Best Practices Not Included

The Long-Tail of Social Networks

I was flying through my Google Reader and this post from Pete Blackshaw over at ConsumerGeneratedMedia caught my attention and I'd like to expand on it. I was surprised when I went to check my facebook friend count I was sitting at 465, and naturally someone one just added me so now I'm at 466, approaching the 500 friend count in essence.  So in adding my two cents, Pete raises a great question in: how much is too much?  Do you believe there is  a point of diminishing returns when it comes to the size of our social networks on sites like facebook, myspace, and others alike.  At what point are conversation and traditional efforts of staying connected being sacrificed by the ease of access to the many aspects of our lives which we are living out and making public on a daily basis? What are the implications are all this information proliferation having on social norms and are ability to communicate at large?  These are important questions to be asking. 

Here's my dilemma, I see  people on campus everyday, people who I've had class with before, or met once or twice at some point over the last 4 years, and sometimes I realize: Hey I'm facebook friends with that person.  Very often nothing ends up happening, we can be sitting across each other in the same computer lab, or go as far as making eye contact but no one speaks.  I can't tell you how many times this has happened to me.  While this might not seem like that big of deal, does the fact that I can't always remember someones name in one of these situations and it's only later that I go home, log onto facebook and confirm that I am friends with person because they just posted new photo's, or are attending this event, or are now dating this person, or wrote on this persons wall (Thanks NewsFeed).

Point being, as all our social networks continue to grow, at some point does it become reasonable to nullify online friendships by canceling friends we haven't talked to in years?  I'm not saying I can't handle 500 online friends, but I think it's reasonable to believe I would still be a member of facebook in 10 years.  At that point, how many friends will I have...a 1000...2000?  Is there any value in viewing newsfeed photo's from someone you knew for a short time but haven't talked to in over a decade?  These are questions we will all surely be asking ourselves at some point.  Last fall I wrote a post on why I came to the decision to cancel my myspace account because I didn't see enough long term value to being a member anymore.  Now, I am in no way saying this will eventually become consensus with facebook, but like Howard Zinn talked about: "you can't be neutral on a moving train".   Or this blogs on theme: change is the only constant.  This reality will be imperative for social networks to understand.

Here's my prediction, as our social networks continue to expand, the overwhelming flood of information available will eventually result in diminishing value.  In general, social networks will need to take on a format in which the information overload can be managed.  User controls will have to be put in place so as to continue filtration.  We've seen facebook adjust their format but what will need to be implemented eventually is the ability to manage and filter are networks in a long-tail sort of way.  I checked some of facebook's newsfeed settings and while a lot can be managed, for those out there who already have more than 1000 friends, it doesn't seem to be enough. 

Lastly, while we've seen even middle aged working professionals embrace platforms like facebook.  The greater question at large remains: how will facebook and other social networks continue to bridge generational gaps as it's original patrons age and pressures to grow force them to attract younger users?  Can many or any of these social networks become  multi-generational brands 10-20-30 years down the road?  One thing is for sure, the choice in segmentation for users will be key moving  forward as our friend counts reach new heights.

Note: the picture at the beginning of this post is a graphical representation of all 466 0f my facebook friends.  This is an application called the friend wheel and is available on facebook.

Paper or........

It was bound to happen eventually, but Kudos to Whole Foods for being a leader on this one.  Today Whole Foods announced that they will be eliminating the use of plastic bags in all of their 270 stores.  The company has committed to reaching this goal by April 22, which I might add is Earth Day for all of you keeping score at home.  It's been interesting to watch consumer perceptions change in recent years.  I'm only 22 years old, but I can positively remember an older time when this move would have been called a mistake by analysts and the general public would have been laughing.  Other domestic retailers will surely follow this trend as many retailers in Australia and China have also made commitments to stop using plastic.  Because of concerns over environmental impact, governments will without a doubt continue to crack down and eliminate plastics when it's feasible.  For this reason, Whole Foods efforts will continue to yield the organization competitive advantages in the retail sector.  Ingrained in Whole Foods core values has been caring  for the environment and localized community.  The company has said they will continue to offer 100%  recycled paper grocery bags.  However, I have to believe the company is hoping shoppers will bring their own reusable bags.  One thing is for sure, while these are only small steps towards a more eco-friendly society, we will continue to see major cultural attitude shifts when it comes to the environment and how we interact and co-exist with the planet at large.

