Websites with personality

Several weeks ago I wrote about a home valuation site called HouseFront. I wrote about it because I thought the service was innovative and different, and because I had used it myself to check on the value of my home. And because I wanted to share my experience with others... both of you :-)

But, I got something more out of it as well. Shortly after I posted my comment, someone left a message. Stephen Joos from HouseFront themselves left a comment! And, he linked back to my posting from his blog as well. In fact, about 10% of my traffic since that post has come from people linking in from Housefront.

A few things I want to say about that. First, Thanks Stephen! Second, I'm curious what service HouseFront uses to find back links like mine. Third, I now read your blog as well. Fourth, I have no idea what position Stephen holds at HouseFront, but the fact that he commented on my blog adds a personality to the hi-tech facade that is most websites nowadays.

When we see a web page, or use a web page, we think of it as having a life of its own. We rarely think about the people that dreamed up the idea, or the programmers who created the site, or the IT staff that keep it running, or the marketing staff that try to get you to give them a try, or the researchers that are digging through all that data to put on the site, or the click streams that we're generating when we do visit their site, or... The resources necessary to run a successful site are endless.

A blog on the on the other hand is just the opposite. You see me when you come to my blog (sorry about that). You see my choice of colors, you see my design elements, you see my words, you see what interests me. You don't see Blogger (except for the logo in the corner and the URL). The tools that do exist on my blog are there in the background, but that's not really what the site is about.

More and more CEOs, and other C-level staff are writing public blogs to engage their customers, to give a little bit of personality back to the corporation. When I think about this, my cynical mind thinks about Wal-Mart's reason for greeting you when you enter each of their stores. It's not to be friendly (come on, do you really believe that's the case?!). It's a loss-prevention technique. Millions of dollars of research has shown that you are less likely to steal from a store that acknowledges your presence ("I know you're here, and I've got my eyes on you.") or one that can get your mind off the big company image ("You're not stealing from a multi-billion dollar company, you're stealing from little 'ol minimum-wage-making me --so don't do it."). Those red jackets aren't so that you know where to turn to for help, they're there to let you know that no matter where you look (if you're lucky enough these days), one of the staff can see you.

Companies are going to need to do a lot more than create blog to convince me that they really care about more than the short-term dollars, but I guess it's a start.