Walter Adamson

What Best Buy could learn from David Bowie

On the 10th of January 2012 The Next Web noted how "David Bowie’s 2002 predictions about the future of music were pretty close". Bowie predicted, in 2002, that "The absolute transformation of everything that we ever thought about music will take place within 10 years, and nothing is going to be able to stop it".

Furthermore, as he rounded out his predictions he said something which really struck me, just as powerful as the predictions themselves:

"But on the other hand it doesn’t matter if you think it’s exciting or not; it’s what’s going to happen".

The day before, in Forbes, Larry Downes wrote about Best Buy (The People vs. Best Buy, Round Two) where he described the reaction to his first article Why Best Buy is Going out of Business...Gradually.

The responses to my article could, in the hands of the right senior executives, form the playbook for a compelling new strategy for Best Buy, one that could do far more than simply preserve the company’s existing market share. But rather than drink in all that free advice, the company’s responses simply wish it away. It’s more denial, now tinged with a dose of anger. According to Dr. Elisabeth Kübler-Ross’s classic psychiatric study, for a patient with a terminal diagnosis those are the first and second stages of grief.

In many years (OK, many, many years) as an entrepreneur, investor, and consultant working with Fortune 500 companies, I’ve found there are two kinds of senior executives. There are those who see mistakes as an opportunity to improve their business and those who waste their energy explaining away real problems.

Downes outlines reason after reason why best Buy needs to change, and how nothing they can do can change the progressions which are happening, for example:

• Online competitors are certainly part of Best Buy’s problem, but not for the reasons it thinks. What’s really going on is more basic. Best Buy just doesn’t understand its customers’ point of view.
• What I meant was that consumers easily adapt to alternative retail channels.  Before the Internet, there was catalog shopping and home shopping from television. For consumers, buying online was just the next step in an obvious progression of more convenient ways to buy.
• For brick-and-mortar retailers, however, the shift was jarring.  Moving online required new thinking, new management structures, and new strategies.
• To compete successfully against new online retailers, traditional retailers would also need to find ways to transform the expensive liabilities of physical locations with limited hours and high labor and inventory costs into assets that complemented rather than competed with the online experience.

Best Buy's leadership team's reaction, from what we see, is to create PR "crisis management" scripts for its staff, respond in rote, dig in, and deny. Nothing usual I suppose.

What is unusual is that David Bowie saw beyond his entire livelihood, his total current world view, and was able to articulate and to acknowledge its demise:

"Music itself is going to become like running water or electricity. So it’s like, just take advantage of these last few years because none of this is ever going to happen again".

Astounding really. Best Buy need David Bowie's help, don't you think?

Let's run over that quote from David Bowie once again:

"But on the other hand it doesn’t matter if you think it’s exciting or not; it’s what’s going to happen".

How do you break strong leadership teams out of their mindsets?

How do you demonstrate the "reality" which they cannot see?

What are the keys to action and follow-through and not just acknowledgement?

Please comment below.

Walter @adamson
http://xeeme.com/walter

Klout Perks launches in Australia - I got Perked!

I was going to write a more meaty post today but checking my email this morning I found one from Klout offering me a SIM card from Red Bull Mobile Australia as a Klout Perk. I was intrigued, and seems it is new in Australia.

Red Bull MOBILE is giving key Australian influencers a Ticket to the World of Red Bull.

You are receiving the perk because you are influential and have authority on topics related to the perk. You are welcome to tell the world you love the perk, you dislike the perk or say nothing at all.

So I'm surprised to find I am an influencer. Klout looks for "influencers" on topics related to the offer. I'm not sure what my relevant topic is as I only come up under "social media", "business", "consulting", and "cloud computing". Or maybe there were so few members in Australia they just sent to everyone above a certain level - say Klout of 50?

It seems that Klout Perks have been around for more than a year, but not in Australia. It's a logical idea.

The key to success for Klout is to attract the advertisers and also to have confidence that the Klout "topics" are in fact able to meaningfully segregate. For example I've seen many people with topics like "Australia" or "Japan" - they seem a bit broad.  For example, by looking at the Red Bull Mobile website I'm not sure I am really in their demographic - me being a baby boomer? But OK it worked at least I'm talking about them!