Goodbye MySpace

I was pensive to do it, but I'm happy to report that I'm no longer a MySpace member.  That's right, I just canceled my MySpace account.  Not sure how I'll feel about it a week from now, but right now it's pretty liberating.  I was on MySpace at least since freshmen year of college.  Actually, I think I joined Facebook and MySpace at about the same time. 

I've always preferred Facebook for it's aesthetics, design, and overall how information is laid out and navigable.  I never really understood MySpace.  You'd think with billions of dollars behind them, they could develop a better overall product.  It's unfortunate that too much customization has taken away from the overall experience.  I've never liked the major inconsistencies from page to page.

Furthermore, not many of my friends use MySpace any more.  Fortunately, most everyone is on Facebook at this point.  The spam is what pushed me over the edge, I must have been receiving at least 10 spam friend invitations per week.  On top of that, there's been the consistent spam posts on the wall.  It's just ridiculous, when I was going through the cancellation steps, the spam issue was addressed on the site, as if they knew that's why I was canceling. 

Unlike many other web brands that I associate with (Flickr, Technorati, Typepad, Ebay, Facebook, and of course Forums...Forums...Forums), I finally realized that for me, there is no long term value to remaining a MySpace member.  Here’s my reasoning:

• It’s hard to do most anything
• All the services MySpace provides are available elsewhere (e.g. Facebook)
• I don’t need to be a member to take advantage of their media (i.e. music)
• Almost all the friends in my network I can communicate with using other means

So I guess that's it. Goodbye MySpace, its been fun, I just wish it could have been more.

Radiohead's Experiment

This morning I got up and ordered the new Radiohead album 'In Rainbows'.  For those of you that might not know, Radiohead has just done something historic, in the evolution of the music industry.  Instead of going to iTunes, or using Limewire, or searching for torrents, or going downtown to Avalon or Cellophane Square, all I did was go to Radiohead.com, followed the check out process and a few minutes later, I had my download.  While some have reported nightmare stories about going through the download process, my experience was smooth.

So why is this important you might ask?  It was inevitable this would eventually happen, this kind of direct-to-consumer model has completely cut out the middle man.  This new album is only available via Radiohead.com.  It's cool to think how much mobility media can have now a days.  If your an artist, and have a website with e-commerce capabilities, what's stopping you from taking this approach?  Granted, Radiohead was the perfect candidate to try and start this kind of revolution.  They realize their music has value, and they don't need any of the marketing bullshit that comes along with the music industry.  I'd still say 2000's 'Kid A' is the all time weirdest album to hit number 1 in the U.S. While it is weird, it's also my favorite album of theirs.

The most interesting thing about the whole process is the "No Really. It's Up To You" approach to paying.  It's an honor system.  I've talked to people who didn't pay anything for the album and I've heard people say they'd paid upwards of hundreds of dollars...Wow!  I can tell you right now I did pay something for it, however, I don't think I'm going to be sharing what that was here on this blog.  If you really want to know, ask me in person, I'd love to talk about this one some more.

Bottom line, we are living through radical change in the music industry right now.  This gets said a lot on 'Best Practices Not Included', but 'content is king' and great content will travel on it's own.  The Internet has evolved to a point where this kind of organic communication and interaction trump's most alternative processes in my opinion.  The hype has been phenomenal, the words been on the streets, in forums, the blogosphere, even the mainstream is all over it.

I'm still curious if this approach will take off and if it does, how will this model look with smaller bands where it's arguable, and on a case-to-case scenario, regarding how much and what kind of marketing is appropriate, if any.  Curious to hear some opinions, I know there's music snobs out there who read this blog.

Lastly, the album is brilliant.  Their music never seems to disappoint my ears.  The melodies are dark, enchanting, and beautiful.  I'm on my third listen right now as I'm typing this.  As far as lyrics go, Thom Yorke seems that he might finally be finding some peace of mind.  Notably, the last track on the album ends with:

No matter what happens now
I won’t be afraid
Because i know today has been
The most perfect day i’ve ever seen

It's this kind of optimism I've been waiting to see from Yorke...                                                            

Joost: At First Glance

Back in March I wrote a post about a new video service called Joost, a free ad-supported online TV service.  Initially, I was very excited to learn that dreams of internet TV were coming a reality.  So after months of private beta testing that caused the biggest invite demand since Gmail, Joost is as of last week now open to the public.  Again anyone can now try Joost out without an invite.  Just follow the link at the beginning of this post and you can get in on the action.  The official notice can be found here on the Joost blog.

