February 2007 Archives
February 6, 2007
Everybody's got one
Most people think the word "blog" is short for "web log". But as more and more industry-oriented sites are popping up, I'm starting to think it's taken on a new meaning: Business LOGistics. Because it's become a whole new way of delivering your company's message, values and brand identity to the world.
Does that not sound like the biggest load of bullshit you've ever heard?
This blog is called Saturated Market because the world of blogging IS. The unfortunately-named blogosphere is, in my opinion, the largest collection of voices screaming to be heard over eachother, and through the noise and waste. I don't have the statistics, but apparently there are a spectacular number of estimated abandoned blogs. And I'm fully willing to assert that each user has had an average of more than one in their lifetime, and quite possibly even more than one at the same time.
I'm going to take a moment to admit that I fall into both categories. I've had a couple blogs that have fallen by the wayside. Also, I have another personal blog, but I'm not going to tell you where it is. I created this one so I could talk about things I didn't feel like talking about in the other one. Partly because of audience. Over there I spend my posts (which mercifully are less frequent) talking about my day or other insignificant crap. Here I want to at least TRY to say something. And remain semi-anonymous while I do it.
Anyway, there are so many types of blogs. Oy, this is going to be painful.
* Business blogs
o Industry blogs
o Corporate blogs
* Personal blogs
o "Dear Diary"
o Interest/hobby
o Opinion
I won't get into the specifics today. I'll save that for later.
Don't worry, I'm not going to talk about blogs forever. Or exclusively. Just now...and in some subsequent posts. But I'll deal with that when I come to it. What will likely show up on here more often are my observations about stuff in the news, or issues in Marketing. Maybe a personal story or two. But none of that "ok so today i went to jamies house and we got sooooooooooooooo drunk but then her parents came home and i was all WTF bcuz her mom was being such a bitch LOL" crap.
Just for the record, I don't know anybody named Jamie. And even if I did, I'm sure her Mother is a delightful person.
Until next time,
JW
Posted by JW on February 6, 2007 3:41 PM Permalink
Growing pains
I had a teacher tell me that if a business decides not to change anything, they've decided to fail. I admit that innovation is a crucial component of any business...but it has to be done right. While I'm still thinking about blogs, let me discuss one online community that's had to endure a lot of moans and rust in their quest to grow.
Livejournal has been around for less than a decade, but it's already undergone some massive changes. A brief history can be found by visiting this Wikipedia article, or from this little snippet I wrote a couple months ago in response to a "lj friend"'s complaints about recent changes:
"Hey, we're doing great! You have to pay to get in, or know someone who's a member. We feel like an exclusive club, and the people who get invited in for a free account will see how awesome a paid account is, and will sign up!"
Time passes...
"Oh, uh...hm. Not enough people are buying accounts. Okay, no problem. Let's open it up for EVERYONE! That will expand our user base, which will mean more people buying."
Time passes...
"Ah. Geez. Okay, um, now we have an exponentially larger userbase, but our subscription rate hasn't increased enough to cover our substantially higher server and bandwidth costs. Let's get someone to buy us!"
Six Apart writes a cheque...
"Hey, thanks guys. That solved nothing. Screw it, we're putting in ads to generate revenue. And maybe we can have people pay to not see the ads! That will drive up subscription!"
Now, I'm the first to admit this isn't entirely the true story. Hell, I was corrected by Wikipedia for Pete's sake. Anyhoo, long story short, livejournal has been hell-bent on attracting new users, which has been difficult based both on their reputation and increased competition from MySpace and Facebook.
Livejournal suffers from two major internal problems that I contend were not self-evident at the outset: creation abuse and stubborn users. The first relates to a point I made in my first post: since users can sign up for any number of accounts with a myriad of usernames, the system often becomes filled with several accounts, many of which become abandoned. This essentially suffocates the servers by filling them with dead weight. And thanks to their policy never to delete journals (this can only be done by the user who created it), it just sits there forever. I respect this policy, as it accounts for occasional users as well as preserving the entries of people who have passed on, which is a comfort for friends. But there is a lot of abuse, regardless.
The other problem is the real meat of this entry. Livejournal users (at least those who have been around for some time) are notoriously resistant to change. The interfaces and menus have been altered a couple times, I assume to provide ease of use, especially for newcomers. And each time a change is made, there is always an outcry, as users complain in their personal journals, in their friends' comment pages, and on the developer and support pages. "I hate how it looks," "they're pandering to the MySpace generation," "I miss the good old days." Back in my day, I had to walk uphill both ways to get to my blog.