It's also interesting to ponder why Red Bull choose this Klout Perks path, as it's little known and I wonder how many people are "Klout active" in Australia. Based on my recent observations it seems that people ARE becoming more active on Klout - I'm not sure why this is happening.

The Klout offers come with "best practice" guidelines for touting the offer to your social web friends - the Influencer Code Of Ethics, which include this:

If you decide to talk about the perk, we will ask you to disclose that you received a sample.

Please check out the Red Bull Mobile offer, and I did receive a sample - well actually I have not received it yet, I have applied for it.

To be honest I don't really need a calling SIM card, I need an iPad data SIM card! But I signed up hoping that they may have been really out-of-the-box thinkers and would give me that option - which they did not! I was also curious about how Red Bull Mobile is going about their launch in Australia.

By using Klout they are showing some innovation, so what else are they doing in social media?

If you know what else Red Bull Mobile are doing in social media please comment below.

See my Question on Quora.

Please check my topics on Klout and confirm my influence on those you choose, thanks.

Want to know how to increase your Klout score? See this Answer on Quora.

Please comment below.

Walter @adamson
http://xeesm.com/walter

HP+ Managing the HP fallout will take more than PR

In a huge week of IT industry news HP dropping the Touchpad was one of the biggest tsunamis. Especially since it came with news that HP will sell off its PC division.

Is that what you heard?

Well you may have it wrong. HP is mounting a PR war to counter that interpretation, which might seem futile to outsiders, but if you're an insider how could you do anything else?

But it will take more than PR to convince people otherwise, HP is going to have to go into overdrive with a new HP+!

People like Michael Dell heard the wrong version, according to this tweet:

 

HP's UK head of their PCG Group clarified things in The Guardian:

There have been a number of incorrect stories saying that HP is quitting the PC business. Let me be absolutely clear in saying that at no stage has HP said it is quitting the PC business. Three options are being investigated, and whether the company is spun off, sold or kept in the HP portfolio.

There. That's crystal clear, right? Michael Dell's interpretation, admittedly acting with self-interest, isn't far off is it? And if self-interest needs to be taken out of the equation then we'd have to heavily discount all the HP spin.

It's a touchy subject. HP's PR machine, through Bill Wohl who rightly describes himself as a "seasoned Chief Communications Officer for HP" took offence to this tweet via @rwang0 and @timbo2002.

But isn't that a seriously reasonable tweet?

From my observations Bill Wohl does a good job, and his Twitter stream is eclectic. I like a lot of his references. But he's really pulling the belt too tight to call a rational observation "wrong" and even "inappropriate".

As soon as he did that he just ran up the flag of PR mumbo jumbo and asked people to salute, which they won't these days.

Just Google it - this sentiment is out there everywhere. @rwang0 and @timbo2002 are no duds! Even this article which Bill Wohl praised for its positive take on the Autonomy acquisition had this to say "...effectively putting the PC business on the market". There's even a coherent argument by Bill Sydner at Infoworld postulating the HP breakup "The sharks are circling HP -- can anyone save it? "

If you are going to telegraph your punches then you better have an alternative strategy to surprise the attackers! Otherwise they are going to be all over you - like on UFC - ground and pound!

The question is how to come to grips with the sentiment and contribute and participate in where it is headed?

It's a very difficult position to be in, witness Nokia's self-initiated implosion when they forecast the end of their Symbian platform. Sales weren't supposed to drop like a stone, but they did. HP could be facing similar prospects in its PSG Division. It's frightening, considering that Nokia have lost 75% of their Western European smartphone sales in few months since making their ill-fated announcement - and Nokia want to stay in the business!! (See Why Europe Is So Critical to Nokia in Smartphones by Tomi Ahonen)

And the best way is for HP to be as decisive as they were in killing the Touchpad. Otherwise it is going to be a long hard haul to nowhere for the HP PR team.

HP should also get real about WebOS which is as dead as a dodo.

