Recently our CEO responded to some policy concerns by asking us to tell him what policies we thought were stupid, so they could be fixed, or discontinued completely. He called for a “policy purge” and that very day the first policy was killed. And our CEO is NOT out of touch with employees. He sits 40 feet from me in a cubicle just like I do. With the right arc I can nearly hit him with a Nerf dart. Any employee can stop by and chat with him anytime they see him.

One of the key things I have noticed by watching Undercover Boss (and being in business a long time) is just how much valuable information is being lost between the front line troops and middle and upper management. Often the middle managers get the blame for this, but at the end of the day, the CEO runs the company, and has to set the standard for the culture. Open, or closed? Inclusive, or exclusive? Executive restrooms, or does the CEO piss in the same pot I piss in?

Undercover Boss has covered some very arrogant and extravagant CEO’s – and some very down to earth ones. The down to earth ones almost always know their businesses better.  They may not understand every employee’s personal issues, but they get the business. The arrogant ones are out of touch – probably because they are out of reach.

Being disconnected from employees is just as dangerous as being disconnected from your customers. Listening and learning seem to be lost arts in many companies.

As companies become more global and the Internet makes the world more real-time it is more and more difficult for companies to communicate internally. And at the same time we are adding in the complexity of a nearly real-time external communication channel with customers.

This is a LOT for companies to digest and adjust to. Many won’t. But those that invest  in new communication channels will probably get to know their employees and customers much better than those who do not.

Finding the right tool to talk to a lot of customers and/or employees is hard. You may pick the wrong platform, expect people to show up where they do not show up – but you must not give up.

The new world is about rapid communication – and customers and employees both expect it. How they want it delivered is something we are all still figuring out.

Maybe Ray Ozzie knows? He has been as close to getting it right as anyone. And it appears he is still working on it.

I think there is a huge untapped Market that we just are not thinking about.

Because they are not like us.

Having Dave McClure on the same video is just golden – anyone that knows us both knows we share a lot of the same fucking quirks.  Like using bad language inappropriately

I’ve been lucky to meet many members of this group, to include most of the founders, well before this event. What started as a Tweetup has grown into a community of like-minded people that want to help each other raise the bar – to get better at reaching, serving, and satisfying their customers. And to teach each other how to get better – which is the real key. Vibrant communities are built when people care more about US then they do about “me”.

This is a pure grass-roots organization, with no dues, no real rules, but a lot of shared excitement, and curiosity, and a desire to both learn, and to teach.

I was lucky enough to speak at BMPR two months ago, and I had fun with it. I had the dorkiest slide deck ever because I’m not a fan of slides. I would rather “talk story”, as they say down under.

So for three years, almost, I have been talking about this company I work for, and how amazing it is. And I know some people were probably getting tired of it, because it just sounded like me beating a corporate drum. But last Thursday a lot of my friends got to come and see why I love talking about who I work for.

It is not a perfect place, but it is most often a magical place. Being able to share that with 100+ of my friends, and the friends of my friends was really cool. I was pretty proud to have them see what we did with an old shopping mall – how we turned it into a very comfortable home for Fanatical Support to live – and grow.

Managing over 100 guests at a time, to include a tour through offices with a thousand or more people actually doing their day jobs isn’t something many companies would welcome. My bosses supported the idea from the first email I sent that asked, “What if…?”.

They were so in sync with me on my desire to just show off a little bit of what we are building – we are not done by any means – both our mall (The Castle) and our company are still expanding very quickly. They had no clue who BMPR was – they just knew it was important to me. Important enough that a member of the senior leadership team took some time to welcome people, and stayed around for most of the session.

I’ve been a Rackspace customer for a long time – and approaching being an employee for three years.  The things Rackspace has let me do – the ideas they have let me pursue; the chances they have let me take…  It really is a different kind of company.  Where the Chairman might call me at 12:30 am if that is the only time we can find to talk, or I might have a 1:1 dinner with the CEO.  Where a Social Media team is built off of engineers and not marketing.  Where one over-riding goal of “Be Helpful” permeates everything we try to do.