So how does Livejournal cope with the fact that their attempts to woo new users is met with such harsh criticism by many of their current users? Or, rather, do they have to? To be frank (but not that Frank), I don't think it's even a real issue. For all the complaints and threats to leave as soon as their subscription runs down, I don't think there's been a substantial exodus from the site.
So why take all this time to talk about it? Well, first of all, because I CAN. Second, this demonstrates that just because your customers dislike something, doesn't mean they're ready to walk. Not to say that you should disregard your customers/clients entirely (that would be foolish). But don't scrap a new plan just because of a naysayer or two. This applies equally to personal plans, not just business.
Until next time,
JW
Posted by JW on February 6, 2007 4:09 PM Permalink
February 13, 2007
Power to the People
Customer service. Yes, we've all heard how important it is. And rightly so. After all, any company's life is absolutely dependent on having (and keeping) customers. Judging by the way it's been hammered home by every teacher I've had and all the talk of Customer Relationship Management (CRM) being bandied about, you'd be inclined to think that it's obvious just how paramount it is.
But I don't think the true power of customer service is entirely recognized. To illustrate my case, I'd like to present a brief story about a drama that is unfolding right now. Names have not been changed, mostly because I don't know any of them. According to reports from a friend embroiled in this situation, there is an online company that specializes in selling either individual parts or entire sets from a hobby company. The manufacturing company and this parts company are not affiliated. This is one of the largest parts-selling companies outside of the actual manufacturer and their subsidiaries.
On a forum devoted to this hobby (one of the three largest on the internet, thanks to its steady stream of "sneak peaks" into coming releases), a user posted their experience with the parts company. It details a story of an error in shipping, that when the user attempted to remedy it, was given a coupon and promised free shipping next time they ordered. When they ordered the next day, they were told the coupon had expired. After this post went live, my source and several other users posted similar tales of mistreatment after poor shipping and lack of corrective measures. One even detailed an email reply that had been forwarded around the office, and sent to a customer with the employees comments still attached, one of which included an accusation about his motives, complete with use of the "f-word" in regards to the customer. After this went on, an employee who was on the forum posted a poorly worded response (lacking in an apology), and was caught saying that some people are just impossible to please. Shifting the blame onto the customers.
This thread has apparently reached well over 3000 views so far. These are all people who will tell their friends, who will in turn tell their friends. This is a PR nightmare.
Getting back to my point, customer service is now more vital than it has ever been, thanks to two huge factors: (1) customers are now more savvy and full of clout than ever before, and (2) yes, you guessed it: the internet. The internet has made information widely available (well, we all knew this), and has made it so easy to inform or opine. As I said above, that's roughly 3000 people at least who may never use that company's services. That's pretty rough, considering this is a niche market.
This is especially important for an online business. After all, if your customer service reputation just took a broadside on a popular internet forum, and you do business over the internet, you're gonna hurt a while. It's absolutely vital to maintain proper customer service, ESPECIALLY if something goes wrong. And for God's sake, if you're going to make fun of your customer by forwarding a complaint around the office, delete your snarky self-righteous comments! Ouch, man.
In order to end on a positive note, let me give you an example of flawless customer service. I ordered a mug from an online business as a Christmas present. I ordered early enough for it to arrive in time. However, due to backordering, no updates to my order on the website, and some unexplained delays, it did not arrive before I left for the holidays. I emailed them to ask what had gone on. When I returned, I found the mug waiting for me. So I informed them that it had arrived. I then received a reply to my original complaint, that they had sent me a replacement. I rushed to inform them that it had arrived, and that I had made the mistake. The following is the actual verbatim reply to that email:
Thanks for the message. Your replacement mug has already been shipped. Please keep the replacement as a token of the underwhelming delivery speed of your first order.
Also, let me note that this was a $20 mug, with a $10 shipping charge. $30 is nothing compared to what else I might spend at that site over the next several years (which until then, was going to be $0). THAT is how you do customer service. Keep that in mind.
The customers are revolting. And I don't mean gross.
Until next time,
JW
Posted by JW on February 13, 2007 9:17 PM Permalink
February 15, 2007
Can't we all just get along?
Competition. It's absolutely inevitable. But it doesn't always come from where you'd expect.
I'm going to talk about blogs again. Aren't you thrilled? If you haven't hit the "next blog" button or gone down the list on your bookmarks menu yet, then I'm going to take that as a yes.