How do you think that HP can best handle the social media over PSG

Please comment below.

Walter @adamson
http://xeesm.com/walter

Spreets says go, supplier says no - one messy customer experience

Like the other daily deal sites Spreets has offers which appeal to me, from time to time. Although I must admit to being more likely these days to mass delete the stream of daily offers than even read their headlines. When the customer service between Spreets and their vendors goes off the rails, that really chews into my remaining interest in these services. How far does responsibility for the customer experience extend for the coupon vendors?

The latest offer I bought was a messy frustrating deal, with each blaming the other for non-performance. Here's a snapshot:

1. The offer - buy a tailor made shirt - $49!
2. OK, I'm up for that, bought 2 vouchers, received them - valid from 22 August 2011.
3. Jumped on to the A Tailor site at shirt-tailor.com.au and into the 3D Designer and spent time picking my combinations, and then some more time measuring myself for the custom fit.
4. Went to check out, and the only voucher entry keeps repeating Invalid Voucher.
5. Check, recheck the voucher, puzzled by the instructions "enter voucher number and unique code" since the website just has a single voucher number field.
6. Eventually it's clear, after trying every combination, that nothing is going to work.

OK, how can I save all my work, all my colours, sleeve and pocket selections, and measurements, so that I can sort this problem out and come back?

AH? Nothing seems obvious. Have to go to the next step - checkout - no nothing there either unless I pay in full.

AHH! now going back everything is GONE! My whole shopping cart empty.

Responses

The contact page for the supplier has no telephone number. But they did respond to my form the next day - they say the website won't be ready until the 24th of August!

And, from Spreets:

Your request (#102752) has been deemed solved.
Yuan, Aug-23 14:03 (EST): Hi Walter, We understand your frustration as we expected the business to upload the codes immediately after the deal ended. However this was not the case, which caused customers to not being able to redeem their vouchers. Sorry for the inconvenience caused.

Looks like case closed. Nothing like "we will chase up A Tailor and ask them to ensure that the vouchers are accepted on their website as soon as possible", or "it seems as if A Tailor misunderstood the start date of the vouchers and we will chase that up..." etc etc. It's just thanks, goodbye!

So today everyone else wastes their time

Which means that today everyone going through the same painstaking process on the vendors website will find themselves having wasted their time, like me. Wow, that's a big investment in cheesing people off by A-Tailor.com.au

We messed you around but please fan us on Facebook!

And how did A-Tailor finish off their response to my form contact about not updating their website, with this:

Lastly please be sure to Like our facebook page as we will be offering new products in the future ALL tailor made: Jeans, suits, belts, ties, bags at fantastic offer prices, also will keep everyone updated on deal site promotions we will be running.

I DON'T think so! Well actually, it is one of those ironic cases where you have to Like to make a complaint on their wall.

User experience extends beyond the coupon site

I guess the coupon places run themselves like the cut price airlines - you're getting a cheap deal so like it or lump it. You would think that, despite the pressure on the sales team, that outfits like Spreets would require their vendors to meet certain customer experience standards. Otherwise everyone loses. 

The coupon experience surely isn't just about buying the coupon, but also about redeeming it. Is that too radical a thought?

But it's apparent that Spreets don't have systems and processes in place to manage or audit anything other than the selling of the coupon. Or perhaps they do, but the processes clearly don't work.

I JUST WANT MY SHIRTS :)

Thank you Spreets, thank you A-Tailor, and let this be a learning experience for me before buying another Spreets voucher. 

How would you describe the customer experience lifecyle for the coupon companies?

How would glitches be best handled between coupon vendor and service vendor - it's complicated?

Please comment below.

Walter @adamson
http://xeeme.com/walter

BREAKING NEWS: A Tailor responds on Facebook and blames Spreets:

To be honest with you we are shocked by the response from spreets as they sent the coupon codes to us just before close of business yesterday.

Our IT department is working feverishly to implement these codes on our system all day today!

