Posts Tagged: stowe boyd
The Reports of Facebook’s Death Are Greatly Exaggerated
Please believe me when I say that I fervently wish reports of Facebook’s pending doom like this one were true. I just can’t agree, however. I think it is the wishful thinking of a tech press, sour investors and tech savvy professionals that don’t like the platform, and that it doesn’t take into account some key factors.
The most significant factor this prediction ignores is the human element. I agree that Facebook is evil and manhandles our privacy on a regular basis. I’d love to see people stand up and fight to prevent the significant changes the careless use of Facebook on a regular basis has made to our individual concept of accepted privacy vs publicy and how those changes are (negatively) impacting our society. The chances of that happening are slim to none, however, no matter how hard people like myself advocate for vigilantly guarding your right to privacy.
Completely ignoring the added issues of Facebook’s impact on how we think, our workday and our offline relationships, we can’t ignore one thing Facebook has mastered: it’s users behavior and emotional need to connect. Facebook has inserted itself into our lives in a way that MySpace and Yahoo simply never did. It’s crossed a barrier between generations that neither of those social networks were able to cross by finding a way to coexist across age limits, careers and demograhics. MySpace never really resonated with the parents or the grandparents in the way Facebook does – they got lost in the glare and blare and glitter. Yahoo never really resonated with kids past a certain age the way it resonated with an older demographic. Facebook manages to straddle the line.
The second factor that the article ignores is iteration. Many would choose the over-used term innovation here, but that’s not accurate. There is not a lot in the way of true innovation going on in tech right now. However, the company that can spot trends and iterate fastest across the most demographic touchpoints will win, and for the foreseeable future, like it or not, that company looks like it’s going to be Facebook. The only way I see Facebook being completely gone by 2020 is if the internet (or the concept of a nextnet, whatever this space becomes over time) is itself gone. As long as we can connect, Facebook has shown a willingness (and budget) to iterate itself into our lives continuously.
Some say marketing will be what kills Facebook over time, but I disagree there also. Facebook has made it quite difficult for the average marketer of the average company to see success on their platform, and that is very intentional. They want to straddle the line of paying the bills and keeping the user enthralled, and you can’t do that as a company if you let marketing run the show (see this piece on GM for one example). Companies that play well in the pool, like Ford, see success, but others struggle, unable to see beyond traditional, limited marketing rhetoric. This ability to force marketing to act on the sidelines and to put the users into the marketing stream via stories is a third thing that will keep Facebook relevant far longer than most expect.
The fourth and final key element to the longevity of Facebook is their New York Yankees style growth plan. If they can make it, they do, and if they can’t make it, they buy it (disclaimer: Red Sox Fan). There is a lot of talent out there toiling away at various startups or under the umbrella of stodgier existing companies that will have plenty of ideas and technologies for sale to keep Facebook strong for years to come. Jut because some pundits think that’s a lazy approach, or some purists think you should create these things for yourself, doesn’t mean that buying talent or tools doesn’t work. So far it seems to be working far better for Facebook than it does for Google, a company who tends to ignore or kill the majority of the cool tech it buys.
How do you come down on this argument? Do think the projections of Facebook’s demise are greatly exaggerated or correct, and why?
Are You Putting In As Much As You’re Taking Out?
The internet’s megaphone is becoming the number one way to indicate brand DISsatisfaction online.
It’s fast, easy, efficient and above all – effective.
This is doubly true if the brand is monitoring their keywords across platforms.
Twitter, especially, has become the darling platform of the disgruntled customer.
Tweets like this are not uncommon:
RT @tpurves: Swearing at brands on twitter really is the new and awesome ‘nuclear option’ for receiving full-on customer support.
Stowe Boyd
stoweboyd
I agree that online soapboxes are effective, but don’t see a lot of give and take in this equation – mostly just take. As evidenced by big brands like Comcast, the problems don’t always get solved, even when you scream into a megaphone about how unhappy you are with the issue, brand or service. This is most often a disconnect between the infrastructure offline and the brand online. Customer service reps can bust their hump for you all day long, but if the brand can’t sustain quality in what you’ve purchased, you are still going to be unhappy. This creates an exponential problem for their brand perception, yes, but it also creates a morale issue for their employees.
I recommend keeping in mind how hard their community managers are working to respond to you online, and how hard the technicians and reps who follow up offline are working to resolve your issue. Even if your problem isn’t fixed, if the company has specific reps that are trying hard on your behalf – say a specific thank you to them by name on the same megaphone where you first complained.
Take Fairpoint. I was having huge issues with their FIOS service being slow, their web site being atrocious to navigate (and liking IE6-7 best – who designs for that anymore??) and their hold times being excessive as it when I sent this tweet:
Going to have to carve out time to call @myfairpoint again this week. At $90/mo for FIOS this all crash/all lag thing is making me Not Happy
Leslie Poston
leslie
But I made sure to send an immediate thank you to their in-person tech, and one to their online reps, because they are working hard to solve my problem – it’s not their fault Fairpoint is ill equipped to handle FIOS in this region, or that Verizon left them holding the bag on some terrible infrastructure.
Woot! RT @leslie: Woot! Super nice Glen from @myfairpoint has me all fixed. Problem was PS3/router set up. Happy to be back at full speed.
FairPoint
MyFairPoint
Solving that simple problem made my life easier, plain and simple. Is the overall issue completely fixed? Not really, but they are continuing to work on it for me, and I appreciate that. Other companies I’ve had good results from, and loudly thanked for it, online include Verizon Wireless, HTC, Comcast and PSNH.
What other ways can you give back as much as you take, and help someone do their job better and happier in the process?
What You’re Saying