SES: My User-Generated Content slides and interview
By Matt McGee on Aug 28, 2007 in Education/Conferences, Interviews
One of the fun parts of SES San Jose last week was the chance to do my first interview with the crew at WebProNews. WPN seems to be doing more video interviews at every show I go to, and creating a really great resource archive in the process.
I always enjoyed doing interviews back in my days as a TV and radio sportscaster, so it was a bit new (and fun) to be on the other side of the mic, answering some questions. Thanks to Mike McDonald and his crew for giving me a chance to chat about User-Generated Content. Here’s the interview:
(Note to Miriam: We do talk in there about why negative reviews are a good thing.)
And as long as we’re on this topic, you can also download my PPT slides (646k) as presented last week on the UGC panel.
I’d love any feedback / questions if you watch the video or download the slides!
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3 Comment(s)
By David Wallace on Aug 29, 2007 | Reply
Yey! Way to go, Matt. You’ve hit the big time now, buddy!
By Miriam on Aug 29, 2007 | Reply
Hi Matt,
That was terrific seeing the video and watching your powerpoint. Really good stuff.
And..yes…I get what you mean now about bad reviews creating trust!
You can see this, and I can see this, but my guess is getting the business owner to see this may be a real uphill battle. I would also say it would be harder to convince a small business than a big one of this.
In my mind, I’m thinking of a company like Microsoft vs. Joe’s Diner. Even if thousands of people say MS has produced a faulty product and are loud and verbal in their complaints, MS stays in business.
But if Joe’s Diner gets even one review saying “my whole family got food poisoning there”, this is seriously going to harm their reputation in the community (at least, the portion of the community that reads user reviews).
But, then again, we’re talking about different kinds of flaws here. Buying a glitchy piece of software is not nearly as bad as winding up in the hospital.
In the end, my hope is that user reviews would generate better products and services because of this new level of public accountability, but it still strikes me as a bigger risk for the little guy than the big one.
I’m really, really glad you posted this, Matt. You did a great job in that interview!
Miriam
By Matt McGee on Aug 30, 2007 | Reply
Great points, Miriam. I think about some of the small biz retail clients I had at my previous job, and this kind of thing really wouldn’t apply to them in the format I’ve presented it. (I wasn’t speaking on a small biz panel, of course!)
For starters, the cost of integrating a user review system (whether developed internally or via one of the companies I shared in the presentation) could very well be prohibitive.
Beyond that, which small biz retailers have enough ‘mass’ to make it worthwhile?
I think a lot of small biz retailers would be better served with customer testimonials — but those should also include some less-than-5-star comments, too.
And thanks for the kind words about the interview.