Of all the social media tools out there, I prefer FaceBook. Probably because it’s the first social networking site I started using and I’m pretty comfortable with it.
Having just returned from my high school reunion, I’ve been on FB a lot posting photos, confirming new (old) friends, etc. Tonight, I saw an Open Letter from the Founder Mark Zuckerberg. I clicked on the link, went to the FB Blog and read about his vision to improve an ever expanding FB. They just broke through 350 million users and he openly talked about what their plans are to handle that many users.
What I saw at the bottom of his blog blew my mind. Within an hour of the letter being posted, 7,859 users gave him a thumb’s up ‘like’. Another 7,395 posted a comment. Some were asking for new features, others criticizing existing features and begging they be fixed or improved.
Here’s the founder of a company with 350 million users talking directly to his customer base and getting immediate feedback. Forget surveys and focus groups. This guy heard right from the horse’s mouth what his they think about his ideas.
Even though I read many negative comments, it didn’t seem all that negative to me. It left an impression that people really use this platform, they know it intimately, they want it to work for them, and they have an opinion! Incredible.
At Unique Venues, we’ve tossed around rating systems for venues by planners and reviews by groups and planners. We’ve always been a little gun shy about it for fear that someone might blast one of our member venues or us. This letter and approach is making me second guess that approach. If you’ve got a good product, you really care about your customers and you want to improve your product for them, then what’s the problem?
Become a fan of Unique Venues on FB so we can share our new ideas with you and more importantly, you can let us know what you think! Or take a minute and share your thoughts and comments right here, right now.