So how am I doing?

Well over the last two months I’ve collected data from Buffer Analytics.  The first 30 days were slow.  In fact, I only gained three followers on Twitter.  Part of the problem, I think, was that it was during December.  With so many holidays and so many people off work, it was hard to gain traction.  However, this time gave me the opportunity to get the hang of Buffer and to create a more active account (no one likes going to a virtual ghost town.)

At the end of one month I increased my followers by 3, or a 17% increase.  Not bad, but not exactly good.

The second month however was much better.  Going into January I saw an immediate jump in followers, and I ended the month with 14 new followers joined.  A jump of78% since I started using Buffer.

The question is, how did I get to this point?

I believe this 78% growth was caused by two things:

1.  I used Buffer App to schedule and manage tweets.  My single biggest objection to using Twitter was a convenience factor.  Hootsuite never seemed to work for me (I’d schedule posts that never appeared.)  And I hated logging into Twitter and trying to figure out how to shorten links.   Buffer streamlined all of that.  I can do both in one simple right click.

2.  I increased my posting to about 4 times a day.  Some web authorities claim you should post 5+ times per day to improve your following.  They may be right, I don’t know.  But I have a busy schedule, and sometimes 4 useful and interesting tweets is all I can manage.  So far it’s working.  Although I suspect more high-quality tweets would improve my following even faster.  This is something I will have to play with in the future.

I’m not really interested in seeing how many people will follow me.  What I’m really interested in is figuring out the best way of getting followers who want to engage with the content Meaning to Work offers.  I suspect if I followed a bunch of people, they’d follow me back. I could hit a few hundred followers that way pretty quickly.  But I only want to follow people who I find interesting, and I only want the same from others.  I’m not interested in numbers, I’m interested in influence (even if that sounds a bit full of myself to say!) and sharing of ideas.

Going forward how do I define success on Twitter?  It should be useful, not a time sink, and hit my 2012 SMART goal of 300% more followers.  If I do that I’ll be thrilled.  So far, 2 months in, I’m on track!

image provided by Twitter

Now look, I admit I’m not an MBA.  I’m not a CEO of a fortune 50 company.  I haven’t even slept at a Holiday Inn Express recently.  And here at Meaning to Work financial forecasting isn’t our specialty (our specialty is focusing on how to free employees to be better, to become more productive.)  So I may be stepping out of my element (financially speaking.)

But I don’t see how raising rates, while reducing service is any way to improve your financial situation.

No matter what industry you are in, you have to serve your customers.  And you definitely can’t annoy your customers.  Without your customers, there is no one to buy your products or services.  Even if you despise your customers (and hopefully you don’t, because that would tell us you’re in the wrong industry), you must find a way to offer your customers what they want.

This is especially true in the “internet age.”  Thanks to social media more people have more access to more products and services.  If you aren’t providing them with what they want, then they have a choice.

This is true for the post office and it’s true of your consulting business.  It’s true of churches and it’s true of hospitals.

This is obviously disruptive for huge bureaucratic organizations like the Post Office, or gate keeper organizations like Hollywood or recording studios.  But for the rest of us, this is fantastic news!  It means if we can find a way to offer customers what they want, then we can have a successful business (or church, or hospital.)

(And by the way, “giving customers what they want” isn’t always about finding the lowest common denominator, sacrificing your beliefs, or hiding your motives.  In fact, it rarely, if ever, is.)

image from the public domain

Why are so many journal articles terribly written?

I’d like to think that people are just poor writers.  I’d like to think that the 6 researchers are scientists first and writers second (or in this case, 101^st).  Brilliance in science isn’t always brilliance in writing.  And that’s okay.  If people are terrible writers, then I’d like to think they are trying their best (and just failing.)  I can live with that.

What worries me is the more cynical view I hold: researchers are intentionally making it difficult to read so they sound “smart.”

Now don’t get me wrong.  I like big words.  I taught my 4-year-old to say things like “dihydrogenmonoxide” and “antidisestablishmentarianism.”  I can throw out multisyllabic phonetics with the best of them.

But why?

