Category Archives: community

Opening a New Chapter

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Entrepreneurs tend to be really good at thinking about their product, employees, VCs, term sheets, bottom-line’s and their someday-IPOs. Sometimes, they become so focused on those things that they forget to think about their customers. In the shuffle, customers (who make all the rest possible) are reduced to spreadsheets, or clicks, or eyes-on-page, or some amorphous herd of annoying questions. When customers are continually thought of in this light, it is nearly impossible to treat them as individuals who could love a company and become a volunteer sales force of evangelists.

I help companies love their customers. Or, to put it another way, I make it easier for customers to love their companies.

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I am excited to begin sharing my experience in cultivating community engagement and customer care with companies who are looking for help developing strategies and processes to:

  • actively listen (and respond) to their customer
  • create engaging conversations with their customers
  • ensure their customers that they have an advocate in the company
  • determine the value of their customer engagement through metrics and goals
  • transform their customer service into a source of customer evangelism
  • discover, welcome and cultivate an active community of customers
  • improve their retention and growth through regular communication with their customers
  • adapt their product or service to address customer feedback and concerns

There are a few conversations I would really like to have right now:

  • If we have been BFFs forever, I could use your help getting the word out.
  • If something in this post catches your attention and gets your wheels spinning, I would love to hear what you are thinking.
  • If you know someone at a company who might be open to exploring community strategy or customer engagement, introduce us?

Raymond Cattell’s 16 Personality Factors

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Raymond Cattell’s 16 Personality Factors:

I am reading through Raymond Cattell’s 16 Personality Factors this morning, and trying to figure out where I fit on the spectrum for each factor. It also has my wheels spinning about how valuable it might be abstract these out to a community level, to help companies either zero in on a specific community personality for their product/service. Or, better yet, consider converting singular communities into several communities that might individually have incompatible personalities, but could become more healthy in their own environment.

Descriptors of Low Range Primary Factor Descriptors of High Range
Impersonal, distant, cool, reserved, detached, formal, aloof (Schizothymia) Warmth
(A)		 Warm, outgoing, attentive to others, kindly, easy-going, participating, likes people (Affectothymia)
Concrete thinking, lower general mental capacity, less intelligent, unable to handle abstract problems (Lower Scholastic Mental Capacity) Reasoning
(B)		 Abstract-thinking, more intelligent, bright, higher general mental capacity, fast learner (Higher Scholastic Mental Capacity)
Reactive emotionally, changeable, affected by feelings, emotionally less stable, easily upset (Lower Ego Strength) Emotional Stability
(C)		 Emotionally stable, adaptive, mature, faces reality calmly (Higher Ego Strength)
Deferential, cooperative, avoids conflict, submissive, humble, obedient, easily led, docile, accommodating (Submissiveness) Dominance
(E)		 Dominant, forceful, assertive, aggressive, competitive, stubborn, bossy (Dominance)
Serious, restrained, prudent, taciturn, introspective, silent (Desurgency) Liveliness
(F)		 Lively, animated, spontaneous, enthusiastic, happy go lucky, cheerful, expressive, impulsive (Surgency)
Expedient, nonconforming, disregards rules, self indulgent (Low Super Ego Strength) Rule-Consciousness
(G)		 Rule-conscious, dutiful, conscientious, conforming, moralistic, staid, rule bound (High Super Ego Strength)
Shy, threat-sensitive, timid, hesitant, intimidated (Threctia) Social Boldness
(H)		 Socially bold, venturesome, thick skinned, uninhibited (Parmia)
Utilitarian, objective, unsentimental, tough minded, self-reliant, no-nonsense, rough (Harria) Sensitivity
(I)		 Sensitive, aesthetic, sentimental, tender minded, intuitive, refined (Premsia)
Trusting, unsuspecting, accepting, unconditional, easy (Alaxia) Vigilance
(L)		 Vigilant, suspicious, skeptical, distrustful, oppositional (Protension)
Grounded, practical, prosaic, solution oriented, steady, conventional (Praxernia) Abstractedness
(M)		 Abstract, imaginative, absent minded, impractical, absorbed in ideas (Autia)
Forthright, genuine, artless, open, guileless, naive, unpretentious, involved (Artlessness) Privateness
(N)		 Private, discreet, nondisclosing, shrewd, polished, worldly, astute, diplomatic (Shrewdness)
Self-Assured, unworried, complacent, secure, free of guilt, confident, self satisfied (Untroubled) Apprehension
(O)		 Apprehensive, self doubting, worried, guilt prone, insecure, worrying, self blaming (Guilt Proneness)
Traditional, attached to familiar, conservative, respecting traditional ideas (Conservatism) Openness to Change
(Q1)		 Open to change, experimental, liberal, analytical, critical, free thinking, flexibility (Radicalism)
Group-oriented, affiliative, a joiner and follower dependent (Group Adherence) Self-Reliance
(Q2)		 Self-reliant, solitary, resourceful, individualistic, self sufficient (Self-Sufficiency)
Tolerates disorder, unexacting, flexible, undisciplined, lax, self-conflict, impulsive, careless of social rules, uncontrolled (Low Integration) Perfectionism
(Q3)		 Perfectionistic, organized, compulsive, self-disciplined, socially precise, exacting will power, control, self-sentimental (High Self-Concept Control)
Relaxed, placid, tranquil, torpid, patient, composed low drive (Low Ergic Tension) Tension
(Q4)		 Tense, high energy, impatient, driven, frustrated, over wrought, time driven. (High Ergic Tension)
Primary Factors and Descriptors in Cattell’s 16 Personality Factor Model (Adapted From Conn & Rieke, 1994).