The contract we have with spreets is that coupons will be ready from Wed 24th Aug, it was a typo on spreets behalf on their add that said coupons available from 22nd Aug. I am happy to forward emails to and from Spreets to your email address to show you exactly what has been said.

So just one question - even if Spreets has messed up why do you leave it to the day the offer closes before programming the coupon coding, let alone testing?

iPad2 Customer Experience from Hell

Ordering the iPad is easy and the delivery and tracking is excellent. It's what befell me when it arrived which really threw my whole prior perception of the iPad (and Apple) out the window.

I didn't own one before, I deliberately held off until the iPad 2. I had the impression, based on my iPhone, that this was something you could "give to your grandparents" and they'd love it.

That was based on it being immediately usable and intuitive. Well I know know that you can forget that romantic idea. It's like a battle from hell to get one of these things working.

Here's the saga, so far:

1. Connect to iTunes - ok that's a bit of stretch in itself for the uninitiated but that's just something to be done and set up - however, first message is something like "due to an error on your device iTunes is unable to connect";
2. Unplug and replug the USB cable, restart iTunes, and second time seems no errors, all connected;
3. Then when it finds the iPad iTunes asks something like "Is this is a new setup or do you want to sync it with your iPhone?".
   Fine I understand the question, but what are the implications? Does it mean if I sync it that forever everything I do on each is synced - every photo I delete on my iPhone is deleted from my iPad, every photo edit or note I create on my iPad is synced back to my iPhone.
   I haven't a clue, but I want to share apps so I opt to sync;
4. Now wait nearly 6 hours for the sync to complete, so no chance of experiencing my new iPad today, go to sleep and check it in the morning, that's a disappointment;
5. But wait! The iPad has a little note "Not Charging" showing - but it's connected through the USB cable. Oh dear. Google that one, and find an answer from others and then from Apple that says "yes we show that message but don't worry too much it WILL be charging slowly in the background". OK, well that's one that's going to throw the grandparent's right off track!;
6. Next morning, OK fully synced. Oh the App Store shows updates - 91 of them! Check that out - it now wants to download 91 apps for update, so what was the point of the iTunes synchronization? That takes a while, with multiple restarts as every 10 or so apps the install just hangs and says "installing" for ever;
7. NOW I can actually try it, this is 16 hours after delivery.
   Oh, this first app looks like a dog - it's just a miniture iPhone screen. OK push 2X - OH horrible, pixelated and disgusting. KIll that, delete it, but will it sync back on if it is still on my iPhone - no idea;
   Why doesn't the initial sync say "do you only want apps that are designed for the iPad?;
8. OK now have to run for a meeting, no more time to check this thing out. Pack it. Pull it out at the meeting and hit Notes - touch the screen - nothing. "Touch... touch... touch...touch touch touch" oh the meeting is getting away from me, power off, power on, Notes, touch...touch...touch...touch touch touch nothing no keyboard no nothing.
   Looking stupid by now, shove it in the bag, grab pen and pad;
9. Back to the office. Restart. Open Notes. Touch... keyboard appears, all normal!!!!;
10. OK, good. Totally frustrating but good. Now I will use the wireless keyboard I bought. On with Bluetooth - "Apple Wireless Keyboard" Not Paired. How long can you waste turning things on and off and restarting and all to no avail.
    Try any combination you like of what is off what is on first - NOT PAIRED.
11. Google search - "try reseting all Network Connections" - OK. No result, except that now my Homescreen which I had carefully cleared of all but a few apps - arranging them elsewhere - is now completely full of a random assortment of apps. Wow that is REALLY frustrating. Not only are things not working but now Apple are making me REDO things which I have done before.

That's the end of the saga so far. The legendary Apple experience.

My keyboard does not pair. My Homescreen is loaded with clutter, and I have a whole bunch of apps installed which look as ugly as hell on the iPad and I have no idea what "syncing" with my iPhone means.

If you were ever contemplating giving an iPad to a less technically astute relative, then think again. Unless you want to personally man the help desk from hell then you'd better just have them stick to a feature phone.

