A middle-aged man finds that his favourite King of Shaves SPF 8 Moisturiser has suddenly run out, thanks to the unauthorised attention of his teenage son. Worried about further adding to his increasing craggy features in the absence of the keenly-priced cosmetic, he heads for his usual suppliers - Boots and Superdrug - on his local West London high street.

He discovers that neither now stocks it. Frustrated man tweets @KingofShaves asking, in less than 140 characters `what’s the problem?`. Within minutes, @KingofShaves tells him that a new improved product is now available at Tesco. Increasingly frustrated man tells @KingofShaves he isn’t travelling to the next town even for what he presumes to be a great product. @KingofShaves follows frustrated man and after a short DM conversation supplies the product directly to the formerly frustrated man’s home complete with the company’s revolutionary Azor razor.

@KingofShaves happens to be the Twitter handle of Will King, King of Shaves founder and CEO, a man who truly lives his ever-expanding brand. His linking of social media to a commitment to delivering genuine customer satisfaction and building brand advocacy means he’s increasingly laying waste to the dinosaurs of depilation.

So that, ladies and gentlemen is a cautionary tale and just one example of how to use social media for effective marketing. If you did the same, who knows, somebody just might take the time to write about it… and post on social media sites… and tell their friends, colleagues, clients…

On that subject  I did eventually hear for the handset supplier that now appears to have the phrase `death spiral` attached to it at every opportunity, and thanks to the Herculean efforts of one person in technical support single handedly fighting the the corporate system, eventually secured a replacement handset.  Fahad, I salute you.

As for the bank that now appears to be be not to be just unlucky but careless with both its chairman and CEO, I did eventually receive another letter.  Written in incomprehensible corporate speak, both letters neither acknowledged what was the basic problem nor described any attempt to fix it  but, I'm sure, allowed some jobsworth to tick a series of `done` boxes . You can draw you own conclusions about whether you'd want to do business with this institution and/or consider your shareholding.  I, for one,  rest my case.