Where a great idea can get funded if you are passionate enough to pursue it.

That doesn’t happen in a lot of companies our size.  It is a little magic. And I’m glad I can invite in guests that can get a bit of a sense of that magic.

Everything starts with community.  From the way we are building our company to why BMPR matters.

If you want to make your life more full – get involved with your community.  There are some amazing people out there wiling to both learn and teach you.  Find them.  They are looking for you too.

We all need each other.

Thanks so much to my friends in BMPR for letting me show you a bit of my world – and for sharing so much of yours with the rest of us.

Note – edited to link to my dorky slide set, per request.

1 – Wear the most comfortable pair of walking shoes you own.  Do NOT go buy a new pair of shoes now – it is too late to break them in and make sure they are comfortable.  Find that ugly old pair of sneakers in the back of your closet if you must.  Comfort is critical.  You will walk miles and be on your feet 18+ hours a day (if you are doing it right!).

2 – Don’t shake hands.  Fist bump if you must, but so many people coming from all over the world bring in flu strains your body won’t be expecting.  Better safe than sorry (and I’ve been sorry more times than safe, I am afraid).  I also don’t recommend using hand sanitizer right after you shake hands with the CEO of that great company you just met – might send the wrong message

3 – Chapstick rocks.

4 – Don’t carry anything that you can’t fit in your pockets.  You will either regret you did and/or lose it. After 18 hours you will hate that “comfortable” backpack.

5 – Be wary of the weather and pack accordingly.  You will be outside a lot.  And sometimes the weather even comes inside (like it did at our party last year when the roof leaked!). If it is hot, a big floppy hat is a lifesaver. Doubles as an umbrella.

6 – The only thing I carry besides my wallet and iPhone (and the charger) is a bottle of water.

7 – Use FourSquare – that’s how you can find the stuff that isn’t in the official program.

8 – Take advantage of the hallway track.  Some of the best friendships and business deals are made informally in the halls of the convention center.

9 – Party well.  By that I mean have fun, but pace yourself.  There are a lot of parties and a lot of people.  And everyone has a camera phone.  If you end up in a viral video on YouTube, make sure it is for the right reasons!

10 – If you are with others always set a few times and places to meet back up each day in case you get separated.  AT&T did much better with cell coverage/reliability last year than the year before, but relying only on your phone may leave you alone.

Bonus!  See my session!

Got some more helpful tips?  Add them in the comments!

This is a challenge to NOT be normal, not be boring, and not let life just happen.

We aim to change the world.

One URL at a time, or one customer at a time – doesn’t matter to me.  I am here to matter in a company that matters.

I am here to help other Rackers change the world.  And that is not “normal”.

That was before I came to work for Rackspace.  Recently Hugh was in San Antonio, and he toured our corporate headquarters in a once abondoned 1.2+ million square foot shopping mall.  He saw the worlds largest (certified by Guinness!) Word Search puzzle.  He saw the only known functioning escalators in a hosting company’s offices.  We had a good time, and later went out for some BBQ with a few Rackers, and guests from the community.  It was a great day.

While he was here, Hugh and I started discussing him doing something involving Rackspace.  Working with a number of other Rackers (Rackspace employees), we decided that we wanted Hugh to focus on what we are most proud of – what makes our company unique, and why the number of employees has doubled since I joined 26 months or so ago, and why our customer count has risen just as quickly – even in a down economy.

So here is his first cartoon – and I really enjoy it.  I thank Hugh for making this one special as my very own personal “cube grenade”

Our motto is “Fanatical Support” – which is based on our unique culture.

This is the first in a series of cartoons, blog posts, etc that explore why culture is important to us, and why a culture of service – to each other, to customers, and to our community is so important to our success.

I am hoping this series starts a conversation about culture, and service.  So feel free to comment!

Hugh’s original post is here.

Rob

I’ve never done a good job explaining WHAT I do on a day to day basis. I am sure some coworkers will be just as interested as anyone. In a company of over 3K employees, it is hard to know what people do. Especially people like me. Why?