It's a shocking experience. As I said in the beginning - it's redefined my entire perception of the iPhone and the iPad and Apple being in the "non-tech" consumer market. How DO they sell these iPads to the "person in the street"? I wish I were that clever as I'm obviously not.

How was your first iPad experience?

Did you have similar problems?

Did you figure how to pair the "wifi" keyboard :)

Walter @adamson

Is social business just better customer service?

Debate around the role of brands has been endless, and there is no end in sight.

Is it all too complicated?

Is a brand simply something that is there when you need it, at the right "investment" cost, that you trust to deliver, and for which you have little affinity except for those reasons? Loyalty isn't a key determinent in this process - but just the tendency to buy the same brands or products is. 

Doug Garnett provides a sharp analysis in his post Humanity, Humility, Statistics & Brands. Thoughts About “How Brands Grow” by Byron Sharp. He also hits out at social media:

New media theorists seem think that a consumer loves nothing more than to spend their life searching for brand related content on Facebook while trying to learn the latest social media engine. Truth is that we spend a lot more time thinking about other things (like family, work, money, vacation, …) and don’t think about brands all that often.

According to Garnett, Sharp finds that:

• brands don't become big on the sales of their most committed customers. Rather, big brands are big because a lot of people buy a little from them;
• statistics show the 80/20 rule is wrong. This rule suggests that 80% of revenue comes from 20% of customers. Research shows that isn’t true;
• statistics show that what most marketers think of as “consumer loyalty” is non-existent. What consumers do is simply have a tendency to buy from a few brands.

Those insights are based on deep and wide statistical analysis.

To me, as a simple person on the street, those insights and Garnett's comments all ring true. That's why I recommend reading his post.

How can we apply these insights to social business?

There's no doubt about the ROI success of businesses becoming more social - there are numerous and well-known examples. It also makes "human" sense that this works. Not because people are buying "brands" but because they are getting responsiveness, convenience and their tendency to keep buying is reinforced.

But isn't the buying cycle and buying behaviour changing?

Economists are reknown for basing predictions on past behaviour, and therefore often getting it completely wrong e.g. the GFC. Is this research and the book likely to suffer from the same problem? Are we in a completely new era - shaped by online and digital? It could be. That's a potential concern in marketers taking the past analysis too far - how much have things really changed?

What does this mean for social business?

Let's say things aren't going to change all that much.

What does that mean for "social business" which is something for which Doug Garnett appears to have little time? Could it mean that the essence of social business is really just about customer service? Being responsive, being perceived as trustworthy - and at its most basic that's about delivery -and having a little edge in maintaining the "tendency" to buy?

Doug Garnett is an insightful guy, you might also find his Shelf Potato blog worth reading for its pragmatic advertising and brand advice.

Do you think that there is more to social business than just great customer service?

Walter @adamson

Why PR and social media don't mix - Qantas culture #fail

A Qantas spokeswoman said there was "no suggestion it's come from our aircraft".

That's PR.

At the same time, no actually quite a way ahead of that time, Facebook readers already knew that the engine that exploded and fell into Indonesian houses and parks was from Qantas. They didn't even have to speak Indonesian, they just had to look at the photos.

• 
• 
• 
• 
• 

That's social media.

When an engine exploded on QF32, a Qantas A380 heading out of Singapore, their PR machine swung into full mode of mouthpiece to send the messages and defend the organisation. That's how we've traditionally viewed PR, so no real surprises.

In the meantime, in fact not "in the meantime" but a little ahead of the Qantas auto-responders, Indonesian Albert Fan among others on Facebook had already posted photos of the Qantas parts and how they had landed in parks and ripped apart a house wall. All with the nice new modernised "flying kangaroo".

Qantas always plays to an incident management auto-cue which reads "there was no danger to passengers" and they were "on message" for this incident as well. The Twitter pics show the shafts of metal protruding through the main wing, and we've seen aircraft go down with less apparent damage, so the incident control mantra just seems completely out of sync with transparency. In fact, a week after the event it came out - through media investigations - that there was severe damage that went within an ace of being catastrophic and which by any account posed an extreme risk to passenger safety.

