I Made a Mistake

Yesterday I made a mistake. It happens, and when it does I want to try and make it right. I wrote a post about The Irony of Revenge in Social Media. While I stand behind that post and understand Lisa's argument, where I made the mistake was by not leaving it in it's entirety as a comment on her blog. Instead, I left just a modified portion of the post that came across as attacking her. Bad form.

Here is that comment:

I really disagree with your post. I don’t care for the way you handled the unfriending, think it’s a bit ironic you chose to blog about the experience, and don’t feel it’s consistent with what you promote in regards to responding to negative reviews and comments. That all being said, I think you now owe the unfriended person a personal message or phone call. In a round-about way you just made a negative comment about someone (even if they threw the first punch). While you didn’t post it to their wall, you might as well have. Not cool. Time to eat your own dog food.

My comment was uncalled for as I did not fully explain my position, but instead just attacked what she did. That was not cool. The post I wrote here does a better job explaining my point, and probably should have been the entire comment on her blog as well. Anyway, I have come across as disrespectful, and for that I apologize. I have a tendency to just be forthright and say what’s on my mind. I have an opinion and I’m not afraid to share it. Sometimes that’s not right, but I always intend to make it right if/when I make a mistake. I consider Lisa a good friend, and good friends don't shoot off crap comments like this. Again, I apologize Lisa.

The Irony of Revenge in Social Media

I really disagree with a recent blog post by a good friend, and the idea to unfriend someone on facebook because of a comment determined to be "negative for negativity's sake." I appreciate the candid feedback given and for sharing the story, but from my perspective the blog post basically tells peers, clients, competitors, and readers it's OK to just delete their critics if they want to. I know there is more of a story behind this post, but I still feel the approach is wrong whether it's a customer, peer, or competitor. There is a time and place to "fire" a customer or friend, but I don't believe it is on facebook. My friend didn't even take their own advice and privately call or message the person they fired. Instead, decided to not "give it a second thought", unfriended the person, and then ironically blogged about it.

I'll admit, I'm no saint when it comes to online criticism. I do have a tendency to dish it out, and it could be interpreted as good or bad. A few months ago I chose to call out someone on Twitter for being too critical. I was blocked from their account and accused of "attacking" them. Was it right for me to say what I did? Did I deserve to be blocked? I was being critical of that person being critical. Criticism happens frequently in social media, and even by many of the top bloggers and experts in the space. Maybe I took it too far, and maybe I should have called them or emailed them privately. We did exchange a few messages after my comment, but then the Twitter relationship ended. My bad I guess, but I felt at the time something needed to be said and I chose to do it publicly, right or wrong. We all make mistakes, and, yes, sometimes it's not cool. However, haven't many of us agreed that criticism is an opportunity? Shouldn't we be accepting the good with the bad? I suppose many times it is hard to swallow, but maybe we're often too quick to judge as well.

How often, as voices in our space or online in general, do we have a tendency to be overly critical or critical too often? In reflecting on some of my own comments and looking at what a number of others I have friended or follow say, I can definitely tell you that many are more critical (including myself) than we may view ourselves. Some may be considered hyper-critical, but it's all open to interpretation by others. We all look at brands or people differently, and we all have differing levels of acceptance or tolerance for criticism. This is something I think we should all keep in mind when interpreting a customer's viewpoint or comments, and possibly judging too quickly.

Wouldn't we all love if our customers would pick up the phone and voice their concerns vs. turning to social media commenting or rating sites like Yelp! ? Of course, but the reality is that people can somewhat hide behind the internet and reduce the amount of confrontation they take on. They feel good about voicing their concern, and they get it off their chest whether or not it's in the most appropriate form. So, yes, ideally make a phone call please or send a private email/message if you have criticism to share, but let's not stomp on the people that don't.

These critics (regardless of where they come from or how they communicate) are customers. Someone that has made a statement maybe we don't like. Does that mean the person is wrong? Do we sometimes get too defensive and not put ourselves in our customer's shoes? We talk about responding to negative reviews on ratings sites, so how is facebook any different? It's only different in that we have more control I suppose. What would happen if that person created a Yelp! review page for you as an individual (your personal brand) and decided to post a negative review? What would you do then?

So put yourself in my friend's shoes. You essentially just had a negative review, but instead of responding in an apologetic way or a way seeking to improve the relationship you've decided to fire the person. Then your friend blogs about how he doesn't like your approach, thinks it's ironic that you chose to blog about the experience, and essentially criticizes you for not eating your own dog food. What do you do now?

My Letter to Twitter: Why I Don't Do #FollowFriday

Dear Twitter,

I have nothing against #FollowFriday really, I just don't do it. There's no real content there other than someone's endorsement. Not to say that endorsing someone isn't a good thing, it's just that I'd rather find someone organically. However, since you have changed the rules a bit with filtering @ tweets it's more challenging to jump into conversations and maybe meet new people. While the new rules help filter some unwanted conversations, Twitter is a place for discovery and search. You have even shown us this by adding the search function to the main homepage. So if this is the case, then why not go back to the old format? Or maybe, make filtering an optional setting. If not for the old way, I may not have discovered nearly 1/2 of the people I follow and enjoy following.

Bottomline, I'm not looking for followers, nor I am looking for people to follow. I'm looking for conversation. Conversation that is interesting. I just don't see enough of it anymore, and I want it back. Pretty please.

Sincerely,

@mbj

The Power of SlideShare

Wednesday I posted our "Building Your Online Corporate Mullet" presentation to SlideShare, and then wrote a post about it over on Tidbits From The Apartment Nerd. We've had a great response so far, just like we did after giving the presentation. What has blown me away is how viral the presentation has become on SlideShare. The slide show is now on the www.SlideShare.net homepage, and continues to get views. I've also noticed recently how much Google Juice one can get from SlideShare. I don't think you can game the system, but if you create some good content the results can be a real benefit. Have at it.

Why Must Everything Be Measured?

Wednesday I emailed Tony Hsieh at Zappos.com and asked him:

"... At Zappos do you use any metrics to justify or measure customer service and word-of-mouth success. We’ve been having a debate that this is the reason many companies don’t adopt a true “customer service” model for their business. It’s just not easy to measure, but so many companies have proven that the model is superior (ie – Disney, Ritz Carlton, Zappos, Nordstrom, Chick-fil-a, etc.). What are your thoughts? ..."

Here's the response I received Thursday:

"... We do not measure the amount of returning and new customers from our word-of-mouth model of business. You are correct that it is not easy to measure. We are more focused on creating a relationship between us and the customer. Once we do this, everything else naturally follows. I hope you didn't lose the debate with this news! ..."

Why does it work for them? How can they justify what they do without measuring it?

My answer, because it's more fun. It's more fun to give away free shipping there or back, it's more fun to "do whatever it takes" to satisfy a customer, it's more fun to actually be well trained for the job that you do, it's more fun to have a free lunch everyday, etc., etc., etc.

Create relationships, have fun, enjoy the experience. Sounds easy enough doesn't it?

If you want more, here's what Tony had to say about company culture back in January on his blog. Enjoy.