Community Guy – Jake McKee

Blog Commenting 2.0 cometh!

Yesterday was a very exciting day for bloggers of all stripes. HUGE things are afoot for every one of us, and most of you probably missed the news.

The global commenting system IntenseDebate was acquired by Automattic, the company that owns Wordpress.com and drives the Wordpress.org project. This is literally going to revolutionize the way blog commenting takes place on blogs worldwide.

I know that sounds like a bold statement, but trust me, things are changing. You may remember that I wrote a few months back that blog comments are broken. The short version of that post and point is that it’s just too hard to keep up with even a minor amount of blog commenting activity. Over even a short time with even minimal blog commenting, we leave our mark all over the Web but have very little ability to collect and follow-up with those comments. We’re currently in an era of Blog Commenting 1.0.

Here’s what I wrote about the solution to bringing us to Blog Commenting 2.0:

In my mind, the solution lies in a (better implementation of the) global commenting system. I’ve switched my comments to Disqus because I believe they are dang close to being the right global system. Here’s why:

• It works wonderfully and is easy understand, even for the technology lightweights.
• It does a great job of keeping you logged in across multiple blogs, so you’re always ready to go with a comment without having to fill out name, email address, and URL
• Threaded replies
• See all your comments in one location
• Fantastic integration process – it’s super easy to add to a blog, forum, etc.

But those things said, we have to eventually plant a flag somewhere around something. Any global system is only as useful as the number of people using it. Look at how good Akismet, the spam fighting functionality included in Wordpress, is at fighting spam. Every user they add helps every other user.

At WordCamp Dallas this summer, I even raised this issue with Matt Mullenweg of Automattic. I asked him flat out if he intended to use the power of the WordPress reach to deliver for blog commenting what Akismet has delivered for spam. My point was that if Automattic was to buy or build a global commenting system and implement it into the open source WordPress software and/or the Wordpress.com platform, we very nearly solve the broken blog comment metaphor overnight.

At the time, he said he wasn’t interested.

Whether he was just hiding negotiations or whether my genius question changed his mind, it doesn’t matter. We now have a significant move towards a true global commenting system that will hopefully move us to Blog Commenting 2.0.

It’s a good week for bloggers.

Rapid Fire – Wednesday, September 24

Zappos’ 10 Principles

Have you heard of Zappos.com? If not, you need to start paying attention. Zappos is a rising (well, risen) star in the ecommerce space. They’re selling an insane amount of shoes and clothing, and it’s due in no small part to their fantastic outlook on customer service, employee training and support, and word of mouth referrals. I bought my first pair of sneakers through them recently (Nike AirMax 360, of course) and was quite impressed with the service. They emailed me shortly after I placed my order to inform me that they had upgraded my shipping to be overnight. Very cool.

At BlogWorld Expo this past weekend, I stumbled across a Zappos bookmark giveaway that included 10 principles they they live their corporate lives by. Nice and simple, and #6 is one of my own personal mantras too.

1. Deliver WOW Through Service
2. Embrace and Drive Change
3. Create Fun and a Little Weirdness
4. Be Adventurous, Creative, and Open-Minded
5. Pursue Growth and Learning
6. Build Open and Honest Relationships With Communication
7. Build a Positive Team and Family Spirit
8. Do More With Less
9. Be Passionate & Determined
10. Be Humble

Interestingly, the Zappos.com site is… less than impressive. The design leaves a great deal to be desired and much of the usability was marginal at best. Where are they spending their money? On their people.

Rapid Fire – Monday, September 22

Guest Post: Web 2.0 Expo Recap

Note from Jake: My genius buddy Ashley Glennon from T-Mobile’s product design team was at Web 2.0 Expo last week. We were emailing back and forth about his thoughts of the event and I thought “Hey! This needs to be shared!” Ashley was kind enough to do a guest post for us. His thoughts on the event are summed up below, along with some gratuitous kindness. 