I work at home most of the time. I manage a nomadic team, so they don’t need me in their faces every day. I trust them to do their jobs, and they trust me to let them. And when I work at home, I work with customers. A lot of them.

I am also part of a larger team that understands that I add a different value – one I can’t add in an office. Usually, at least . I trust them to appreciate me, and to ask me for help when they need to. And I often ask them for the same. They are amazing people to work with, and they have a ton of my respect.

I spend my days, and nights (on good days and nights) talking to customers. Or potential customers. I love what I do, and who I do it for, so I spend a lot of time and energy doing it. I honestly don’t mind talking to a customer at 2am. 6am is harder for me though .

I run Social Media for our company. And that is a pretty big job – we get a lot of mentions on Social Media. Our entire Social Media plan consists of two words though – “Be Helpful”. Not a lot of fluff there. No 37 slide PowerPoint Deck. We are singularly focused on helping our customers win. No fluff there.

I love customers – even one’s that aren’t happy with us – I spend a lot of time with them. I try to “fix” whatever we broke. A promise or a process has probably failed us. We are a big company – that happens. I want to fix it. It is not my job – it is my passion. My team has adopted it as their passion.

I’m empowered to cause change – and I empower my employees. And I have interesting employees. I have AMAZING employees, in fact:

Two Linux Senior Systems engineers that know more about hosting than I will ever know. Robert (Robot) Taylor and Robert Collazo have spent most of their technical careers helping customers.

Robert Scoble and Rocky Barbanica, who bring life to building43.com, and introduce us to amazing people that just need a bit of help by someone that just gives more than a shit. That’s why we do building43.com – it is helpful.

Yes – I have a team of five, and four of us are named Robert. And we have one Rocky. It DOES get confusing!

But we all have the same focus – to care for customers, share their successes, and help them build the value they deliver to their customers – that is our goal – we all win together. And it is our commitment. It is so simple.

And it is so fun! If you are not having fun, you are doing it wrong.

We have a different thought about “Social Media” than many public companies. We think we need to have a staff that knows the company and the products so well that they can actually FIX issues we see on Social Media. And we do. I am the former Director of Software Development for our Cloud. Robot and Rob Collazo are engineers that have built and supported our company for years. No fluff there either.

We also support and appear at as many events as we can possibly support. As recruiters, engineers, evangelists, speakers – it is all the same thing. We want to be where customers want to talk to us. And if that is on Twitter at 2am, you have a good chance of seeing me tweet my home phone number. Or one of my team reaching out to make sure we help, at almost any hour.

So yes – I love my role. I can touch a lot of parts of the business. But mostly, I can interact with a huge number of our customers – and help us find new ones. Mostly because I have a lot of people supporting me – from my employees, to my managers, to my coworkers.

And our Senior Leadership Team that is just willing to “think different” – and allow me to try some crazy ideas, (responsibly) and see where they take us.

And where they take me – which is to places I would not have imagined just 2 years ago when I went from a customer to an evangelist.

Find a company you love. Then find a job there. Then find a way to help them win. It is an amazing feeling.

You really can’t hire people that have the dedication my team has. You can inspire them, and empower them – trust them, and have fun with them. The right people weren’t looking for a job when they found you though.

They were looking for a mission.

Create one.

More than I wanted a J.O.B. – I wanted to change the world.

And here I find myself, at 4am, not being able to sleep – even though I need to be on a flight to Boulder in 4 hours.  I’m too excited to sleep – oh, I tried!  But every few minutes I would find myself peeking once more at the OpenStack Twitter Account (@OpenStack) – wondering if the hits were still coming in (they are) – and assuring myself this is real (it is!).

We’ve been hard at work for the last several years – working towards that end. Today, I think we have helped change the world.

By open-sourcing the second most popular Cloud Computing platform on the planet, I think we’ve just changed the world. Hell, by partnering with NASA, we may actually be changing more than this world. (I can imagine OpenStack running on the Moon, and on Mars!)

The list of partners is impressive – go look at http://openstack.org. There are a lot of forward thinkers on that list – and they are company I am proud to be in.