Whenever we communicate, our goal should be to change behavior.  We write not to hear ourselves “talk” but to make a difference.  If you’re writing a blog that doesn’t make a difference, why are you writing?  If you’re working on a book that won’t inspire, why bother?  If you’re doing research, but not writing clearly, then your goal isn’t to grow science, but to make yourself sound smart.

In all these cases, who is your audience?  Yourself?  Or others?

I love big ideas.  I love big words.  I love complex thoughts.  But what is the point of any of that if we can’t communicate them clearly?  This is true in academic research.  It’s also true in business.  And it’s true in your family.  Communication is to change behavior, not to sound smart.

image provided by flickr user alancleaver

I don’t actually like writing these types of columns.  Who wants to talk about what’s wrong with businesses when there’s so many good things to talk about?  But sometimes it’s important to talk about the bad with the good.

In the column about MyPawPoints.com, I had one basic thrust of that article: “don’t make things unnecessarily hard on the customer.”

Today I’m adding another: “don’t try to trap the customer.”

Recently I tried to close out an account with the webhosting service WebHostingPad.  I had been running a small website called The Save Spot for a few years.  My friends and I never really did anything with the site.  It was just a fun way to stay connected.  But it also cost about $100 a year to maintain.

This year I decided it was time to shut down the website.  At least until we decided if we ever actually wanted to do anything with it.

I knew the subscription was up for renewal.  I didn’t want to get caught by “accidental” renewal, so I started the process 3 days before the account was to renew.

I should have been suspicious right off the bad as WebHostingPad violated the “don’t make things unnecessarily hard on the customer” rule: preventing me from opting out of the renewal without emailing customer support.

Now I’ve emailed customer support several times before (WebHostingPad doesn’t allow you to do a lot on their admin pages, at least not compared with great hosting companies like 1and1.com), and always found them to be friendly, responsive, and solution-oriented.

I expected the same this time.

Unfortunately instead of discontinuing my account, they sent me a link I’m supposed to follow.  And they sent it to an email account I don’t use anymore (another thing I couldn’t change on the admin page.)  So I didn’t see the email until the day my account renewed.

D’oh!

Well to make a long story short the customer support rep was decidedly not helpful in solving this problem.  And I am now stuck with another $100 bill.  A bill I don’t want.  A bill I thought I had avoided.

So here’s the point: how does this process benefit WebHostingPad?  The answer: it doesn’t.

Getting a $100 from me is worthless.  Not only will I move my website from WebHostingPad soon, but I’ll pull my domain name registration with them (along with any future domains I might have registered.)  On top of that, you’re now reading this post about my poor experience with WebHostingPad.  And based on the reaction to this post, that will be a fair number of people.

In the digital age there is no benefit to trapping your customers.  It makes them angry, frustrated, and motivated to find other companies.  Sure it might prove a quick bottom line improvement, but long term it will derail your profits.  The web enables companies to create long relationships with many referrals.  Don’t ever overlook that.

Finally, if your business model is built around trapping people into $100 payments, then maybe it’s time to look into a new business.  Do the best employees really want to work at a place like that?  Do the most profitable customers want to be treated like that?  Does it improve anyone’s life, in any way?

Sadly the answer is “no” to all of those questions.

Next week we’ll look at one final lesson about how not to run a website from my WebHostingPad experience.

image provided by flickr user Gudlyf

Now maybe I’m being paranoid.  But I just don’t like the idea of giving one company all of my data.  I believe in the old adage that power corrupts, and absolute power corrupts absolutely.

Because of this I have been trying to move my life away from Google.

But I can’t.  Google is just too useful, too functional, too streamlined, too efficient.  Too good!

There’s a lesson there for organizations.  Google gets nearly all of my web “business” because they offer a far superior product.  Gmail and Google Calendar are simple, efficient, and powerful.  They integrate perfectly with my phone and my life.  Google search is the same.  Even when I find I have some weird, obscure need, like a 3D design software, in comes Google SketchUp.

Companies spend a lot of energy on clever marketing and gimmicks to get people to use their services.  Maybe if they spent half as much time just creating useful products, we would use them.

Sure I have a choice to use other companies.  But what choice is it really to go to an inferior product?  So until someone out-googles Google, I’ll be a fan.

They are also a great place to destroy all of the above.

Enter MyPawPoints.com.  A website that offers rewards to customers based on how many bags of, you guessed it, kitty litter you purchase.

