Jan

24

Human aggregators of the web

Filed Under Culture, Social Media, Web | Comments

“We are all human aggregators now,” says Nick Bilton from the New York Times. While I’m sure he was simply trying to make his point stand out, it’s important for heavy social media users to keep in mind that our behavior is not the norm. There is, however, definitely a gradual increase in the amount of effort people are putting into information sharing. The latest research from Forrester and Altimeter Group confirms this.

Forrester claims that 24% of us are now creators, 33% of us are conversationalists, and 20% of us are collectors. If you add those up, you reach about 75% of the web crowd who have fully adopted social technology. This can be summed up as “most of us”, but it’s certainly not all of us. To compare, a couple years ago conversationalists weren’t even recognized on the social ladder while creators were at 13% and collectors at 15%.

Altimeter Group’s latest findings also suggest about 60% of us are sharing information to “support others” and “demonstrate knowledge”.

This got me thinking about why I collect and share the most interesting things I come across (online through Facebook/Twitter/IM/Blog and offline through word-of-mouth).

These 3 reasons are also why I enjoy the serendipitous nature of social networks most and have a great level of respect for others who are great aggregators, curators, and conversationalists. It’s also the reason why sites like Digg and Buzzfeed along with Twitter will continue to be relevant and evolve at helping us filter the web.

Update: A good excerpt from @ivanovitch’s post titled “Getting Past Viral” over at Big Spaceship’s Think blog:

People share things for their own reasons, not ours. When consumers tell friends about a brand, they’re not trying to help the brand; they’re trying to help their friends. At the same time, they’re also making a statement about themselves and the recipient: “I want you to understand that I found this interesting, and believe you will too.” When we want consumers to share things, we need to focus on understanding and supporting their motives, rather than pretending consumers can be convinced to do something for our benefit.

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Apr

28

Few more thoughts on Zappos

Filed Under Culture, Customer Service, Innovation, Management | Comments

On the May cover of Inc. magazine right now is an article called “Why Everybody Loves Zappos“. If you are a blogger or just very active online, you have probably already been hearing a ton about Zappos and their CEO, Tony Hsieh. The main reason I enjoyed this article is because it gives us a more in-depth look into the company culture and Tony’s personality. You know a company is consistently innovating when you find yourself learning something new every time you read or watch something about it. Did you know that Zappos managers are required to spend 10-20% of their time messing around with the employees they manage?

To get an even better idea of what Zappos looks like on the inside without reading up or taking a tour of their headquarters in Las Vegas, take a look at their YouTube Channel (where most of the videos are employee generated). At the moment, I can’t think of any other company that is empowering employees to use social media in this way (like Twitter). I already knew about the employee parades, but who knew they had a head shaving day? I think there is obviously a lot to learn about this approach of running a fast growing company with such a high level of transparency and giving employees this much freedom.

I wonder if Tony predicted how much attention and consistently great PR Zappos would get for operating the way they do. Why is it that I have blogged about them not one, or two, but three times now? It’s well known that they hit $1 billion in revenue last year and only recently have they started to actually spend money on TV advertising.

Make sure to read the full Inc. article here. Also check out my other post Happy employees get their own book and Robert Scoble’s recent post summarizing his visit to the company’s headquarters.

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Feb

16

Happy employees get their own book

Filed Under Culture, Management, Misc | Comments

I recently came across another video with Zappos CEO, Tony Hsieh, being interviewed informally by web entrepreneur Loic Le Meur. The interview, which is 20 minutes long and was recorded during the TED conference, can be found on YouTube.

In this interview, Tony Hsieh talks about the several ways the company differentiates itself (many of which are widely known but others not). He also goes on to mention that Zappos releases a book every year called The Culture Book that consists of authentic employee responses when they are asked what the Zappos culture means to them. I got a hold of this year’s book by emailing Tony. After browsing the book and reading through some of the responses, you immediately get the feeling that Zappos employees are very proud of working for the company no matter what position they hold (book is organized by departments).

So why put this book together? The answer to that is not clear, but the book says it does get “distributed to employees, prospective employees, business partners, and even some customers.” So that alone should tell you it’s very likely used as an effective way of recruiting new employees and further proving to the business world that Zappos is onto something.

Your employees are happy and they are not afraid to tell their story, why wouldn’t you want everyone to know?

Besides this interview, there is already tons of discussion on what differentiates Zappos as a company and now as a major brand, but I keep finding myself amazed at how seriously they take employee and customer satisfaction and how open they are with sharing their reasons for success. Tony’s presentation from a conference last year on how they got to $1 billion is sales is even available on Slideshare.

When I posted about the Zappos Culture book on Twitter, Julio Fernandez (@SocialJulio) replied with this important question:

Whatever happens, I think the Zappos story is becoming more valuable as time goes on and as they continue growing with very little marketing. Email Tony to get a free copy of The Culture Book (he replied to me within a few hours and I had the book in 2 days) or buy a copy on their site.

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