Initially known as the Venice Project, Joost has garnered a lot of attention for being a very usable and well-designed product.  After playing around with the platform.  I can attest that the dashboard is very well put together, aesthetically I love it.  Overall the design could have been make or break, and the guys at Joost hit a home run in my opinion.

Now to the bad news, Joost received so much hype and after a few failed attempts at getting invite tokens, I put getting a hold of it on the backburner for the Summer.  So when I first heard that Joost went live last week, I couldn't wait to use it and after messing around with it for a few hours, I have to say I'm optomistically disappointed (if that isn't an oxymoron, I don't know what is).  Joost has a few major flaws in my opinion.

First off, I'm not sure how excited I am about having it run through a standalone application.  Matt Dickman over at TechnoMarketer was musing about this last Spring in his first review here.  Since I am a full time student with a laptop that might as well not be portable (it weighs like 9 pounds), this is a big inconvenience for me since I find myself in the computer labs on campus killing time between classes and studying, and I can't download and launch any applications from the school owned computers.  This sucks, as much as I dislike YouTube for various reasons, if they solved this problem, why couldn't Joost?  In this day and age, it does seem crazy that I have to run all these different applications.  Let's take Second Life for example, as I'm writing this, I'm remembering that I havn't used SL in months even though the application icon is right on my desktop stareing me in the face.

Furthermore, Joost has been proactively signing deals with various content providers, and believe me, there's a lot of content.  15,000 TV shows and 250 something channels to be exact.  The video quality is not the greatest but it will surely improve over time. But Joost needs to be careful they are not just becoming another distribution point.  I'd like to see them continue to think about formulating their strategy to survive in this time of incredible media proliferation.  Granted, content is still king and out of all the other players, Joost has by and far the most premium content.

Something you initially notice is the lack of user generated content.  Many reviewers seem concerned about this but I think Joost was smart to not try and compete with YouTube for the UGC.  Many have said that Joost should come up with a way to filter out the crap content and let premium user generated content be viewed through it's platform, but in the situation they're currently in, this could sacrifice user experience and there are to many other options out there right now.  Joost should stick with their PGC (Professional Generated Content) niche.  After the storm is over and the dust has settled, then Joost could experiment with this.  But again, right now, don't try and be all things to all people.

Lastly, when I think about the idea of TV, it brings a certain stigma, mostly a negative one to my mind.  And after watching some content on Joost, I felt like I was doing just that, watching TV.  Is this a good or a bad thing? Well in my opinion, if Internet is supposed to be about change and doing things differently, whether that be: reading, writing, banking, shopping etc. then Joost has some issues, because from what I can see, Joost is operating to great extent in the way of traditional television models.  It's no secret these models have issues, and if we want to save TV, what we'll need is innovation through some creative thinking.  Since when has innovation been reduced to a repackaging of what's already been seen?

On the surface, Joost might look different but I'm afraid to say that when it comes down to it, the living room is not dead yet.  Since Joost is relying on traditional ad models by placing 15 and 30 second spots in front of content clips, what's their value proposition?  Why would I want to switch from one broken model to the other?  Because if I have a choice, I will chose to watch content on my big screen from the comfort of my coach.  I wonder if anyone over at Joost has read Life After The 30 Second Spot?  How is Joost possibly going to compete against the coach?

In closing, Joost is still very much an experiment as the need to improve overall user experience is evident.  Right now, Joost has been smart to seek out and aggregate premium content, it's an important niche for web-based television that has been previously unfulfilled.  Bottom line, I might describe Joost as a two-step-forward one-step-back kind of deal.  Although, it's clear we will need to see far more out-of-the-box thinking to avoid a one-step-forward two-step-back kind of reality. Hope some of you reading this give Joost a shot and let me know what you think?