Now then, I'm going to look at the big 4: Livejournal, MySpace, Blogger and Facebook. Each of these sites is supposedly in competition for users. But I'm not entirely sure that's the case. First of all, there is absolutely nothing to stop someone from subscribing to more than one. I mean, they're all free (with the exception of livejournal's paid account level). Now, you might be inclined to say that they all serve the same purpose, so nobody would need more than one. However, that isn't necessarily the case. Each is more geared towards certain purposes. Some are more geared towards the purpose of blogging, whilst others are more for social networking. I've drawn up a graph of where each of these falls on these two continuums. B stands for Blog, SN stands for Social Network, with + or - denoting whether the site is more applicable for either of these purposes.
So you see, each of these sites serves a different purpose. I'll go through each of these one by one, in a minute. But first, I need to outline the true form of competition faced by these sites: themselves. Or more appropriately, their reputations. The primary reason not to use a specific site always seems to be that the potential user has a problem with the way they perceive it.
Blogger: Since this is where we are (note: at the time of writing this, I was still at Blogger), it's courteous to start with our current host. Blogger is, well, entirely devoted to blogs. There is no network in place to connect you with your friends, or to let you quickly check the blogs you enjoy. The best you can do is just to bookmark them or to put links on your own page. So for the user who wants to write a journal but doesn't feel the need to check up on everyone elses or collect a useless list of "friends" online, this is the way to go. They are free of some of the stigmas facing the other sites, but they are plagued by a reputation for unreliability. Most of the complaints that crop up about Blogger are that it has a tendency to go down. Whether or not this has been corrected is largely irrelevant; until that perception can be altered (which is tremendously difficult), they're going to have to live with it.
Facebook: Facebook is almost entirely social networking. All a user does on there is add friends and leave comments on their "wall". People can also join interest groups, and post pictures. It exists entirely to communicate with other people (which is particularly handy when it comes to people you haven't seen in a long time, or who are a distance away). I didn't put it at the very bottom of blogging, though, because they do have a blog-like option: notes. Here the user can write up a short blurb very much like a blog, which can be commented on (and you can even "tag" friends that it pertains to). However, it is tucked away on the side, and rarely used as somewhere to pontificate on a topic. Therefore, it is clearly not the primary use. Facebook's major stumbling block for attracting users is that many fail to see the point. Several people I have spoken to about the site have vowed never to sign up, since they have heard that it is addictive, and a waste of time. There is also a growing amount of discontent over the fact that high school and elementary school students are signing on, when it was originally designed for college and university students. What's worse is, employers are now checking Facebook to find applicants' pages...and pictures. Due to the "tagging" option on Facebook, anybody with a picture of you can tag you, and everyone can see it. There is a way to remove tags, but to search carefully for all references to you and delete them before your potential employer can find them is a process nobody wants to undertake.
MySpace: MySpace is a mix between blog and social networking. Nearly equally balanced. Though the main profile page has the list of friends, a comment wall to post on, and simply links to blogs. Also, it is not necessary to use the blogging option available on the site. Many people instead choose to use it simply to keep in touch with friends, post pictures, and check out new bands. The networking aspect of MySpace has allowed for great reach by new artists showcasing their work, and even advertisers. MySpace is not without its problems, though. First off, it is mocked as being a haven for self-important teenagers, most of whom are referred to as "emo". I'm not going to get into what "emo" is right now. But let me put it this way, for those who need a definition: Emo is like the whiny little brother of punk. This has turned off many potential users. The other major problem is that MySpace is widely considered to be, if you'll pardon the term, a playground for online predators. You need only look through the news to find background on that problem. MySpace definitely tapped into a major section of the population with great success, but it has some image problems to deal with.
Livejournal: Livejournal was one of the first. Like MySpace, it similarly balances blogging and social networking, but is more heavily involved in the blog aspect, as that is the primary form it takes. Users do network, but mostly in the form of reading and commenting on the journal entries of their "friends". However, there is no doubt that blogging is the primary aspect of livejournal. Like MySpace, it shares the perception that it is mostly for whiny teenagers. And as I mentioned in an earlier post, it is currently under fire from a portion of its own userbase.
Since each of these sites differs from each other in some drastic ways, there isn't really much direct competition between them. There is a tendency for Livejournal and MySpace users to make fun of one other, but there is a lot of go-between. So basically, it all comes down to what the user is looking for. Often they will be more loyal to one, but will join another because of friends being members. Instead, they are competing against their own image difficulties, and against the tendency for much of the general public to say that they have no use for a blog.
Until next time,
JW
