PR

Making Homelessness Visible Through Social Media

This weekend just gone, I was honoured to meet a guy I’ve admired for a long, long time, Mark Horvath (Mark’s in the centre, my business partner Troy Claus is on the right).

Based out of Los Angeles, Mark is someone with an incredible story. Fifteen years ago, Mark was homeless and sleeping on the streets of Hollywood.

But he managed to get back on his feet, and then some. He was at the top of his game – working in Hollywood, bringing some of the best-known shows on television to viewers across the world, a great future – Mark was living the American dream.

Then the economy collapsed. Mark fell into a mix of drug and alcohol abuse, lost his job, became homeless, and lost his way. He fought hard to get back on his feet again, and get his life in order. And he did. But he’s always just one step away from being homeless again.

From that time, Mark took the experience of being homeless, and the stories of the people he met on the street, and created Invisible People. A site full of video, it shares the stories of the homeless in L.A. and beyond, and lets you see the person behind the stereotypical image we let ourselves create when we see a homeless person.

It’s been a huge success and has opened a lot of eyes to what homelessness really is. Hint – it’s not all drug abuse and choice.

Now Mark has a new project, and one I really hope you’ll check out and offer your support to.

We Are Visible

We Are Visible is a simple idea – and simple ideas are often the best. Many homeless use their local library’s Internet-enabled computers to connect with others, and try and learn new skill sets that could help them get back on their feet.

They also can find medical help; companies and organizations that help the homeless; lost family and loved ones; and so much more. Yet often they only know the basic email and Internet access.

As Mark’s shown, social media offers an incredible platform to not only connect, but tell stories. And this is exactly what We Are Visible aims to do, by making social media simple for anyone homeless to understand, and use.

There are videos that show you how to set up a Gmail account, as well as a Twitter and Facebook profile. Additionally, We Are Visible shows you how to set up a free blog, and connect your profiles to it.

You can then share your story through the main We Are Visible social networks, as well as be put in touch with other homeless folks. And, where possible, be connected to companies that could help you get back on your feet and/or off the streets.

Last Christmas, 12for12k partnered with Mark to show people how they could help the homeless in their own towns and cities, and we’ll be doing something very similar this year again, starting in November.

In the meantime, however, We Are Visible is a brilliant concept, and one that I’m honoured to share with you. Please, check the program out, and if you feel you can help raise awareness of it, get in touch with Mark and see how you can help.

One way is to order promo cards (if you’re in the U.S.) and these can be ordered here. More information will be available via the networks below.

– We Are Visible website.
– We Are Visible on Twitter.
– We Are Visible on Facebook.

What Posterous Could Learn from Gravity Forms About Service

Customers and employees are your two most important ingredients in a successful business. Without one, you can’t have the other.

Customer service is an especially hot topic for me, as I’ve worked in improving how service is measured and improved at a few companies, where previously it was maybe in third or fourth place when it came to that company’s priorities.

Your employees are your best customers, and your customers are your best employees. They’ll defend you; market for you; endorse you; and be your voice where you might not currently have a presence.

If you look after them. Something blogging platform Posterous could improve on.

A Week is a Long Time in Business

Almost two weeks ago, I decided to stop posting short-form blog posts over at Posterous, and move all my blogging back to my blog right here. While I had enjoyed experimenting with Posterous, this is my homebase. And I wasn’t keen on a third-party “owning” my content.

So, I wrote a post about why I was leaving Posterous and made the decision that I’d delete my account there within a few days, to allow anyone to come and subscribe here if they wished.

And that’s where the fun begins.

I tried deleting my account, and kept getting an error message. No worries, the message mentioned Posterous had been emailed about it, and it’d be resolved soon. Except it wasn’t.

For a week, I tried to delete my account – I even made it my secondary one since I was informed that primary accounts at Posterous need you to contact support to delete the account for you.

Still no joy. Frustrated, I reached out to Posterous via their Twitter account. No reply there, so over to contacting their helpdesk.

In all fairness, their representative Vince got back to me seven hours later. Yet it wasn’t to delete the site right away – that would only happen if I confirmed that this was what I wanted to do (click to enlarge).

So, I mention that yes, I do want to delete my account and I pointed Vince to my post on their platform as to the reasons why.

This was on Thursday, August 12, and as of writing, my Posterous account is still live.

Customers Hate Obstacles

So now I’m pretty frustrated with Posterous. I no longer want to use their service, but I’m still “using it” if you visit my account there. And the company isn’t making it easy for me to stop using their service.

It’s like me signing you up to my newsletter, and then making you jump through a bunch of hoops to unsubscribe, in the hope you might give up and stay with me for convenience’s sake.

And it’s a shame. I’ve written before how Posterous offers an easy way in for folks to experiment with blogging, and I’ve pointed clients their way in the past that wanted to see if blogging is for them. But not now – my experience with Posterous has been soured by something that should be pretty straightforward.

As customers, we can be a complaining bunch, but at times the complaining could be easily avoided just by taking away the obstacles companies put us through. Some get that spot on.

The Gravity Forms Experience

I started using Gravity Forms recently for my contact forms. I’d heard good things about them and I wanted to check them out, so I bought the single user license. I loved how they worked, so I wanted to upgrade to the multi-site license instead.

I used their contact form to ask how easy this was, and what the steps would be. Within 10 minutes, Carl Hancock had an emailed answer and easy-to-follow steps on how to upgrade. Within 30 minutes, I had a coupon code to use that would deduct my original purchase from the multi-site one.

But what really stood out for me is that this all happened late at night. I contacted Gravity Forms at 11.28pm, and by 11.58pm I had my coupon code and purchase instructions.

Thirty minutes.

That level of service turns me from a simple customer to a brand advocate. If anyone asks me about forms for blogging, I point them in the direction of Gravity Forms. Every time.

Simple Sells

It may be that Posterous has a larger userbase than Gravity Forms. It may be that their platform needs more technical nous than Gravity Forms. It may be that there’s a certain timescale before something can get done.

But to customers, that doesn’t always matter. All we want is a simple product, and one that we can stop using at any time if we choose to do so. Making us go through hoops just ensures we won’t return to your product in future, and will probably use your competitors instead.

You could say that Posterous is a free product, and so the support doesn’t need to be as good as that of a premium product. But let’s say at some stage they’re looking to make it a paid service – how they look after you now defines how you’ll perceive paying for their service.

Marketing might sell a product, but service is the gold that repeat sales come from.

Compare the Posterous and the Gravity Forms approach – which one would you be a loyal customer of?

Update – my account has been deleted after Rich Pearson of Posterous kindly stepped in and explained the delay.