Holly Grande: Short and Sweet

Holly, the Great, has moved to a new home here on blogger. I loved the layout of Livejournal and the sense of community, but it is time to move on. SUP, the parent company of Livejournal, has made far too many critical errors in consumer relations. While I fully respect their decisions regarding advertising and content, I do not think it was wise to not inform their user base, many of which are affected in some way by these decisions. No longer does it matter whether a company is privately or publicly owned, in our fast-paced, media-centric world, it is crucial that companies take into account the wants and ideas of their consumer base. While consumers, especially free users, may not directly provide funding like shareholders, those consumers expect some level of respect and understanding, even in the case of a privately held firm such as SUP.

While a fairly small case, I think that the decisions and actions of SUP and the consumer base is reflective of a much larger trend. Companies must listen to consumers, or they will lose far more potential and current consumers than just those who spoke up.

Posted by Holly at 10:02 PM  

Labels: communication