Fiamma Burger - Taste The Difference

I've been back in Bellingham for about a week now and after being gone all Summer, it's been interesting seeing some of the changes taking place around town. I am dissapointed with the dismantling of the Up & Up.  Don't get me wrong, I love Rudy's Pizza's but it's a shame that the "Up" had to go.  And for those of you thinking to yourselves that it's still there, sorry all is lost, it will never be the same.  But thinking more positively, I must say that most of the changes are for the better...my neighbors new house, the student instruction center on campus, Bellingham's "beautification" aka concrete sidewalks and asphalt.  Lastly, I'm happy to say I enjoyed my first Fiamma Burger experience the other day.  I've always loved La Fiamma Woodfire Oven Pizza to say the least...next time your there try a panini!  It seems about a year ago I first heard the concept of Fiamma Burger.  Initially, I had my doubts about using La Fiamma’s brand equity, I’ve just never really liked this approach to branding.  I believe products should organically stand for something that’s their own.  However, in the case of Fiamma Burger, I felt it was totally appropriate.  Am I being egocentric?  It’s interesting though because in the restaurant business, you often don’t see this kind of direct approach to using brand equity.  But since the ownership of both restaurant’s are (correct me if I’m wrong) one in the same.  It made this option very feasible.  For those of you who know me well enough, I’m thinking of Fred specifically, you won’t be surprised I’m transitioning to this rant. 

The other point I would like to hit on is that we’ve seen to some extent the commoditization of the burger.  Come on, let’s be honest with ourselves, burgers from traditional fast food joints are all created equal, they’re basically the same because in essence they begin with the same ingredients which are then processed, distributed, and prepared in similar manner.  It’s been an absolute battle for a long time with the goal of cutting costs as much as possible to put an inexpensive burger on your plate.  So point being Fiamma Burger was smart not to take the “Dick’s” approach to the burger (by that I mean prices, not smaller menu selection because indeed Fiamma Burger is doing that).  Not to mention you would have undoubtedly hurt La Fiamma’s equity.  So realistically, if your Fiamma Burger, your competing against two of  Bellingham's staples being Boomer’s and Bob’s.  This is healthy competition to say the least.  I have reason to believe Boomer’s is more of a direct competitor we thinking about similarities between dining experience offered when you factor out the food itself.  Everyone will have their own opinion when it comes to the Bob’s, Boomer’s, and Fiamma Burgers.  So instead of offering my opinion, I’d like to offer Fred’s from his post on his Fiamma Burger experience earlier this month.  Here are some excerpts but if you would like to read his entire review check out his blog: http://stonecries.typepad.com/blog/2007/09/the-only-burger.html

“So, how good is the burger?  I think it tastes great.  The meat is lean (not dripping with fatty nastiness), the veggies full of flavor, the "secret sauce" is not overpowering, and heck--I could eat the bun by itself.  Some complain that the burgers are not as big as at Bob's (can't avoid the comparison, what, being across the street), and neither are the servings of french fries.  Personally, my appetite is rarely big enough to finish a full "platter of fries with side of hamburger" at Bob's, so that complaint isn't relevant to me.  For people just looking to throw back as many calories as possible for as cheap as possible, Fiamma might not be your place.  Let's just say that, as far as proportions go.  But if you are like me, and your appettite isn't that of a small rhinoceros, the meal is very satisfying.  The french fries are also good--still french fries, but not greasy, and not over-fried.”

“One thing you will probably hear about Fiamma burger is that it is over-priced.  I have responded to that review with the old adage, "It all depends on what you want, and if you're willing to pay for it."  Sure, I could get Five burgers from Wendy's for the same as One from Fiamma, but I want fresh ingredients, a clean restaurant, and (pardon me here) solid waste.  None of which I will get from five burgers at Wendy's.  For $4.75 you get the burger--for 75 cents you can add cheese, and for $1.50 you can add that delicious bacon I was telling you about.  For another $1.95 you can add fries.  So, say you get the bacon burger & fries--that'll run you about $8.25.  Seem like a lot?  Maybe, with the Bob's comparison ($8.95 for the platter of fries/bacon cheeseburger), but at Fiamma you aren't tipping waitresses and running to the bathroom in two hours.  So ultimately you pay about $3-4 less than at Bob's all things considered, and maybe $2-4 more than at Boomer's, but you get the best "quality" burger in Bellingham, and like I say, enough food to satisfy the appettite of anyone smaller than a small rhinoceros.”

