I don’t know if it’s a fear of blogs or a total disregard for their power, but too many companies are underestimating this medium. I can understand that if a blog only gets 20,000 visitors a month that some companies might see it as insignificant. However, if a major publication or independent publisher such as Slashdot pick up on the story then that 20,000 becomes millions quickly.
If a blog publisher is going to have a significant amount of people going to their blog then you know that they are fairly passionate about what they do. If I am NetFlix and I see a request from a
Being a transparent company or one that claims to cater to their customers is not a selective option. You cannot pick and choose who you wish to give the best customer service towards because everyone should be important. The beauty of what Hacking NetFlix was doing was giving free PR to NetFlix. Word-of-Mouth advertising from loyal customers for nothing. How many times do people come up to your company asking if they can help spread the word? If and when it does happen will you turn them away?
Of course there is a reason to fear blogs if you do all the wrong things. Blogs help to bring out what is really on in the minds of consumers. Maybe that is what NetFlix thought. If that is the case then they already have deeper problems within their organization that need to be resolved.
Blogs can either be your enemy or your best friend depending on the principles within your organization. After reading the entry at Hacking NetFlix I have to question the principles of NetFlix. They are targetting a new niche in the movie rental industry and one where we are passing the early adopter stage so I would think it would be in NetFlix’s best interest to help the early adopters convince everyone else to use their service. This truly was a missed opportunity.
