Comcast's Twitter Man

I think it's safe to call Comcast's Frank Eliason the most famous customer service manager in the U.S., possibly in the world. Ten months ago, Eliason, whose official title is director of digital care, came up with the idea of using Twitter to interact with customers of Comcast (CMCSA), the mammoth provider of cable TV, Internet, and phone services for whom he has worked for a year and a half.

Eliason's maverick status has won him a recent flurry of media attention, and a number of corporations have followed his lead by making Twitter (and sometimes other microblogging services such as Jaiku and FriendFeed) a means for reaching out to their own consumers and resolving their complaints.