Of course a single swallow doesn't make Spring. But it typifies it. I know Brian Solis and other PR thought leaders have views which eclipse the PR autoresponder role, but the example shows that culture plays a big role. Qantas is typically arrogant and self-righteous, but this time social media has really hung them out to dry.

While Qantas has never had a jet fatality, research company UMR found in 2008 that 66 per cent of Australians believed the airline was not safe. But people's faith in the airline had jumped to 83 per cent in September 2010, the research found.

What's the answer to these cultural roadblocks, in this case to using social media to connect and inform people - as part of PR?

I think it's the old story. You educate and motivate and train the ones who are willing to change - you do your best - and you sack the rest. There's a bit of culture change going on at Qantas, but clearly it hasn't touched on PR yet!

How do you think Qantas missed the Facebook photos - pure arrogance or just incompetence?

What's the hardest thing for PR to change to accommodate a social media participation?

http://xeesm.com/walter

Related articles

• Qantas plane in emergency landing (bbc.co.uk)
• Qantas jet engine fails (theage.com.au)
• Report: Qantas plane makes emergency landing (sfgate.com)

Getting Screwed by Scribd - why I am deleting my account

I liked Scribd and their recent upgrade including the addition of more social networking features are all welcome, even if the rendering on Chrome often comes out screwed up. 

I'd tell them about it but that's where the trouble starts - support, or lack of. Then add on top their hidden appropriation of your property and the sudden demand for payment to view and they lost me.

A saga of support, or lack of it

It started when I made a simple support request about their alerts system which was filling my inbox with irrelevant references. Nothing complicated I just wanted to find out why it didn't seem to work as I expected. Here's the history:

• sent and acknowledged 8 July - ticket #68653;
• 13th July I reply with ticket # asking how it was going;
• 15th July replied again with ticket # asking if someone was going to respond;
• no response at all - nothing, dead;
• about August 8th I decided to twitter @scridb with the details asking if there could be a response
• August 10th I received an email:
• ScribdGary, Aug 10 05:52 pm (PDT): I sincerely apologize for the delayed response. I have submitted a report to our engineering team to research this issue, and I appreciate your continued patience while they work to resolve the matter.

OK, frustrating, why did I bother, but I did at least get a reply to my Twitter effort which in itself is a bit of an experiment, and they are going to get back to me, thanks ScribdGary.

August 25th I saw an email from Scribd in my inbox, nice, I have an answer, let's see what they say:

This is an e-mail to notify you that your request (#68653) has been pending for more than 14 days, and we have not received response. We are closing this ticket at this time. To re-open and update your request, please reply to this email. Cheers, Scribd Support.

Ah?! Scribd requested me to be patient, which I was, and then canceled my request because of "inactivity", after I've been trying to get an answer for 7 weeks. Heck, this is worse than Linkedin "Support", so I gave up on Scribd "Support", deleted all my alerts, and decided that I must write a post about this experience.

Non-existent "support" wasn't driving me away

Actually I wasn't really that annoyed about the lack of support, even if I was frustrated. It gave me the topic for a blog post, and in that post I was potentially going to comment on how we have all become tolerant of a miserable level of support for our online services. Whether it be Google, or Microsoft Online, or Facebook, or Linkedin or Apple or Twitter or Scribd they've worn us down to accept non-existent support.

You can get some good response for the iTunes store and purchases, but try to get a response for other iTunes issues like software problems - the service providers all rely on their community to pick up the burden of answering you. Have you tried to get answers about Google's Picasa for example? If you have you'll know that you are just firing questions into a black hole, Google never appears, but their uber community members do try to sort you out.

So at this point I was frustrated but tolerant of Scribd's lack of support, and intended to maintain my account. I just figured that they run on a shoestring so to expect very little of them in the future.

Secret appropriations of our documents was the killer blow

However! Last week while searching a Linkedin Group I found a person had posted a link to a Scribd document they'd prepared, and said "feel free to download". I went there, found it to be useful and then hit "download". I got a message that I now had to pay!! In order to download I had to pay a daily or weekly or annual fee - up to US$59.