Ask Seesmic

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Some of my favorite words are transparency, honesty, sincerity, genuineness, and authenticity. I love being the community manager for Seesmic, because I get to live these words everyday in my job.

One of our users, sean808080, recently took notice of the way we like to interact with our community in his post entitled, “Seesmic – Raising the Bar “:

What is most interesting for Seesmic’s “users” is not so much the technical hurdles in doing video seamlessly but rather how Seesmic has chosen to interact with it’s customers.

[...] when was the last time you ever saw a company’s executives interacting with users face to face and asking for questions?

A better question to ask: why aren’t more key players at a company made available to users to interact this way? Why have we endured the ‘wizard of oz’ schtick from companies that do not have the capital or chops to play it?

We’re starting a new conversation thread with this very type of conversation in mind:

What other companies have you had great conversations with?

promise

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I have not forgotten you, dear reader. Rather, I think about you often–while sleeping and working. I have not neglected you due to boredom or lazyness but because of a whirlwind of activities and new ventures. I have failed to bring you along on these journeys however, and for that, I am sorry. I am declaring my renewed dedication to share this journey with you.

Customer Service and Community Support for Seesmic

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What are you doing?
I am working with Seesmic–a video conversation platform with a strong sense of community–to develop and provide their customer service and community support. I won’t duplicate all the information you can find on our blog, but please let me know if you have any questions.

Why?
I *love* helping people use technology. It is exciting to see people have that ah hah moment, where they start enjoying a tool rather than fighting it. I geek out over movements like the Company Customer Pact. I dream of one day presenting at conferences like Customer Service is the New Marketing. I predicted 2008 as the year of the people. I sought out Seesmic, because they have a track record of being community driven and customer focused. My goal is to help make Seesmic renown for having the best support and customer-company relationship.

BTW
For those of you who have been waiting for this update for a while, I’m sorry it has taken so long to write this. I hope you know I wasn’t trying to hide anything from you, I just wouldn’t have time to go through the same set of questions multiple times. The last two days have been like drinking from a fire hydrant. I don’t expect the flow will slow down anytime soon, I’ll just learn to ride it.

Now that you have the broad strokes, feel free to blast me with questions in the comments!

People and Ideas Matter (now, what’s the business plan?)

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I am intrigued by a post that has garnered quite a discussion over at Chris Anderson’s blog on The Long Tail:

The short head will be human, the fat middle social and the long tail algorithmic.

[ via The Long Tail ]

We are running directly into a future where relationships will be more valuable than information. In business, it doesn’t matter what you know, it matters who you know. In the arts, your product isn’t worth anything, but interaction with your audience is priceless. In education, knowledge is a click away, but the classroom is a unique space where interaction and innovation can flourish.

How are you deriving and investing value from/in your relationships?

our new publishing house

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I offered to write a book for Emergent™. They laughed, because I don’t have a platform. It takes a whole lot of promotion and potential buyers to get a traditionally published book to “tip”, and make a profit. So, I understand.

But I did find out that they get about 6 book proposals a day. Of course no publishing house is going to take those on and even attempt to publish them. But we live in the era of the longtail. There is more value in the thousands of unpublished stories of life in the fringes, than a hundred published works by those with a platform.

The Idea

If I can figure out how to track any of these people down, I will invite them to write their book publicly on a site based on a wiki. It will encourage collaboration and community feed back. And when it’s “done”, we’ll publish via lulu.

Take the Plunge