February 14, 2006 @ 10:09 AM
A gaggle of ethnically diverse “twenty-somethings” with perfect skin and flawless fashion sensibility? Is that who’s really administrating the Linux server your website lives on? I know it’s not. You know it’s not. And the companies who put these people on their home pages know it’s not. So who do they think they’re fooling? And why try to fool your customer ever? Even the web host I trust to keep my site running is guilty of this chicanery (check out the guy who only has his ear in the frame). Bluehost is a great host. Their customer service is always available directly by phone, and completely capable of handling any request. Why not show these people? Their offices? Their flaws? Their commitment to doing their jobs well?
I’m reading Robert Scoble’s new book, Naked Conversations and it has started me thinking about small companies who fabricate their identity out of thin air. It’s a common mistake, but how can these companies hope to differentiate themselves or establish trust, when their customers know they’re being lied to?
The authors demonstrate why it’s good to show you have nothing to hide, and how companies are leveraging tools like blogging to do just that. “Corporate honesty” doesn’t have to be an oxymoron anymore!
In a recent Channel 9 post, Microsoft developers in charge of plug-and-play device detection for the Windows Operating System define drivers in their own words as “all that crap you never see”. I love that! I believe Microsoft developers are working hard to make the devices I use in my daily life connect more easily and reliably to Windows machines, not because I see it on their TV commercials, but because I hear it spoken, with passion, from their own mouths.
Now, if you’ll excuse me. My staff and I have a meeting with the finance department about the redistribution of profits for near-term sustainability (i.e. gotta go deposit some checks so they don’t shut off my electricity).
Comments
Boy is that the truth. But hey, if a sassy head-fake can make a basketball player a millionaire, then maybe a corporate head-fake will do the same.
Why seeing as they don't currently work for you, and they're beautiful people, HIRE THEM!
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