37signals versus Get Satisfaction
Well, one of my assistants tipped me off to an interesting debate going on between 37signals and Get Satisfaction. You can find the details here:
http://www.37signals.com/svn/posts/1650-get-satisfaction-or-else
To summarize and over simplify, 37signals is mad because Get Satisfaction had a page out there where people were asking questions about their products. It was not obvious (enough) to some that this was not an official channel for support from 37signals and as such 37signals reputation was damaged because of this. They’re probably right.
However, should we be surprised? You could easily substitute Twitter, Facebook, MySpace, etc. and the post would have looked exactly the same. The reality is that people will talk about you, your company, your products, etc. whether you like it or not. The answer is not to try and control these conversations, but to effectively participate in them. You need tools to better manage these conversations regardless of the platform. I am not at all ashamed to tell you is this is exactly what we are trying to help you do. With ChatterBox we want to let you find these conversations and participate even if it is not coming through an official channel.
There are a lot of comments on the 37signals post on both sides. It is worth a read. Just to set the record straight, I am a huge fan of both companies. That’s not easy for a monkey like me to say.
P.S.: I thought about adding some nice battling logos here, but with all the litigation talks on that thread, I figured it was best not to do that. So, I used the mic logo instead. If you don’t like it, sue me. Um wait. Don’t do that. Please send me a polite email offline requesting to take it down.
P.P.S.: 37signals please don’t be mad. We’re not even out the door yet and I would hate to end up on the wrong side of one of your posts… I’ll send over some ripe bananas if that will help.
- Charlie
Update: Get Satisfaction created a blog post on the topic as well: http://blog.getsatisfaction.com/2009/03/31/kissing-and-making-up-with-37signals/
Update 2: There is now also an open letter to Jason Fried: http://blog.getsatisfaction.com/2009/03/31/open-letter-to-jason-fried/
Update 3: 37signals posted a response on their earlier posting: http://www.37signals.com/svn/posts/1661-follow-up-on-get-satisfaction-or-else
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Charlie Chatterbox
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