BlogMeme

Now is Gone by Geoff Livingston is a great high-level primer on the social media landscape for budding startup web-based applications. For the entrepreneurs, I came away with the following lessons:

• You’re in a dialogue with your community. You’re only one stakeholder in a community that involves your customers, investors, and others. That being said, don’t look to manage the message, because you can’t. If you get slammed by a major blog, deal with it graciously. Most don’t, and therefore don’t understand the basic principles of social media. Managing message out. Listening in!
• If you’re unsure about that, listen first. Before you participate and intend to start blogging about your company, start listening first. If it’s too rough out there, you really don’t have to start participating in the conversation around your product or site. In some cases, no participation is better than really bad participation.
• Human feedback is important. You have to have human, distinctive, empathetic voice in helping your users tackle problems. All too often, startup websites disappear from their blog, and the replies to support emails are impersonal. Your customer wants to know that you care in a very human way.

In reading this book, the great, simple takeaway message is start listening and talking to your customers, and treat them as a stakeholder in your success. Answer their concerns, as if you were having a face-to-face discussion with them. Be credible. Don’t fall into the old public relations strategy of controlling the message, and trying to keep a hard front in troubled times. Be straightforward and honest always. If you’re interested in reading it, please do. It’s a short, quick read.