—

When I think of community, I think of one guy, Jake McKee.  Last week I attended O’Reilly’s Web2.0 Expo in New York and throughout the event I couldn’t help but think of Jake and all of you, ‘Community Guy’ readers.

On Tuesday evening I sent an informal update to Jake about the event and he asked if I would mind translating my ramblings into a guest post. Having met Jake when I was employed at LEGO–and seeing his strategic contributions to the social and community space ever since–how could I say no.  So here goes.  Here’s a top 10 list of guidelines for any of you who are considering starting up a new community to support your company or its products or services. 

1.  When structuring your new community, be sure to embrace what is going on with your product, service or offering already.  Chances are great that your fans will get even more excited if you give them an opportunity to share their enthusiasm and expertise with others.  And if there’s already a site that supports your company’s area of interest, embrace that site, too, but look for the unmet needs within the other site and fill that gap.

2.  When you start your site, spend the time, effort and money to do it right.  Having high quality content, forums and feeds is critically important when you launch your site, as-is the notion of filling the needs gap left by other sites.  Once the site is up for a while, your community will build and maintain itself, until then, keep injecting fresh news, insights and challenges to build momentum.

3. Get the buy-in of the Chief Marketing Officer (CM0) or members of your PR team before you launch.  Growing and maintaining a community site is a lot of work and requires a commitment of skill, money, empathy and time.  If you are one or both of these officers yourself, make sure you are committed to the climb ahead.

4.  You must make your site incredibly easy to read and post. If you can’t get reading and posting right, then don’t bother creating your site.  The same goes with registration (if you have registration).  Make sure your foundational transactions are fast, easy and simple–especially at the start. 

5.  Seriously consider the idea of having forum or subject matter expert moderators.  In today’s spam-filled, troll-mongering, flame-throwing internet, you will want to seek volunteers to filter out unsavory activities to keep your community from going sideways.  This does not mean you should prevent freedom of speech or control a point of view, it simply means have some passionate experts who can provide guideposts to keep things on-topic and/or to filter out intelligent spammage.

6.  Build a friendly yet robust set of terms and conditions.  While people may not read them, make sure you cover off on how you will remove or govern posts in accordance with the community mission.  A solid set of Ts and Cs will really help both you, your moderators and/or your company as the site grows.  The old adage, “A stitch in time saves nine” can really save you in the future so take the time to do this step.

7.  Use passionate, personalized and sincere language to engage your community–especially at start up.  You are not talking to people, you are talking to a person.  That’s right, you.  Engage your fans by thanking them for their talents, abilities and for contributing to the community.

8.  Be bold in how you measure your site’s success and give it some time.  Don’t immediately measure your site on members, page views, clicks, posts, etc, but hold yourself to an even higher goal of contributing to sales of a product, likelihood of recommending a friend or even brand awareness.  When you step up to commit to terms such as these, your Marketing department will pay attention.

9.  Be exceptionally careful of any numerical data that you intend to post or expose to all users.  Posting the number of posts that a user has made, or how many friends someone has might seem compelling at first, but in the brief history of social and community sites, these numbers can drive the wrong behaviors. Once numbers become an entrenched part of a community it will be near impossible to take them away.

10.  Never underestimate the power of the community and don’t lose touch with them. Assume your site will become the next internet sensation and along the way, don’t lose touch of your roots.  That nugget of an idea or the seed that brought the community together in the first place is the thing that will keep you together as you grow.   

- Ashley Glennon

FFF: BlogWorld Expo

One of the many, many reasons I love my industry and my job within it: this is what I have to look forward to as a “business-related function tonight”.

Original photo by Brian Solis

Rapid Fire – Thursday, September 18

Rapid Fire – Wednesday, September 17

Do you know who your real brand manager is?

At iMedia Brand Summit yesterday, I was floored by a comment from Jerry Courtney, Group Manager at Target. He said that they don’t think of retail employees at the stores as “clerks”, but as “brand managers”. After all, his point was, the frontline employees have vastly more control over the actual brand perceptions than anyone in the home office.