There you have it.  As Fred stated, he cares about fresh ingredients and I have good reason to believe that in Bellingham there are many more like him.  So Fiamma Burger is in a very “healthy” niche…haha no pun intended.  In all seriousness though, it’s hard to say how Fiamma Burger will do.  It’s just questionable to me if for the price, there is a big enough market.  They’ve had a lot of initial expenses to get off the ground and even though the burger is using fresh and more expensive ingredients, I would think there has to be a nice margin built into the prices.  Time will tell, and I wish them the best, I know I enjoyed my experience and I would say Fiamma Burger is the best tasting one in town.  Business will probably be slow during the Boomer’s sale cause we all know how that can get patronized.

New Beginnings and Old Endings

Where to start, it hit me today. As I stepped out of my home and began walking toward my car, I found myself staring at a wet landscape of a few fallen leaves, the family boat in the driveway, and a gloomy gray sky. Fall is here, and that means change. So I'm happy to be blogging at this moment, my first post in almost 2 months. Back from my hiatus if you will. It's been an interesting 3 or 4 months. I made a concious decision to return home and live with my parents for the Summer. I felt it would be a good opportunity to clear my head. As a result, this mentality led me to put a lot of reading, blogging, podcasting, and most things marketing on the shelf. At least that's what ended up happening. Truth be told, the previous couple of sentences are probably more synonymous with lazyness.  But none the less, I've had the chance learn and process a lot this Summer. Most of it can't be found in any kind of text book and most of the work I did was unsophisticated, for lack of a better term. But as I sit in my room looking at a pile of unpacked clothing bound for Bellingham, I need not get drawn in to ponder the what if's. The hindsight can often look better than the present tense. Now I don't want this post to turn into what sound like excerpts out of a book called "Lifes Little Lessons" or something like that. But  there have been those moments over Summer's course. I found much truth in the little things and that truth revealed itself in both unexpected people and places. As I head into what short time I have left in my days as a college student, it's amazing as I begin to reflect on the experiences I've had and all the great people that helped make those moments memorable. These last two quarters will be without a doubt busy, but for those out there reading this, help me take every opportunity possible to make a memory this year. Along the way, you can expect that I'll do my best to keep blogging about new experiences, idea's, thoughts etc. Look for more reflections and stories on things learned this Summer.

If you build it...they might not come

I'm pretty pissed off right now, I just spent over an hour typing a long post on social networking. I was doing some formatting when I hit a link in my post and it was gone, everything was gone. This happened to Fred a few months ago and at least now if it ever happens to him again I can tell him that I know how he feels. Typepad needs to implement some sort of automated saving feature within their software. This sucks, I'm drained and unmotivated to redo everything. But I guess I'll write the gist of what I wanted to share.

I ran across some interesting statistics on web traffic for social networking sites. According to Hitwise, market share in the U.S. for Internet traffic on the top 20 social networking sites grew 11.5 percent from January to February 2007. In addition, this accounted for around 6.5 percent of all Internet traffic in February 2007. What's amazing is how dominant MySpace, with it's 80% share is to it's competitors. On paper, even Facebook's 10% seems amateur when it comes to MySpace. 

 

Market    Share of US Internet Visits to Top 20 Social Networking Sites February 2007*
Rank	Name	Domain	Market Share
1	MySpace	www.myspace.com	80.74%
2	Facebook	www.facebook.com	10.32%
3	Bebo	www.bebo.com	1.18%
4	BlackPlanet.com	www.blackplanet.com	0.88%
5	Xanga	www.xanga.com	0.87%
6	iMeem	www.imeem.com	0.73%
7	Yahoo! 360	360.yahoo.com	0.72%
8	Classmates	www.classmates.com	0.72%
9	hi5	www.hi5.com	0.69%
10	Tagged	www.tagged.com	0.67%
11	LiveJournal	www.livejournal.com	0.49%
12	Gaiaonline.com	www.gaiaonline.com	0.48%
13	Friendster	www.friendster.com	0.34%
14	Orkut	www.orkut.com	0.26%
15	Live Spaces	spaces.live.com	0.18%
16	HoverSpot	www.hoverspot.com	0.18%
17	Buzznet	www.buzznet.com	0.18%
18	Sconex	www.sconex.com	0.14%
19	MiGente.com	www.migente.com	0.11%
20	myYearbook	www.myyearbook.com	0.11%
Note    - data is based on custom category of 20 of the leading social networking    websites ranked by market share of visits, which is the percentage of    traffic to the site, based on Hitwise sample of 10 million US Internet    users. The percentages represent the market share of visits among the    websites within the custom category.
Source:    Hitwise

