Blogging is strange
Wednesday, March 29th, 2006 at 10:31 pm
I was at a talk today by Scoble – one of the ultimate “blogosphere is a brave new thing” pundits.
A lot of what he said didn’t gibe with me, although that may be cultural. Web 2.0 and the blog is bollocks, it’s the latest technology doing variations on this thing we call life while claiming to be a revolution (remember “The Internet”?). My CTO asked him sound hard questions and he responded well, and his synopsis of Amazon was on the mark:
One thing I learned, though, at Amazon is the deep love of their customers. That resonated with me a lot. Appreciate the people who pay your paychecks and reward them with killer stuff and listen to them when they talk with you. I love that culture.
Scoble’s take on the day, I guess he talked at more than our shop, is here. Even despite of the expectations, he was surprisingly anti-Apple too.
March 29th, 2006 at 11:11 pm
I wish I had answered the Apple question better. My son, picture here: http://www.horsepigcow.com/2006/03/brunching.html, is a big Apple fan, so maybe I’m a bit touchy on the topic. They have a great brand and a great company, it’s just that I think that culturally they are going to have troubles long term. Here’s an exercise. What happens if Steve Jobs dies tonight?
Go and watch this video buy Guy Kawasaki. http://news.com.com/1606-2-6055690.html
Even HE says Apple’s success is all due to Steve Jobs. What if Steve left? There’s be massive brand destruction cause of that belief. Whereas at companies like IBM and Sun that blog a lot more, they have a lot more people you can have a business relationship with.
That leads to better products. Better relationships with influencers, press, customers. And more caught opportunities.
Last week the CTO of a big company called me with a problem (he couldn’t get his problem taken care of through normal channels). My cell phone is on my blog. He was able to get help quickly and I was able to save a big customer.
Will that show up in our balance sheet this quarter? Probably not. But long term, because there are 2,500 people you can talk with here, you’re more likely to listen to us, and more likely to tell us what’s on your mind. Not to mention that because you blog I can listen to you very effectively too (like I just found you within 30 minutes of you posting).
Is anyone from Apple listening to you? You just mentioned them. I wonder if they’ll ever show up here? I doubt it. I haven’t seen them show up on other blogs.
April 8th, 2006 at 8:08 pm
It’s easy to blow and answer in public speaking, or for impressions to come across too strongly: despite my many comments about Microsoft, Excel is one of the best software apps ever written, so it’s easy to misconstrue.
As far as Apple’s success (or Amazon’s) and this being based on a public or corporate blog as a method of communication I think it’s choice – both Apple and Amazon play the blogging channels in different ways.
And as for a CTO phoning you – that’s what CTO’s do
(identify useful contacts and have many ways of getting their phone number).
I’m still planning on reading Naked Conversations this spring, or summer…