Now I was really frustrated, and confused:

• Was this person just scamming me to get a commission on their "free" documents, using Linkedin to post link bait? That didn't seem likely when I checked that person's profile.
• Where did this new "feature" come from and who is getting the money?
• How about my documents that I had uploaded as "public" - can others still download them for free?

Then I hit Google to search, as others somehow must know all about this even if I am in the dark.

Scribd took our documents and made others pay

Sure enough - rage and anger. 

Here is the amazing answer:

• Scribd decided arbitrarily to appropriate every subscribers public document and lock them into a "vault";
• The total 100% payment for others to download your public documents goes into Scribd's bank account.

If that alone doesn't stun you, then also consider that Scribd made no announcement and offered no opt-in. I kind of got the impression that they may have mentioned on their blog, but they certainly didn't email subscribers and they certainly did not ask their consent and for a opt-in.

I guess the reason for not notifying and asking subscribers to opt-in is obvious:

Hi, This is your friendly team at Scribd. We're offering a fabulous new feature whereby we want you to allow us to take control of all your public documents and sell downloads for a fee. Your share of fee will be zero (0)%. Please click this link to allow us to offer this service on your behalf.

Well... OK, I see the value in that for me ??!!

As a result of the flaming Scribd has come out in the last week and said something like "Sorry, we probably should have told you and also because you all seem so unhappy we've urgently implemented a feature giving you the ability to edit your uploaded documents one by one and opt them out of our vault".

You're welcome! So I have to edit my own documents OUT, one by one?

They are serious!!!!

So on the basis that Scribd has completely lost the plot I will be editing myself completely out of their system by deleting my account. You might get Scrod in Boston, but you will be Screwed by Scribd.

Goobye Scribd hullo Issuu

I'll try Issuu and see how that works, it might be a blessing in disguise if they actually have Support that works!

Were you aware that Scribd had, or was planning to appropriate your documents?

How do you think they could have managed this objective better?

If you were Scribd, does this move make sense?

What do you use instead of Scribd, is Issuu the right choice?

http://xeesm.com/walter

Related articles by Zemanta

• "I feel like Scribd used me" (ericgoldman.org)
• Scribd apologizes, pledges changes over archive fiasco (teleread.com)
• Scribd Posts A Public Apology To Vocal Critic, Then Takes It Back (techcrunch.com)
• Scribd Puts User Docs Behind A Paywall Without Them Realizing It (techdirt.com)

GM and social media - a new day and a "new GM"

Connie Burke, Communications Manager of Social Media at GM, gave a good interview in CIO Zone and explained something of GM's commitment to social media and the impact it's having on staff and customers.

In a nutshell my take was that there were two main themes, one about monitoring, and one about reaching out to help people and place GM in a favourable front-of-mind when it came to a purchasing decision. That "meeting people" aspect wasn't focused on just those interested in an immediate transaction but in building the relationship in advance. Social media is allowing an "amazing exponential growth of meeting people," said Connie.

Regarding social media at GM other than sales & marketing Connie said that "some months ago", their customer service dept began scouring Twitter, Facebook and some targeted blogs to look for questions, concerns, etc.

In fact, we have at least 6 reps dedicated to doing just that (you can follow them on Twitter: @GMCustomerSvc).

While not every issue can be solved, I believe they are moving the needle and making every effort to ensure that our customers are in the GM family for life.

She described this social media activity as "most certainly a new day and a 'new GM' in many respects, and the power of social media is recognized by senior leaders".

For example you can follow the president of North America, Mark Reuss, on Twitter: @GMDudeinNA

Connie also said that their various brand Facebook fan pages are also another good source to go to with common issues or questions since "We monitor that very closely".

Probably nothing earth-shattering here but a good example of grass roots and also deep corporate engagement with social business.

By the way Connie describes herself in her Twitter bio as "Proud GMer, Part-time Chicagoan, Mom of two fabulous chefs, Travel junkie, Fitness expert, Just kidding, I'm lazy and full of excuses." That's giving things a human face!

http://xeesm.com/walter

Have you had any direct experience of GM's social media efforts?

