Demand Satisfaction!

Big news! We’re going to be front and center in a new series of online Webcasts. It starts Wednesday at 10 a.m. PST.

Go sign up.

What’s it all about? It’s our Community Webcast Series, and it’s all about community. We’ll also be touching on some customer-service-related topics because they seem to have a whole lot in common. We invite anyone and everyone with an interest in community or community management to join in.

Rather than tell you what this series will be about, here’s what it won’t be:

Demos: These Webcasts won’t be Webinar-style demos of Get Satisfaction that culminate in a hard sell.

Long-winded: These Webcasts won’t be excrutiatingly long. We’ll start with a very short presentation, and then we’ll turn it over to the community. You’re welcome to spend as much or as little time as you like.

One-man-shows: The whole point of these community Webcasts is to bring together people to talk about community. These won’t be lectures. So, participate. Join in and share your thoughts.

Exclusive: We’ll probably be inviting noted or interesting personalities to join us as the series develops, but it’s all geared toward supporting great conversation about community — and that means anyone who’s interested in the subject.

The first Webcast starts on a lighthearted note. It’s called “The 10 Commandments of Community Management,” and it’s all about what you should (and shouldn’t!) do to cultivate a happy, healthy community.

This will be live video, broadcasting directly from the Satisfactory here in San Francisco, with a chat room run by yours truly.

My hunch is that you know someone who is interested in online community issues (or maybe should have started learning a long time ago). Point them in our direction and ask them to stop by for our first Webcast on Wednesday. If you’re a community manager, please consider this my own invitation for you to join us. (Hit me up if you have any questions: @supereric or eric [at] getsatisfaction [dot] com.)

After the first Webcast, we’ll have a few more coming up; one every two weeks. Here’s the schedule:

• April 8th: Reducing Customer Service Support Costs Dramatically (87%!?) by Turning to the Community
• April 22nd: The “Duh” Paradox: Increasing the Connection with Your Customers Improves Retention and Extends Lifetime Loyalty
• May 6th: Rome Wasn’t Built by Itself: Harnessing Product Innovation Through Online Communities

Finally, how about some free stuff? We’re giving away $25,000 worth of premium services to folks who attend these Webcasts.

Ready to join us? Sign up here.

See you then!

SXSW 2009 is about to kick off. If you’ll be attending, you’re surely clicking or flipping through the many choices and deciding which panel discussions, talks, and events are “must-see” — and which ones are “we’ll see”.

Lane always has a way of being part of interesting events. And by “interesting,” I of course mean “pretty damn funny.” Last year, he participated in Worst. Website. Ever, a tongue-in-cheek contest to pitch the worst — but almost believeable — start-up business model.

This year, as the black tides of the economy cascade over the shores of business and threaten start-ups like toddlers left behind after a clam-bake, Lane has signed up for what will surely be another laugh-out-loud fest that’s funny because it’s true.

This year’s potential seminar standout, starring ours truly, Lane Becker?

What Do I Do With Myself, Now that the Economy Has Collapsed?

Sunday, 3:30, Room 9. Get there early for a seat.

See you there!

Ever put something on your to-do list and it sits there forever? Days, weeks, and months go by, and you still can’t check it off your list. Maybe you’re making progress. Maybe you really mean to do it. But, you just don’t get to it. The guilt is crushing. Wouldn’t it be great if someone came up to you and surprised you and said, “Oh, by the way, I took care of that thing for you.”

That’s exactly how I feel right now because someone has created an iPhone app for Get Satisfaction.

We definitely wanted one. Nearly all of us at Get Satisfaction are iPhone devotees. We talked about how we’d like to design our own iPhone app for months and months, but we weren’t able to get to the rolled-up-sleeves phase because of so many other pressing projects.

I’d like to officially and unofficially extend a hearty round of applause to David Cann, the enterprising iPhone developer who has taken our API and created a very slick iPhone app for users of Get Satisfaction. Nicely done, sir.

What surprises me most about the app is how well it reproduces the elements of our online interface. It looks great. It also has a user dashboard that is pretty impressive. We might learn a thing or two from the way David has developed it when we are ready to redesign our own user dashboard.

The only thing I wish I had were bookmarking or flagging/favorite topics, but that is something we don’t have in our own system yet, so I certainly don’t expect it to be in David’s app. Something else that would be cool would be a version that is tailored just for admins of Get Satisfaction, which would allow employees (me included) to take actions on topics while they’re riding on the bus. But for now, being able to reply to folks in need while on the run is a huge help. I’ll be using this app a ton.

David is an independent developer (he also made the ABC News app), so he’s not directly affiliated with us, but we want to do our best to encourage folks to give his app a try. I am sure he’d be thrilled to get feedback on it. He has, of course, set up his own section of Get Satisfaction , where you can provide feedback and ideas.

Way to go, David!