MySpace's success would at this point seem to have little to do with the sites features and overall usability. Let's face it, the site itself is crap. From spam, to hacking, and of course how could we forget that ad clutter. These are all huge reasons why I never spend any time on the site. None the less, MySpace seems to transcend it's reputation for poor user experience. There's a plethora of alternative social networking sites out:

As a platform for social networking, it wouldn't be hard to offer features, tools, and settings better than the those available on MySpace. Your overall level of usability might result in a better user experience than that offered by MySpace, but at the end of the day, social networking is about the network. The reality is that most people won't join a network that their friends are not a part of. For example, I'm a member on Virb. I think it's one of the better designed social networking sites out there. But I almost never spend any time on Virb because I hardly know anyone who networks there. It just goes to show you that social networking will always be about the people. You can have all the tricks and trinkets in the business, but that doesn't mean people will show up. Facilitating the interaction is hard enough. But even though MySpace is sitting pretty right now, as they continually show that they have little taste for user experience, their market share will eventually start declining. It's inevitable, MySpace will lose favor over time!   

Company or Cult?

Alright, I'll be the first to admit that as much as I love Apple, I'm getting pretty sick of hearing people talk about the iPhone. So what am I going to do? I think I'll talk some more about the iPhone. I was going to refrain but over the last week, it has just been unbelievable how all things iPhone completely penetrated my life. Not sure if everyone else had similair experiences? Maybe I was just seeking out the hype? But, what we all witnessed is only further evidence at how powerful a tool marketing can be. That said, there is no other company on the planet that could even come close to pulling off what Apple's been able to do with everything iPhone marketing in the campaign's entireity. Apple set the bar pretty high with it's message regarding the iPhone. Steve Jobs was vocal about how he believed the device will change the entire phone industry. That's an incredible claim, and while this change will certainly not take place over night, we will begin to see some significant changes in the telecom industry regardless of Apple's entrance into this highly competitive market.

Prior to launch, there was a lot of speculation at how things would go down. We all knew it would be memorable and that's what sets Apple apart from every other technology company. It's the culture! For the most part, Apple delivers on experience! As much as this product has been hyped, being touted as the "Jesus phone" among other hubris claims, the reviews have come in and the concensous seems to be that Apple, if not delivering on all things promised, has come extremely close.

Aside from the success that Apple's achieved with it's launch, it's also important to note some of the failures. I heard about the compatibility issues with 64 bit Vista that frusterated a few folks. Even though Vista has been a collosal failure, especially compatibility wise, Apple should of had this under control. But all in all, this was minute compared to the stories about the horrible customer experience at AT&T. This should have been predicted. Maybe it was? Apparently, AT&T was forcing people that wanted to buy an iPhone to also purchase accessories. They were bundling it together and would not let people buy solely the iPhone like you could over at any Apple store. Mistake, Mistake, Mistake. AT&T is probably still wondering why all the lines were in front of Apple stores and not Cingular ones. More info about this can be found over at Gizmodo. It's stuff like this that still has me wondering why Apple went exclusive with AT&T? Obviously, AT&T probably offered them the most money, but at the same time AT&T will only hurt Apple's proven track record damaging the brand along the way.

Lastly, check out this video from the iPhone launch at 6pm right outside the Palo Alto Apple store. This kind of loyalty is one that any company would only dream to having. Indeed, we lived through what might have been the biggest product launch in history.

"Dude...Don't Get A Dell"

Some lessons in life have to be learned the hard way. There's an old saying I've always liked that goes "if your knowledge were your wealth then it would be well earned." It's always better to learn from the mistakes of others, yet it always amazes me that companies make the same mistakes over and over, especially in the digital space. Big companies will still try and throw their weight around and it will most likely back fire. A recent example of this was a couple of months ago when the AACS Licensing Authority, reacted to an internet posting of the “Processing Key" that unlocks the every Blu-Ray and HD-DVD disk that has been published to date. The AACS sent out threats to those who managed websites, most notably Digg. There's a good story that The Times did on the incident: In Web Uproar, Antipiracy Code Spreads Wildly.