Ever since I got married my use of kitty litter (for my cats, not me) has gone up.  Mostly because my wife brought 3 cats into our marriage.  And since I’m someone who likes to save money, I decided to register for the MyPawPoints.com website.

The process itself was already a bit intrusive, wanting my name, phone number, address, and other personal information.  Then it prompts you to fill in a fairly detailed survey about buying habits.  Now I’m not exactly one to begrudge companies from collecting data.  If they’re going to give me something, it seems only right I offer something in return.  (Psychologists call this the norm of reciprocity.)  And as long as I feel value in the exchange I’m happy.

The problem is I felt no value.  Only a few minutes into my user experience with MyPawPoints.com and I’m already starting to feel a bit uneasy.  “Is it really worth all this for a $3 off coupon?” I found myself wondering.

It was only to get worse.

To reclaim your MyPawPoints you need to read a code inside of the litter bag.  Standard procedure.  Unfortunately they codes are nearly illegible.  They bleed in the bag, whether plastic or cardboard.  They also are written in a close-type block format.  ThinkNoSpacingBetweenNumbers.   Makes it kind of hard to read.

Which I think was the point.

On top of it all, they don’t give you a warning as to why a code isn’t working.  You submit the code, and if you can’t read the letters, tough luck!  Because after some number of times (who knows how many!) you enter a wrong combination of code / store you bought the product from, the website locks you out.

Of course they don’t provide any information on when or where or how to reset the data or a warning you’re about to exceed your limits.  They didn’t even tell me what the error message meant.

This, my friends, in short is exactly how not to run a website!

More on the MyPawPoints.com fiasco in coming weeks.

photo provided by Heather Elizabeth Studios

That was Netflix CEO, Reed Hastings, explaining why Netflix can charge $7.99 in Canada while charging $8.99 in the US.

I find this quote almost impossible to believe.  On one hand I can’t believe a CEO would have such arrogance. But then again we see that same arrogance displayed by many CEO’s (Bobby Kotick, Jack Tretton, Eric Schmidt).  And politicians regularly insult the voting public.

The other reason I find it hard to believe this is a real quote is because we’re living in 2010, not 2005.  Does Hastings not realize the power of social media?  Just a few years ago a CEO could have said something inflammatory and as long as the media didn’t pick it up, it wouldn’t go anywhere.  But thanks to social media, you can actually out-tweet breaking news.

Whenever I talk about the workplace, especially in a forum like Meaning to Work, I have one primary rule.  It’s a rule so obvious that most people miss it.  And that rule is simply this: don’t be a jerk.

Perhaps it’s human nature to be a jerk.  But it’s the most obvious mistake that anyone can make.  Instead of the news being about Netflix expanding it’s about the arrogance of Hastings.  Instead of consumers debating subscribing to Netflix, they are debating whether Americans really are “self-absorbed.”

Does this in any way benefit Netflix or the consumer?

Social Media is a great tool.  It can easily grow your brand.  But it can also destroy your brand.

Here’s hoping that Netflix learns it’s lesson and speaks with a little more thought.

image provided by flickr user NightRPstar

Surprisingly yes.

Negative comments give you two benefits.

1.  Negative comments let you address legitimate problems.  Let’s face it we aren’t perfect.  We make mistakes.  Release defective products.  And don’t always have the best customer service.  If you bring your meaning to your work, then you care about quality and service.  Wouldn’t you rather address the problem and have a chance at turning an unhappy customer into a satisfied customer?  Negative comments give us this chance.

2.  Negative comments help set customer expectations.  What?!  How is talking about the bad things good?!  Well let me go back to our old friend the “realistic job preview.”  People are more satisfied if their experience matches their expectations.  If there are some legitimate, but negative comments, then you know what you’re getting into.  Overly positive comments smell like fake reviews.  No comments at all suggest no one uses your product.  Ironically having a few negative comments makes people feel more comfortable with what they are buying.  That is, of course, assuming that negative comment isn’t a deal breaker.

