There has been a lot of talk at the conferences and panels I have been attending lately about the convergence of PR, marketing, branding, communications and, well, you name it, online. While presenting her case study on peoplepets.com at the recent Business Development Institute Social Media Communications Leadership Forum, Kimberly Miller, VP of Consumer Marketing at People.com, talked about how social media could become a vehicle for gathering usability feedback for one of their new social networks. That was something I had not heard lately.
Before Kimberly presented, JetBlue’s Morgan Johnston, a regular BDI presenter and all around good guy, highlighted JetBlue's policy change to not charge the same 50 bucks for fold up bikes that fit into a carry on bag. This policy change was made based on feedback from JetBlue's twitter followers. Seems pretty obvious, but why not listen to the people using your social media to help guide your design? Next thing you know someone is going to actually ask the good folks in the corporate call centers what people are complaining about regarding the websites when they call in!
As my regular readers know I love to talk about the ultimate value of usability (Momma Said Knock U(sability) Out, and Can't afford usability testing? Think again) I applaud Time Inc’s recognition that listening to the users is what matters most and then combine this social media driven feedback with a traditional battery of usability testing to make the appropriate adjustments after six months of operation.
Way to go Kimberly! And you too Morgan… I need to get myself one of those fold up bikes. Then I guess I can finally take those ugly bike racks off the top of my Jetta and put the bike in the trunk.
