Movin' On...

Hey all -- remember me? It's been a little hectic the past couple weeks, but I have a good reason why:

I got a new job.

I'm the newest Online Marketing Manager at The Motley Fool (www.fool.com). "Wait a second," you're thinking to yourself, "Didn't you mention The Fool in a previous post?" Yes, I did. I'll fill you in on the details of that later, but meanwhile, I wanted to let everyone know I'm still alive. A lot of interesting stuff has been happening in the past couple weeks that I want to talk about, but first need to make sure I wrap things up at DelCor properly and prepare for my new job. More to come, stay tuned.

Future Posts:

• Apple: Finally listening to their customers? Opening iPhones up to 3rd party apps.
• Comcast: It sucks when your customers hate you. Especially when they hate you enough to take a hammer to your office building.
• 2008: The year of blogging's demise?
  

Subscribing to a Blog: 3 Things to Look For

Every blog has an RSS feed. That is, an XML file that is continually updated with the latest postings from the blog's author. You can subscribe to the RSS feed using an RSS reader (my fav is Google Reader). With so many choices, it can be easy to become overloaded with subscribed feeds. How do you cut through the clutter? Here are a couple key things to look for when deciding whether to subscribe to an RSS feed:

1. Frequency - How often does the blog's author post? If you're busy during the day and a blog publishes 30 posts in a day (like Engadget or Boing-Boing), you're going to be overwhelmed trying to keep up with the posts. It's best to look for blogs that publish once a day or a few times a week with quality content.
   
2. Originality - Blogs exist for people to comment on...anything. Oftentimes, this means blogs comment on other people's blog posts. This means that you can find five posts about the same topic (i.e. Apple's iPhone, Britney Spears, or Twitter) in a single day on your blogroll. Seek out blogs that have something new to say. Look for thought leaders rather than followers.
   
3. Content - Your time is valuable. Don't waste it on content that doesn't add something to your life. What you read should be genuinely entertaining and/or informative. Don't read a blog because you think you should. If you can't get into it, unsubscribe to it and move on. There's so much content out there, it's easy to find a new blog to fill its place.
   

When Your Customers Hate You

Comcast has a problem. Almost every online reference of them talks about how horrible they are. Dissatisfied customers take to blogging, online forums, and online articles to voice their hate for the company. Over at the Church of the Customer Blog, Ben informs us about a new site that's popped up: "Comcast Must Die" -- a blog that provides single focus for customers to join together and voice their complaints. This is a site that Comcast can't ignore and will begin monitoring for feedback.

Comcast is organized by local franchises, and the mother company seems pretty cut off from its subscribers. It's hard to imagine that senior management realizes the low level of service these local groups provide. When you become detached from your customers, you can't survive. Expect to see Comcast actively take part in the new blog and perhaps create one of their own to facilitate the conversation between the management and their customers.