Paper.li. Where’s the context?

So, in my ongoing grumbling over Paper.li, the Twitter link (yes, I do think calling it a “twink” would be fun) aggregator (alligator) it’s occured to me that part of my issue with them is context. While I may have Tweeted or reTweeted a link, my comments on it are missing. In Jeff Cutler‘s recent paper.li one of my Tweets was added, but taken completely out of context:

Ignoring the grammar issue with this article (no space after the period following ‘It” and “Rocker Jon Bon Jovi”) and the fact that Huffington Post has turned into nothing more than a content aggregator, the fact that this is attributed to me would lead some to believe that I support Jon Bon Jovi’s statement that iTunes, iPods, Apple, and Steve Jobs killed the music business. In my opinion, the record industry is what killed the music business by putting out crap music from teenage girls dolled up like Taiwanese hookers, pre-teen boys with bad hair cuts and questionable dance moves, and rappers whose sole talent is knowing how to use a rhyming dictionary. I was in a band in the late 80s. We had a contract. Rock and Roll was king. Then came New Kids on the Block. Followed by angry middle class white kids gloaming onto inner city rap. When the music industry decided to push manufactured teeny bop and urban poems set to stolen beats they put a noose around their own necks. When the music industry decided to push artists for soon-to-be-forgotten “hits” rather than solid albums with long-tail lives, they kicked over the chair beneath their seats.

This was my original Tweet:

Give Your Customers What They Want

While work continues on Gathr.me, I spend alot of time thinking about what users, my customers, will want out of the product. I often blatantly ask, sometimes I just listen. My goal is to develop a product that my users will love. There has been alot of talk among the partners about the need for a desktop version of Gathr.me. Sure, beyond the web and mobile versions, a desktop version seems less important, but it will be important to the users who want a desktop version. That is why we are building Gathr.me in such a way as to accommodate any current platform and device, as well as trying to imagine future ways in which people will want to interface with us.

To make my life easier (or to keep me working everywhere), I’ve been looking at netbooks. Since I’m unemployed, pricing is a huge consideration or I’d just buy a MacBook Pro. Instead, these $2-400 netbooks will fill the gap and allow me to work without being chained to my desk. Of course, I’ve already researched which I can hack and load the Mac OS onto the easiest. Sounds extreme huh? To buy a perfectly good computer, whipe out the Windows OS and replace it with the Mac one? Not if you’ve used the Mac OS, or all your other devices are Mac. But this isn’t the point. The point is, that because Mac doesn’t make a netbook, and I can’t afford their laptops, I’m going to put in the extra work to create a Macenstein of my own. From my research I’ve found this to be a VERY large community. Which begs the question, why isn’t Mac making a netbook? Mac has said they don’t want to play in this space, because it is immature and the current product offerings suck. Odd, I don’t remember their being alot of great mp3 players before the iPod. Sure there were some, but they all kinda sucked. So why isn’t Apple giving their customers what they want? Maybe they just don’t know them well enough?

Speaking of which: I’ve thought for a long time that brands need to get to know their customers better. Social Media provides a great opportunity for this. My car manufacturer, sends me a notice every time I need to check something on my car. But retailers I use, like Target, iTunes, Home Depot, Borders, have ramped up their emails to sell me stuff. Don’t they know I’m unemployed? Facebook, MySpace and other social networks I belong to beat me over the head with singles ads, despite the fact that I’ve been with the same woman for 10 years. Do they know something I don’t, or do they just not know anything?

Even smaller groups targeting me don’t know me well. Today I got my ubiquitous email from Chris Brogan. He is one of a handful of blogs I am subscribed to. Oddly, this email was a subscription drive. If I’m already subscribed, after all, h has my email, why would he need to push me to subscribe? I’m assuming this is some kind of technical glitch, after all, he’s a pretty savvy web2.0 kinda guy.

All of these cases represent the same issue: not giving customers what they want, or giving them what they don’t want or need. This is usually caused by demographics, shallow research, or basing your business model on the “average customer”, not all of your customers. It’s obvious that brands, large or small, need to look at their customers, get to know them better, and deliver products, solutions and communications that they’re asking for.