Mostly though, I am proud of the company I work for. This is a bold move by a Leadership team that has demonstrated exceptional thought leadership in our space. In the two short years I have been with the company we have more than doubled our customer count, drastically increased the number of servers and data-centers we have, and made bold moves in many other areas.

I’m sure there will be a lot of discussions and a lot of questions about our decision (there were plenty of internal ones!) – but I am confident that at the end of the day, a truly open cloud that is already in production will better serve the world – a cloud that has proven its ability to scale and serve real customers.

It is a great day to be a Racker. I’m very proud of what we have done, and what we will continue to do to change the world – one (open) code drop at a time!

Come join us at OpenStack – change the world with us.  Change your world!

I DO cause problems.  I question much, raise hell often, and bitch perhaps too often.

It is amazing I still even have a job.

That is part of why I love where I work – I KNOW I am difficult.  But I almost always raise hell for a customer.  So I almost always get a “pass” for being an ass.

And I don’t have any internal agenda except “I want to make customers happy”.

Almost always my company backs me and supports what I am trying to do.  But sometimes (gasp!) I am wrong.

And I love when they call me on that.  Nothing builds a functional group like honest communication does.  Nothing destroys it more quickly than NOT talking.

Confusion and disarray is the worst thing you can have in any company – and it gets worse in a public company,

I appreciate that I have thousands of Rackers all ready to call BS on me.  It keeps all of us honest.

It keeps me honest – and focused on customers.

Are your employees and customers helping keep you honest?  Or do they just not care?

Do YOU care anymore?

I’m going to start managing Social Media for third parties.  I’ve already obtained a lot of useful twitter handles that I think will drive business, like @comcastreallyreallyreallyfreakingcares and @buyafordbecausetheywontkillyoulikeToyotawill and @Ilovethefactthatwalmartletsmespendmoneyintheirstores

The really long twitter names are not an accident.  I really don’t want to work too hard on this stuff and really long names give me even less characters to “share” with your customers – who really don’t care who I am except for the value I add to you.  Besides – you pay me by the character so I am saving you a TON of money since I charge only 75% on the characters in the handle (LIMITED TIME OFFER!)!

I want a check and I am measuring my worth by dollars/character – so short conversations mean I make more – which adds value to you.  And if I make more I know my customers are happier.  Because that is what motivates them – making me happy.  And that is how your business wins, and gets to that next amazing level – of making me happy.

But it is all about the customer – so I hope I get a couple.  Especially some with money, because they rock.

I want to help you sell more stuff to your customers.  I have Twitter bots, spambots, robots, and ding-bats all ready to help me help you help your business grow!

I’m an online social media expert. I am a wizard at talking to your customers.  I will make you millions and take only about half of it. Sometimes I take less than more than half.  Call me – I am open to almost anything that moves money from you to me!

That is just the way I guru it.

Together we are twice as good as I am without your money!

Please feel free to contact me with proposals that gain me more than 50% of your company – but sorry – I don’t accept debt anymore.  I’m so beyond that!  So make sure you at least make enough money to pay me enough to make you look amazing and make me feel marvelous.  If you underpay me you will be perceived as weak.  And in some cultures with a small penis.  Go big or stay home.

And if you just don’t have time to talk to me, but want the benefits of working with me, just send some money to kr8tr on PayPal and we’ll both be happier. And your investors will be amazed by what you have accomplished!

And don’t forget - I don’t make money unless I take money from you.  Really! 

I guarantee it!

This should be an amazing new stage in my career – and in your business.  Prove it to yourself – take that first step now.  SEND ME MONEY.  The results won’t be measurable but they are guaranteed.

BTW – I am currently offering a 1% discount (on pseudo-services only) to anyone that gets me an iPad before 05APR10.

There are, as I write this, over 330 results.  This morning there were ten – and all related to “did you mean ‘hosting for haiti’?”

No, I meant hostingforhaiti, or the twitter hash-tag “#hostingforhaiti” – over 325 results.

Ten hours CAN make a difference.  In ten hours we got 15 hosting companies (my industry – and full disclosure, I work for Rackspace) together for a great cause.

