the time it's faster, and there's no need to "make nice" with mindless banter about the weather.) My point?

What if ATT really started to embrace social media and create a Facebook app where ATT users could donate their rollover minutes to other ATT users? What a great story that would be! Can you feel the potential? People could start connecting with other ATT users all over the globe. Surely that would be a better way to spend time and money than writing cutesy articles and printing what I can only imagine is thousands of magazines.

So after all this I have only one thing to say. ATT, please stop sending me pointless magazines and start engaging me in ways that matter. To ME. Thanks.

*For some reason blogger won't let me use the "and" symbol so bear with me.