wikiSquared

There's social - and then there's bothersome

It's easy to pillory the excesses of the past.  We are, after all, "smarter THIS time."  Yeah, well ...

Story from a year ago: 

I'd been talking with a client who'd come to me with the request for advice for 'a simple web site.'  This person is involved with a mom-and-daughter candy and gift store in a touristy/summer-vacation kind of place within driving distance of Chicago.  Her idea was to have pictures of the shop, some of the gifts, a table with a pot of tea and scones set for a snack, maybe a shot of the Wisteria on the trellis outside the front door.

I listened patiently and started to wind up for my General Speech To The Unenlightened.  In words adjusted to those listening, my points run from (1) static information is just that - unchanging, (2) people have found that communities that surround products and services are compelling, (3) the tools to build and nurture this kind of Collective Some range from tagged blog entries and wikis, to slightly dumbed-down versions of Content Management Systems.  

I was just about to start when the owner smiled, looked me in the eye, and said "before you say anything, lemmie tell you a story."

And - sure enough - she did.  She told me that she and her daughter had been somewhat successful for the first few years (well, they paid the rent) and along the way a whole lot of people had asked for 'their card.'  The standard business card - shop name, phone, address.  Well, the shopkeeper had to admit - they'd never thought they needed one.  SO - off went a request for a 1000-cards-for-$21.95 deal ... and that was that.  

As far as she knew, no-one ever *used* that card - but they had one - because ...   because everyone had one.

And so it was with a fax number.  The little gift shop had one ... because ... well, because EVERYONE had one ...

I pointed out an internet presence was more like having a phone in the store than having a business card, and her reply was that 99% of all calls had to do with store hours or location.  Period.

So I modified my Standard Speech -- and half way through I said "look, this can go two ways.  I can help you create a site that could help create a whole lot of community buzz around this shop -- but it would it would be hard work , and probably time away from shop customers, to keep in interesting.  OR, we could have a site that was more like a brochure - simple facts, store hours, location and pictures."

Honestly, I was disappointed when she chose the static page.  

A year later, I get a call.

Business is up.  Sales up.  Profits are up.  The landlord signed a longer-term lease - locking in a good rate.  Her main supplier is offering discounts. Sooooo..... I kidded her about my urging her to go with the sexy social computing platform.

Oh Tom ... it isn't the site.  I have a good location.  Lots of foot traffic.  More people are staying close to home this year.  I have good prices and I truly enjoy talking with customers.  It's *just that simple*.

And sometimes it is.  We - those of us who pride ourselves on our wiki smarts, our collaborative venue experience, our ties with people doing very very leading edge stuff - we tend to forget a whole lot of business is straight forward.  

We would do well to be less technologically arrogant from time to time.

A question of style

Here's one of those little consultant-secrets:  clients come to you with what they believe to be problems unique to their companies, but, in fact, they're often one of a remarkably small set of things you hear about time after time.  

The one on my mind has to do with questions of style.  In this case, the styles of writing that seem to engender *more* writing, *more* interaction. (which is, after all, what you want ... isn't it?)

A story.  

Years ago I was responsible for steering the creation of an online conversational space at a big company -- big as in global in reach and, oh, 40-some thousand people.  There's no need to pick on the company by name, but, let it be known this was a culturally conservative place.  Having said that, they still invited me to join their ranks to help develop this conversational forum.  

All the mechanicals were in place, and after what people would now refer to as a 'soft launch' - people started visiting 'our' site.  And they started introducing themselves.  I remember one in particular:  "My name is Martin J., I've been with this company for 5 years.  During that time I've moved through the following areas. (a long list followed).  At those groups, reporting to A, B, C, D (he named the VPs he'd reported to), we accomplished x, y, and z.  Currently , I m working out of the Albany office, on the M project."

Now .. it just so happens I knew this guy pretty well.  He was a friend of a friend, and we'd chatted at a couple of company 'events,' and he'd been in groups of people I'd had dinner with.  Good guy.  And - anything but button-down. 

I phoned him and said "hey, M, what's the story here.  NO-one really cares which project you worked on - what they DO want to know is stuff about you  -- about your swim team, about the fact that you just bought a greystone in the city, about you Italian grandmother's incredible basil garden.  You know .... STUFF."  He laughed, said that was very *un-company-like* but that he'd re-do it.  

The style caught on.  People started introducing themselves in ways that often broke down stuffy boundaries.  We got to see each other as people with smart ideas (or, at least, passionate about certain ideas) and, over time, the entire forum benefited from that informality.

At one point the conversational space was described in a way that I'll forever be proud of.  It was described as "rabble-y and irreverent -- but NEVER irrelevant."

Our social computing spaces could do worse.