Each company is donating in their own way – and at a level they can tolerate – but is also blogging about this, Tweeting about it – posting on Facebook and other sites, and getting both customers and employees involved.  How big will it get?  I don’t know.  Bigger than it is now, I hope – yet I am still happy with what it is now.  That is a LOT of money in Haiti and the Red Cross will spend it well.

And that is just pretty damn cool.

We’ve raised thousands and thousands of dollars and we have barely started.

And now that we all know each other – who knows what we can do next?

I like to imagine a lot.  I like the good in people.

Check the site out.  Give a little, gain a lot.

I’ve also met great friends – and had great fun along the way.  Twitter is a Petri dish – you can feed in an idea and in seconds you can see if it is growing, or ignored.  If it is growing, nurture it – otherwise butcher it.

That was Twitter just six months ago.  Recently Twitter spam-bots are killing the effectiveness of customer communication on Twitter – they generate too much noise.  They also distort the conversation by gaming the “trending topics”.

I want Twitter to solve these problems, and I am willing to pay them to do so.  As someone that helps manage a “brand” I need Twitter to take my money, and help me.

Simple business model for Twitter. Hard for them to do, I think – it doesn’t seem to be their focus.  But if Twitter could help companies manage their brands – fairly – by killing the spam-bots and enabling real conversation – well, companies will pay for that.

But guess what, Twitter – if you want corporate dollars, you have to add tools to help us manage the message.  Quickly.

Even if that is as simple as killing the trending topics bots – which I think you MUST do anyway to survive.  I can’t believe anyone enjoys that crap filling their feeds.  We just don’t have time for it.  And if you can’t contain it – we won’t have time for Twitter.

Twitter needs to build me something I feel good buying.  And if that is a business level product that quickly kills spam-bots, highlights conversations about the brand I care about and gives me back the ability to join a relevant conversation – then I’ll pay for it.

This fake human was in a hurry, on her cell phone, and evidently far too important to be kept waiting – and she SHOVED an elderly woman!

When I helped the woman regain her balance (and yelled at the fake human) the nice old lady looked at me and smiled, and said, “That’s ok, son.  Sometimes people are just no damn good”.  While it startled me to hear it come from her – I also realized it was a truism.  We see it in athletes, TV personalities, and many others.

Even in bloggers – ESPECIALLY in bloggers.

A recent case is when a mother lost a two year old child to drowning and reached out to her friends – her network.  Her support structure.  Those friends happened to be on Twitter, and this grieving mother was chastised and second-guessed by people that are “just no damned good”.  At a time this woman needed friends and support more than ever a small army of (mostly, from what I can tell), “I am a better mommy blogger than you are” fake humans attacked her and accused her of horrendous things.  Like causing her child’s death because she was on Twitter and not watching the child.

I’m sorry.  You can stick your “better than me” attitude right up your (choose an orifice).

A mother lost a child.  And “better” mothers were mean, and cruel and uncaring.

Sometimes people are just no damned good.

And shame on them for it.

I was wrong.  Twitter lists matter NOW– regardless of client support.  They are both searchable and subscribe-able.  That makes them important.

Why?  Because companies own and cultivate “brands” – a personae.  And Twitter Lists may just disrupt that in interesting ways.

Example – it is fairly easy for me to find “lists” of companies I use (or compete against, or admire – whatever).  The point is – there is no longer such a thing as a “Corporate Twitter Persona”.  It is now the total of the personas of all of your employees.  For good or bad.

Now I am not following the corporate entity alone – I am watching everyone associated with the entity.

Your corporate brand is now affected by every person subscribed to, or added to a LIST about your brand.

This is a bit of a game changer.

It’ll take a different mindset.  Not sure it can be “managed”, but pretty sure it needs to be acknowledged.

When you have more servers than almost anyone in the world, you can host a lot of sites.  Hosting them is one thing – servicing them is another issue completely.

We are a hosting company with a service problem.  See – we just love serving customers.  Sure, we serve billions (or more) web pages a year – but we do that by focusing on serving customers. People serving people.  Sounds simple.

