Archive for the 'Web 2.0' Category
Posted by Ted Hopton on November 11, 2008
A former colleague, Keith Dawson, was the editor at Call Center Magazine for years. Sadly, Call Center Magazine fell victim to digital fever and died, but I still remember the phrase Keith coined: Super Empowered Angry Customers.
Super Empowered Angry Customers describes the shift in power that has taken place with the popularity of blogs, video sites such as YouTube, and websites such as “______CompanySucks.com” Companies have always claimed to listen to customers, but in practice many companies have routinely ignored many customers — and when this happened customers had little option beyond taking their business elsewhere.
Now they can take their business elsewhere AND cause a public relations disaster for the company that disappointed them. This has completely changed the dynamic between customers and companies, shifting the balance of power toward the customer to a never-before-seen degree.
So how shall we use our power, people? Will we use it for good or for evil? Every customer is not always right, and not every complaint is justified. It can be a very good thing to have more power, yet history is full of lessons about power being abused. Let’s try to use our power for good.
Posted in Blogs, Customer Sat, Customer Service, Social Media, Web 2.0 | Tagged: call center magazine, keith dawson, super empowered angry customers | No Comments »
Posted by Ted Hopton on August 31, 2008
An experimental Web site allows users to upload the data they want to visualize, then try sophisticated tools to generate interactive displays.
read more | digg story
Posted in Metrics, Web 2.0 | No Comments »
Posted by Ted Hopton on July 29, 2008
A colleague of mine, Manfred Criegee-Rieck, pointed out that Google has launched a new website called Knol. A “knol” is defined there as “a unit of knowledge.” Experts are invited to contribute content by “writing a knol” on any topics they wish.
It’s a Wikipedia-like effort, but with experts-only as authors. I don’t see it as a direct competitor to Wikipedia, because Wikipedia can simply reach into Knol to tap into its knowledge, just as it does every other valuable resource. By definition, an encyclopedia encompasses all knowledge available, so there could well develop a symbiotic relationship between Knol and Wikipedia.
And since Knol is part of Google, Read the rest of this entry »
Posted in Innovation, Web 2.0 | Tagged: Google Knol wikipedia experts | No Comments »
Posted by Ted Hopton on June 30, 2008
To reclaim productivity lost to responding to e-mail, an I.B.M. employee shifted his means of communication to other tools.
I like the idea here. It’s not for everybody, but clearly something has to give. Too many of us spend too much time toiling on email — we aren’t controlling our own schedules or task lists, as we’ve let ourselves be sucked into a Faustian bargain that seems hopeless.
It’s not going to be easy (if it were, we’d all have freed ourselves from email’s tyranny, wouldn’t we?). But if we don’t try new ways to break free, we never will break email’s grip. Try something different!
read more | digg story
Posted in Human Interest, Technology, Web 2.0 | No Comments »
Posted by Ted Hopton on June 24, 2008
I just accepted a new job! I was not looking (really!) but when the job description landed in my email I was stunned. I have never before seen a job description so perfectly tailored to me. Point by point, as I went through it I kept thinking, “yeah, I’ve done that, yeah, I have experience with that, yeah, I want to do that…”
So I went for it, and happily the hiring manager thought I was a good fit for it, too. It’s with the same company, actually: I’m moving from ICMI, which is a part of United Business Media (UBM), to UBM’s corporate entity, specifically in the People and Culture Group (formerly known as Human Resources, formerly known as Personnel).
So what’s the job? UBM Wiki Community Manager. We’re going to be rolling out wiki software and other collaboration tools across the entire enterprise. My job, in a nutshell, Read the rest of this entry »
Posted in Career, ICMI, Web 2.0 | 1 Comment »
Posted by Ted Hopton on June 4, 2008
I’ve long had mixed feelings about instant messaging during the workday. Clearly, there are times when it turns into a time waster. Still, it’s much easier to “kill off” an IM discussion and get back to work than it is if you’ve wandered over to someone’s desk to ask for something.
Social etiquette requires you to make some small talk, inquire about your colleague’s interests, etc. In other words, in person (and on the phone) we should — rightly — interact with peers in a friendly, personal way, because that’s the right way to act. But that’s not terribly efficient, and if you can get the info you need, instead, through a 30-second instant message chat and then get back to work with a quick, “thx so much, ttyl” then I can see Read the rest of this entry »
Posted in Management, Technology, Web 2.0 | No Comments »
Posted by Ted Hopton on May 28, 2008
Nice insights on website re-design for customer’s perspective. OK, this is my last reference to the Conversation Agent blog tonight — three in a row and I’m out. But it’s good stuff.
The Web site of the future may be organized completely in thirds without needing to separate them in a blog, a forum, a customer idea space, and the corporate brochure-ware. Part editorial, part community, and part marketing weaved throughout the site.
read more | digg story
Posted in Design, Marketing, Web 2.0 | No Comments »
Posted by Ted Hopton on May 28, 2008
Wish I had read this good advice from Valeria Maltoni’s Conversation Agent blog before I wrote a bunch of LinkedIn recommendations last weekend, but I’ll certainly keep it in mind for the future. Some good suggestions — I recommend reading the post.
For a recommendation to be useful in a practical way to both the individual recommended and the potential buyer/employer, it needs to answer one main question first: why? Why would you hire him/her instead of someone else? Why would you engage his/her services? It’s because… tell them exactly why.
read more | digg story
Posted in Career, Networking, Web 2.0 | No Comments »
Posted by Ted Hopton on May 26, 2008
Roger Cohen’s NYT column, “The Obama Connection,” starts off with a play on Bill Clinton’s famous line from his first presidential campaign (”It’s the economy, stupid”): “It’s the networks, stupid.” Ironically, it’s Bill’s wife and heir-apparent, Hillary, who is implicitly the “stupid” one this time.
More than any other factor, it has been Barack Obama’s grasp of the central place of Internet-driven social networking that has propelled his campaign for the Democratic nomination into a seemingly unassailable lead over Hillary Clinton. Her campaign has been so 20th-century. His has been of the century we’re in.
I’d already been following Obama’s use of the Internet for fund-raising and organizing and energizing volunteers (see, Adios, Sound Bites & Fat Cats - Obama is Changing Politics and Barack Obama Is Rocking the Youth Vote and Obama Supporters Are Hip and Artistic and Home Agents Calling for Barack Obama). Cohen’s column nicely connects the dots and lets the picture emerge more clearly.
As Joshua Green chronicles in an important piece in The Atlantic, Obama has used social networking and his user-friendly Web site to develop the money machine, and the youthful engagement, that has swept him forward.
So, I found Green’s article, “The Amazing Money Machine,” and read that, too. It’s Read the rest of this entry »
Posted in Innovation, Networking, Politics, Technology, Trends, Web 2.0 | No Comments »
Posted by Ted Hopton on May 8, 2008
Posted in Marketing, Networking, Trends, Web 2.0 | No Comments »
A former colleague, Keith Dawson, was the editor at Call Center Magazine for years. Sadly, Call Center Magazine fell victim to digital fever and died, but I still remember the phrase Keith coined: Super Empowered Angry Customers.
