Thank Or Die

Welcome to
NOBODY CARES
Population: 6 Billion
(from a cartoon by Hugh MacLeod a.k.a Gapingvoid)1

When the world population is closing on 7 Billion, out of which almost 2 Billion are currently using the Internet, out of which one in four is using Facebook, it becomes evident how the opportunities we as humans are given along with the socialization of the web, are also united with growing challenges.

At the same time as nobody cares, everybody cares. To make someone of the almost 2 Billion people to care enough to personally respond to whatever message you are sending out, should pretty much still to be considered as a miracle. As much as the social web helps us to connect with each other, it also exposes the people and corporations who are in it for themselves. As easy it is to participate, start a cause, a service, ask for help, feedback or advice, as easy it has become to expect not just a reaction, but an immediate reaction, by the responding party.

As we are slowly beginning to learn how we all need to start to engage or die with our audience and customers, as start to share or die on the Internet, we mustn’t forget to remember to say Thank You. And as with any response, the gesture of a thank you is best when it’s immediate, human and sincere.

With growing new businesses in the fields of crowdsourcing and crowdfunding, not to mention all the unconferences and meetups, where everyone’s trying to figure out how to reward the multimotivational human nature, recognition in terms of a personal thank you will always remain a central part (Good thoughts2 on motivating a crowd by Niel Robertson, CEO of Trada, a crowsourced PPC marketplace).

David Noël of SoundCloud writes about scaling customer service3 in a startup, listing universally crucial advice on how to create long term customer relationships. The upside of “Always appreciate any form of feedback” being “happy and frequently stunned customers.” I couldn’t agree more: There’s nothing like getting happy and grateful response on that late night personal reply to a troubled customer. In the times of the growing number of the population Nobody Cares, an absolutely great way to convert customers to your loyal ambassadors, or even better, your paying customers.

Want someone to really care? #ThankOrDie

(Special thanks to Mattias Boström for all the cheering and tireless direct messages to get this thing published in last minute!)

Footnotes:
1. http://www.gapingvoid.com/nobody%20cares%20001%20jpeg.jpg (http://korta.nu/sswc10_82)
2. Niel Robertson of Trada: http://www.youtube.com/user/tradainc#p/a/u/2/_xYTacJ4BAQ (http://korta.nu/sswc10_83)
3. David Noël of SoundCloud: http://david-noel.com/post/840940177/on-scaling-customer-service-in-a-startup (http://korta.nu/sswc10_84)

Highly recommended reading:
On creativity: Ignore Everybody by Hugh MacLeod
– Ignore everybody for three hours and read this to be able to ask yourself important questions like “What’s your cash/sex ratio?”. Why? Because you can’t afford to ignore your creativity! Thanks @gapingvoid
http://gapingvoid.com/books/

On how to truly engage your customers with help of social media:
Engage by Brian Solis
http://www.briansolis.com/books/