To make a point, here is the processing key: 09 F9 11 02 9D 74 E3 5B D8 41 56 C5 63 56 88. Now, being someone that doesn't own anything Blu-Ray or HD-DVD, it's very unlikely I would have known this number exists if it weren't for the AACS poor practices. But, because they acted out of what they assumed to be "best practices", they added fuel to the fire and were burned badly. This incident drew national headlines and worst of all for the AACS, the key now widely available on the Internet. I would say this was quite the opposite of keeping things quiet.

Back to what I was orginally posting about, Dell has been an interesting case study over the last week. What's been going on is a former Dell sales manager wrote an article for the Consumerist blog: 22 Confessions Of A Former Dell Sales Manager. In the article, the author discussed tips and tricks to get the best deal out of Dell. Dell responded by sending the cosumerist a legal threat and demanded the story be taken down immediately. Of course, this backfired! The Consumerist replied by telling Dell that they had come by the story legally and voluntarily from a third party. They made it clear to Dell that they did not solicit any Dell employee's to breach contractual agreements in providing this information. Even worse, after those running the Consumerist became pissed off at Dell's demanding and overbearing requests, they posted the email trail on the Consumerist website. It's interesting to read the communication between the two organizations. I'd like to highlight the end of one email sent by Gaby at the Consumerist to the Dell counsel. She really put them in their place:

"In addition, as I am sure you must realise - and there is certainly a history of this with Dell already - consumers tend to react far better when a company responds collaboratively to criticism, than when they act heavy-handedly or dismissively. Removing this story would be far far more damaging to Dell, I assure you, than responding to it on the Dell blog or elsewhere, since in telling our readers that Dell shut down our reporting, we would unleash a chaos of fury and acres of criticism in the press. Forget any legal position you may want to take, meritorious or not, I am deadly serious when I say that I simply cannot recommend this as a course of action. I've seen it happen before and it is really not pretty and I have no doubt that you will regret it. Of course, it is your decision whether you want to pursue this matter, but I advise you to talk to the team that had to deal with the falllout from the Jeff Jarvis affair before you decide to try and silence your critics. Work for the customer, not against them. Best regards, Gaby"

The original story has recieved almost 200,000 views in just 4 days and the follow up story with the emails has recieved close to 120,000 views. Now, things got really interesting when just last night, Dell posted an apology on their Direct2Dell blog. I'm thinking they were humbled to say the least. This is how they opened:

"Now's not the time to mince words, so let me just say it... we blew it."

In addition, what follows is a list of Dell's own confessions (23 for good measure) that highlight many of Dell's services as well as explanations in how to get the best deals on Dell Products.

Side Note: I happen to own a Dell laptop, I've been relatively satisfied with Dell's product, but a few years ago, I had a horrible experience with Dell's customer service when I sent in my computer to get fixed. As a result, I don't think I'll be purchasing a Dell for my next computer. I guess I'm just looking for a reason to post this, but it's one more example as to why companies have to deliver on the experiences they promise. This is a letter I wrote to Dell's customer service about my experience: Download Hi

Aside from my possible bias and the as-of-late overall criticism towards Dell, damage control efforts were smart and necessary following the consumerist incident. It's clear the animosity was growing. The story circulated rapidly through the blogosphere and was all over the front page of Digg. WiseBread even went as far as running a poll where 54% out of 1937 respondents said they would boycott Dell if they continued the takedown efforts. For Dell, it hurts to admit you were wrong, but being open and transparent about the incident is what had to be done. On the plus side, this shows that the company is paying attention to it's consumers. Of course, avoiding the entire situation would have been ideal, but for Dell, or any other company going through a similar ordeal, it's important to embrace the failure. With the current state of the internet, organizational mistakes will be made. It's a given! What's more important is what can be learned as a result of these mistakes and more importantly, how can we turn this mistake into an opportunity? Dell seized the opportunity by creating and executing the 23 confessions list. At the end of the day, consumers appreciate this creativity. Dell's efforts demonstrate engagement through conversing with what happened. They should realize they are better off having dealt with these kinds of crisis. Lesson learned: let's engage with our customers, not fight them.