How do you think that they rate compared to Ford?

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3 Sports Fan Engagement Insights from the Digital Sport Summit

The Digital Sport Summit #dss10 in Melbourne yesterday was a sold-out event, and while I saw a few less satisfied twitters I thought that it was very constructive first-time event and it had a fair deal of "how" rather than just "why". The "why" we are over, and I was impressed with how the clubs had really moved on to implementation and their lessons.

I didn't take many notes, just a few jots on my iPhone now and then. Here are the main three impressions that stand out in my mind 24 hours later:

#1 Vision: Essendon Football Club's Jonathan Simpson told how the Board of Directors nailed a vision 2 years ago for the club to commit more deeply to digital engagement with their fans, which by definition included social media. Impressively the Board said "hey we don't know how to do this but we want you (the staff) to find out" and it is a 2 year strategy. It was a "virtual connection" strategy, analogous to the successful "community connection" strategy already in place. It was 12 months ago that staff started on the social media "how to" of the journey, built their plans, presented their business case, and started implementing 6 months ago.

One of the fundamental tenets in building the engagement with fans is their "Content of Choice, Platform of Choice" decision, which was developed by the staff in their 6 month investigation period. This means that Essendon will engage with the fans where the fans are, in the fans social communities, and in with the content relevant to that community. This perhaps sounds obvious, but it is counter the thinking of most clubs who are obsessively concerned about driving traffic back to their club site.

Jonathan talked about the challenges in getting everyone else in the organisational side of the club on board, and of the conflicts and concerns about crossing organisational lines and responsibility. His answer was to get everyone together, to explain how "fan development" effected all other areas, and in particular to illustrate factually how it effected their KPIs. This helped align everyone.

All of this is a tough task, and getting all departments on board is always tough, so I give full credit to the Board for their vision as this is something we most often cry out for in making all successful projects work - the commitment of senior management, and above.

#2: Power of Spontaneity: I guess that the Phoenix SUNS fan engagement story is "well known" among those who "know" as it has won many awards, and it was great to have Jeramie McPeek as the opening speaker of the Summit. Amongst all the Suns neat work there was one item which really got me thinking - the Jared Dudley story.

 In the face of a varying degree of enthusiasm for "twittering" and lingering degrees of skepticism, fear and doubt, Jared Dudley suddenly took to the medium like a duck to water. His spontaneity changed the face of twittering and social media in the club, and among players, and his "natural" reporting skills and tendencies built a whole new level of fan engagement. Tweeting from the locker room, pics and videos from players homes, parties, social events, tweeting his own stats, all lit up the fan engagement and at no cost to the club. That's contagious to everyone - in the club and outside.

Contrast that to the World Cup where the powers-that-be are more concerned to block and control then to allow spontaneity.

PS we have our own "Jared Dudley story" in Collingwood AFL Footballer Harry O'Brien, who is one of the first AFL players to embrace social media and gave a fabulous account of his enthusiasm at the Summit and has an active website.

#3 Business Acumen: Nick Marven told a great story about re-inventing the faltering business of the Perth Wildcats, and from being a disbeliever in social media as part of that to an advocate.  The Wildcats are now the most successful club in the Australian NBL and has experienced annual membership growth of 35% resulting in consecutive sell-out attendances for over 2 years. 

Nick gave a huge insight into the difference between a business customer and a sporting club customer, and the "sales funnel", and what I also really liked was his use of social media in personnel management within the club. His presentation is on Slideshare.

So in summary I'd say Essendon's vision is still rare, in any business, Suns' embracing of spontaneity is rare, in any business still, and the Wildcats' total business integration and alignment of social media is still rare, in any business. All great examples.

I had never realised that clubs see such value, and go to such effort, to engage their fans in how the club works, all the different departments, the people, the "organisation", and how they encourage this transparency. The evolution of social media provides a wonderful platform for these efforts.

What are the best sporting club social media insights you know?

Have they started from grass roots or been Board-sponsored?

Who is your favourite social-media-engaged athlete?

http://xeesm.com/walter

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