Craigslist and the Bad Neighbor Policy

Yesterday evening I picked up an article called Craigslist Don't Be Evil, I can't remember whether it was something I saw on Twitter or why I was reading my feeds.  I think it was through Twitter, but either way the title caught my eye.  The article was written by Romy Maxwell, who is in the process of creating a Web site called Flippity. My understanding of the site is that it would locate Craigslist listing on a map.  They were using Yahoo Pipes to aggregate the data base.  They had contacted Craigslist and told them what they were doing, to make sure it was ok.  At first there appeared to be no problem since the site was noncommercial, however after several emails past back and forth, Craigslist went silent.  The next thing that happen was the Yahoo Pipes that Flippity was using stopped working.  They were simply being directed back to the home page, Craigslist had blocked the Yahoo Pipes.  Fortunately, the creators of Flippity have other options, however it is too bad they had to use them.  


My problem with Craiglist, is not that they blocked Yahoo Pipes, they have every right to block whom ever they want. According to the rumors, Yahoo pipes were blocked because they are very aggressive at hitting sites. However, this reason may or may not be true since Craiglist never said why they were blocking Yahoo Pipes.  This is the first problem I see with Craigslist's action. The second problem that I see based on this article is that they made it appear that everything was ok.  There was no fore warning that there was a problem and that they would have to block Yahoo Pipes.  Luckily for Flippity they are still in development and have other options, however this does not make what Craiglist did  right.  It seems to me that the proper way for Craiglist to handle this would be to notify Flipity, that there was a problem with using Yahoo Pipes, what the problem was and that until that problem was resolve they would have to block Yahoo Pipes.  After all Flippity had specifically contacted Craiglist to make sure using Yahoo Pipes was ok, the least Craiglist could have done was to contact them when it wasn't.  It is sad that companies like Craiglist seem perfectly willing to make arbitrary decisions that effect others without any notification. 

Ads and Twitter

This is a short podcast on my thoughts on ads within the Twitter flow.

Twitter and Ads

Retweet Twitter

I finally got the new retweet function today. So far I am not impress. I don't know how other use retweet, but most of the time I like to add a comment to the end. Even if it's just an amen or that stinks. The new retweet just goes out without allowing any addition. This means noone knows why I retweeted, did I like the tweet or not. Also putting the number people who retweeted the tweet seems to me a way to gurantee abuse or misuse. Besides do I really need to know that.

I would rather have them improve the list function. I would like to be able to do list within list. I also want list to update in real time in the desk application of my choice. I know this is a short post, but I wanted to put down my initial reactions on the retweet option.   If you have the retweet option, what do you think of it?

Twitter: Customer Service Tool for Today and the Future

If you are a company with a customer service department and are not on Twitter, then you are working in the past. Whether your business is on Twitter or not, that is where people are talking about your company. If you don't believe me go to Twitter Search and input the name of your company. Then go and sign up for a Twitter account at Twitter .   

Great now you have an account, Next create a list with your companies name as the keyword. Have at least one person whose main job is to follow that list and response to questions and complaints. Answer questions promptly, even if it just to ask for the person to direct message you so you can get further contact information. Kept the customer updated on your progress if it's going to take sometime. If the customer knows you are working on the problem, they are less likely to get frustrated. After the problem is solved follow up to make sure everything is going all right. Many people will be more likely to express their frustration on Twitter, then they are likely to pick up the phone. A frustration expressed on Twitter can quickly become a tsunami if not handled correctly. However a lot of good will, can also be created when a problem is handled promptly.

This also means that companies will have to find new ways to measure success within their customer service department. The main measurement for most customer service department is talk time and number of calls completed. Obviously, this matrix cannot be use for service done over Twitter, so how do you measure success . That is the problem that companies are just beginning to deal with in the new era of social media. There is great opportunity for the person or company who can solve this problem.   

business, Social media, Twitter