Allowing feedback is a great way to grow your brand.  And as you can see, there are benefits even to negative feedback.  When I bought my car I did a lot of research on the internet.  I read just about every customer review I could find.  Especially the negative comments.  I wanted to know what might be wrong with my car in the future.  The two biggest issues were the road noise from the tires and not being able to see the “corners” of the car.  I decided that those weren’t enough to stop me from buying my car.  So when I bought my car I found out that my two biggest complaints were the road noise and not being able to see the corners.

My expectations had been set, and I knew what I was getting into.  I had already decided I could live with that.  So instead of buying a car for $20,000 and being upset that it wasn’t quiet, I was prepared, and the road noise didn’t even faze me.  8 years later I love my car, and couldn’t be happier.

I owe that to the realistic expectations I developed and negative comments.  What do you owe to negative comments?

image provided by wikimedia

So companies are making a lot of money offering services to “manage your online reputation”.

Usually the advice they give is something like this.

1. Be careful what you say online
2. Control the content your friends put online about you
3. Actively promote yourself online in places like LinkedIn or Facebook

Those are all good things to do.  Certainly there’s nothing wrong with asking your estranged Uncle Philip to stop talking about alien abductions on your Facebook Wall or asking an old college buddy to take down those pictures of you after your 21^st birthday.

But is this really the right approach?

To me it seems like a lot of work.  It takes a lot of effort to cover up all your imperfections.  So why not live your life open?  Why not work at making yourself a better person instead of hiding the skeletons in your closet?  If you’ve got to work somewhere, why not work where you can make a long term impact?

Let’s face it; people like Tiger Woods and Ben Roethlisberger have been rocked by scandal.  If they, and their millions, couldn’t protect their reputations, how likely is it that you can protect yours?

Of course it’s not just about avoiding trouble.  It’s about making a difference.  When we live a life of consistency other’s notice.  We aren’t one person on Facebook and another person in the office.  We’re the same person no matter who we are talking, and no matter where we are “existing.”  How much trust do you think people have in you when they know you act one way at work, and another way at home?

Will this attitude lose us out on some clients or maybe even a job?  Possibly.  But isn’t it worth it to not worry about what someone’s going to say about you in some far reaching corner of the internet?

Life is too short to worry all the time.

photo provided by flickr user vagawi

The internet is not always filled with calm, reasoned people.  If you’ve ever read comments on YouTube you know exactly what I’m talking about.  People take great pride in ripping apart things they haven’t spent any time thinking about.  We call them trolls.

But there’s also a group of people who have legitimate complaints.  They are rightly upset at poor customer service or disappointed in receiving a bad product.  What do we do with them?  How do we respond to their negative comments?  Do we just turn comments off all together?

Those are good questions.  Because if you’re starting a business online the last thing you want is for people to rip you apart.

So how do we respond to negative comments?

First we need to resist the urge to turn comments off.  While some blogs / websites work well without comments, removing comments breaks a great advantage of using social media (you know, the social part).  Secondly, the absolute worst thing you can do is arbitrarily delete and edit comments.  You can’t allow some bad comments, but edit others.  It reeks of favoritism and selective behavior.  And those are two things that will set your audience against you.

So again, how do we respond to negative comments?

I recommend two things:

1.  Assume innocence.  Don’t jump to the conclusion that the commenter is an evil, uneducated, morally questionable troll.  Assume that maybe they just aren’t very good at expressing themselves.  Not everyone is a Pulitzer prize winning author!  And even if they are a troll you don’t need to become one yourself.

2.  Address the feedback.  Don’t attack the commenter.  Address the feedback.  Maybe your product does really suck.  Maybe you need to fix your customer service.  Maybe they just caught you on a bad day.  Address the feedback by giving specific, action-oriented, steps you are taking to correct the issue.

3.  Thank them.  They may be unhappy.  But they are still a customer.  If you assume innocence, address their concerns, then they may very well become another customer.  Thanking them is a way to show them that you are a real person, and that you actually care.  People are forgiving if they think you care.  Plus, just because they don’t like your product it doesn’t mean your manners have to disappear!

Receiving negative comments is never easy.  But dealing with them now gives us a chance to salvage relationships and build good will.  Ignoring complaints may make you feel better, but it doesn’t solve the problem.  If someone is upset enough to post on your page, then they are upset enough to post somewhere else.  This way, you can at least know there’s a problem and can fix it.

photo provided by flickr user zachklein