There are a lot of companies in our line of work.  There are very few of them that are entirely focused on our line of work though (some also sell books, or operating systems, or girls with hardly no clothing hawking domain names,  or search results, etc).  And fewer still that have been committed to a quality customer experience for as long as we have.  Or at all.

Our chairman likes to play a little “trick” when he does public speaking events.  He asks for a volunteer from the audience that has a cell phone.  Then he gives them the general dial in number to our offices.  And he asks, “What do you hear”?  It is always a human – and almost always within three rings. I put “trick” in quotes because it really isn’t a trick – we answer the phone.  With humans.  Humans in one of our offices – customer experience and trust is something we care far too much about to entrust to a third party call center – or the endless loop of auto-attendant hell, “Your business is important to us.  Please stand by.  Your business is important to us,  Please stand by”.

Human interaction is what we do.  It is our core business.

So how do you grow a “service company” in these times?  It’s manpower intensive!  Everyone seems to be cutting back, yet we keep investing in people.  Sure, we’re buying a heck of a lot of servers as well – but our investment is in people – as it always has. People grow our business.  People are the foundation of our business.  People are the future of our business.

The economy is tough, yet we have continued to grow.  Why?  Because we are cheaper?  We aren’t.  In fact – you do pay a premium when you entrust us with your website, your business application, or your remote file storage.  Why?  Because you aren’t just buying a service or a server – you are buying good old fashioned service.  The kind gas stations used to give, and bed and breakfasts still offer.  The human touch.

So we cost more – how are we growing?   It’s really simple.  People are willing to pay to not have to worry about things.  Daycare, dog-walking, pick-up and drop off dry cleaning – they all work off this same premise.  It isn’t rocket science – but it is rather tricky to pull off.  It certainly doesn’t just happen.  It takes a commitment at every level of the company – from the newest hire to the most senior Exec.

And scaling it is even more interesting.  Growing from 1000 to 3000 employees in a matter of a couple years isn’t easy – ask anyone that’s done it.  Unless it is an assembly line (and even then I argue it is difficult) it tends to dilute your culture – and your level of service.

How do you avoid that? (it sounds really ugly!).

Well it is ugly – and it can poison a company if it’s not managed.  By people (again, that people thing?).

Culture isn’t something you can just claim.  It isn’t something you can just train.  It isn’t something you can just “invest in”.  It is something you live – by the experienced teaching the inexperienced.  By customers reminding us when we stray.  By looking back at those 6 year old videos and realizing that what we want to be tomorrow is what we were yesterday – a service company full of great people building a great company that is fun, and entertaining, and educational.  For employees AND customers.

And always, always truly helping customers.

But you have to start with loving to be “helpful”.  That is a powerful word that your customers will respect.

Anyway, here are some of my pointers:

• You are hyper-connected, and loving it that way.  You are “always” online, even when it isn’t really appropriate.
• You know your customers.  Better yet, you used to BE one of your companies customers!
• You know the customer community.
• You love fixing things.
• You don’t mind “being the bad guy/girl” if that’s what it takes to satisfy a customer.
• You are technical in the field you are supporting.  If it’s a writing site/company, you should be a writer.  Know your audience and you will have a respectable voice.
• Develop an online persona for yourself/company .  It can be your own, if that is appropriate.  It can be a merging of yours and your companies core values.  But it must be genuine, and it must be constant.
• Make friends with your customers.  Work for them more than you work for anyone else.
• Remember that you are also changing the way your company thinks/feels about customer outreach.  Don’t forget to reach within early and often.  Get advocates on your side.  Find those others that are already doing your role in an ad-hoc way, and embrace them.  Educate them.  Encourage them.  USE them

If you aren’t having fun – you are definitely not in the right position – get out of it quickly!

I love customers. Hate cameras. I’ve always focused on making sure the focus is on someone else.

So how in the heck did I get nominated for several panels at SXSW Interactive? Blame it on the PR machine I do.  And they spelled my name wrong – it is “La Gesse”

But whatever – it is what it is – and I love these panels. I could talk about most of this in my sleep so I think my stage fright will be overcome quickly (besides, when Scoble works for you, you damn well better not be afraid of cameras!)