This point was on my mind when I arrived at the airport today. Long-time readers of this blog know that I have some serious issues with American Airlines. I have nearly 700,000 flown miles with them in the last 7+ years. I live in Dallas, their main hub. I have thought about putting a requirement for me to fly on American for client travel. I can deal with their crazy up charges, and have defended (or perhaps rationalized) their odd policies. I’ve cut them slack for putting more effort into their pointless Facebook app while neglecting to provide updates about whether Hurricane Ike will effect my flights.

When I checked into my flight home today, I wasn’t assigned a seat. I had applied for an upgrade when I checked in online and was told that I didn’t have enough credits. But strangely, I noticed an upgrade notification in my inbox as I rushed to get to the airport. When I checked in, I wasn’t assigned a seat, so I checked with the gate agent. Here is the shortened and slightly paraphrased version of how things played out. It was actually much worse in person.

Me: Hi there! I need to get a seat assignment. I believe that my upgrade request came through.

Jill: (searching) Yes, you did. That’ll be $105.

Me: I’m sorry?

Jill: Your upgrade costs are $105.

Me: Sorry, I’m confused. I’m not sure why the fee.

Jill: Because. You. Requested. An. Upgrade.

Me: Is that fee something new? I’ve not had to pay for upgrades before.

Jill: Yes, you have.

Me: Actually, no, I haven’t.

Jill: Maybe you didn’t know you did.

Me: I’m pretty sure I’d remember paying $105 numerous times.

Jill: Upgrades. Cost. Money. You. Pay. Money. And. You. Get. An. Upgrade.

Me: Ma’am, there’s not need to talk to me like I’m dumb. I’m just confused about the policy. I thought upgrades were based on upgrade segments….

Jill: Yes, and maybe you don’t have any left.

Me: Ah! I’m just trying to understand – if I don’t have any segments, that actually makes sense. I get that I would need to buy more.

Jill: I don’t know if you have any segments or not.

Me: Oh, OK.

Jill: Sir, I don’t know what you’re having a hard time understanding. Upgrades cost money. Each time you fly 500 miles you pay for an upgrade.

Me: Yes, I know. I’ve been a Platinum customers several times and am Gold now…

Jill: You’re not Platinum now, you’re Gold.

Me: …but I’ve never had to pay for an upgrade before.

Jill: Yes, you did.

Me: Fine, can I…

Jill: I just don’t understand what doesn’t make sense. I’m trying to help.

Me: Can I just decline the upgrade?

Jill: You’ll have to move back to coach. What seat were you in?

I know travel is tough these days. I know that paychecks have been slashed for people like Jill. I know that she has to deal with a lot of irritated travelers during each of her shifts. I feel for Jill, I really do. But the reason travel sucks is not the travelers, it’s you Jill. It’s the angry flight attendants that get mad when you ask for a blanket. It’s the busted ass planes. It’s the charges for absolutely everything that isn’t screwed down.

But I also know that Jill doesn’t care about her business, her company, or her industry. I know that she’s about the furthest thing from a brand manager that she can be. It’s obvious in the way she, and her colleagues, treat the customers. Airlines, with the exception of Southwest, have forgotten that the customer is always right. Or at least that the customer is not your mortal enemy.

And as alarmingly rude as Jill from San Diego was, she’s not really to blame. American Airlines is a company that has lost their way, building marketing-based Facebook apps when they should be building customer service facing blogs. Restricting smart employee decision making rather than empowering employees to bend or break silly policies. Wasting money on direct mail marketing campaigns rather than investing in creating better methods for accepting and reacting to feedback.

If Jill was empowered, trained, and encouraged to be a brand manager, she’d be demanding such things too. Unfortunately for all of us, American’s home office doesn’t trust her anymore than they respect their customers.

VIDEO: The future of viral marketing

Absolutely hilarious…. mainly because I can actually see it happening…