The opportunities afforded by social networking sites such as Twitter and Facebook can go far beyond just networking. A recent article in Entrepreneur offered some hints on how to \”Soup Up Your Social Sales Channel.\”

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While the article addresses many common themes including collaboration from different locations and a broader audience base, it also went a step further by exploring how Twitter can become a key tool in customer service.

For example, cable provider Comcast has customer service employees who monitor Twitter for \”tweets\” about service problems and then approach those users to find out more. Comcast talked more extensively about its social media-customer relationship management strategy in this blog.

Customers can also contact Comcast’s customer service through Twitter for rapid response … without being put on hold. They can join conversations in the online forum for non-emergency situations. Yet they can still rely on the \”old-fashioned\” method of calling in to the 1-800 number for service.

While your offerings are likely very different from Comcast’s, social networking sites may be able to offer you another chance to explore ways to improve your customer service without adding a lot of expense. After all, Twitter is free; all you have to do is be connected.

Read more about Comcast’s social network customer service here.

Adam Fein looks at the trend of \”Connected Customers\” in this article from the MDM archives. He says that distributor’s customers are increasingly connecting with other customers on various online forums, which are easy for distributors to track.