So what are the panels?

Glad you asked – here they are:

OMG My Customer Has a Megaphone

Companies used to get away with treating customers like livestock with no repercussions, but now customers have a megaphone: the social web, and they’re not afraid to use it. Hear from Rackspace and other customer-centric companies as they share real case studies and tips about how to embrace Customer Service 2.0

Building and Creating New Business Models in the Cloud

New models for product development and marketing using social media tools and techniques which truly engage users, partners and developers are emerging. Join Lew Moorman and Robert Scoble from Rackspace who will discuss Building43, a new online community breaking down barriers to new ideas for business, and changing the world.

Managing a Crisis in a Hyper-Communicative World

Today, crisis can spread like a disease, mutating and growing as it goes, and wreaking havoc on your reputation, customer base and sales pipeline. How can you take back control, not only for the benefit of your organization, but to best guide your customers and investors through the situation?

I am most interested in the second one, but most excited to talk about the third one.  And I love the first one

I am a customer guy – so I love all of these.  I would relish doing ANY of them.  I would probably be overwhelmed if I had to do all of them!

Voting supposedly closed today, but rumor has it that you have until Monday.  Doesn’t matter.  I planned this post for AFTER voting was closed because I’m just not that “whore myself out” kinda guy (except on Twitter, where I have damned near begged for votes!). OK, perhaps I am.  Whatever

If you are interested in SXSW – or me, or Rackspace, or customers – go see if you can still vote!  Click a link above.

Rob

Today I started unfollowing people that weren’t adding any value to my social graph.  I am sure I made some mistakes, and unfollowed a few people I should not have – if that is true in your case – if we know each other, please email me and I will follow you back.

I am doing this manually, one account at a time – so I am trying to be careful.  I meet so many people in so many different contexts though – I am sure I will unfollow someone I didn’t mean to.

Don’t take it personally.  E-Mail me and I will add you back.

So – why?  Noise.  I used to enjoy Twitter, when I could have a conversation on Twitter.  Then I followed too many, and it ALL became noise.  The people I wanted to hear were lost in the clutter.

So I started relying only on Twitter Search – which only showed me what *I* was interested in, and not what each of you were interested in.  Again – much less fun – but at least manageable.  But I lost the value of your inputs.  The conversation disappeared.

So now I am going back to a “thin-stream” – a stream of input from people I know, admire, like, and/or trust.

I thinned several hundred accounts out today, and will continue to do so – one account at a time, through personal inspection.  Until I have a feed stream I think I can manage (perhaps 500-1000 people).

Sorry if I stepped on any toes.

Twitter was just becoming useless to me as a tool to keep track of what my friends were talking about.  I miss that.

Rob

It actually is a mess.  Amazon, a company that doesn’t talk to their customers bought a company that is renowned for talking to their customers.

What?

Why would they?  Perhaps they know they have something to learn about being a “people business”.

Werner Vogels, CTO of Amazon made that pretty clear to me with this blog post from several days ago.  Link is at the end of this post, excerpt is as follows:

Once a year however we take a moment to make sure that everyone who wants to give their input into the direction of the Amazon Web Services has the opportunity to do so.

Once a year?  Really?  That is not a “people business”.  That isn’t really even trying.  That is a poor effort at outreach – even by Amazon standards.

How often does my employer measure engagement and or satisfaction?  After every chat, or call.  Or ticket.  By being active on Twitter – because our customers are there.  By providing real people to talk to 24/7 – people that can actually help.  People.

By answering the phone when our customers call.  By caring for each of them as if they were our largest customer.

We also bring a lot of customers to the Rackspace HQ every year to help us learn how to get better.  And our CEO puts his number out on Twitter.  People.

You can build a business on technology – I’ve learned that.  But you build a following through people.

Tony Hsieh knows that.  Perhaps Amazon is looking to learn something here.  Let’s hope!

Good luck, Zappos – you got a lot of educating to do!

“Feedback for Amazon Web Services“