UPDATE - Please read this post if you are reading this one. It has some important follow-up information.
Yesterday, the social media website designed around video conversations made the decision to layoff three of its employees. The news came hard to many of the site’s regular users as many of us had established strong relationships (both over the Internet and in person) with these three talented employees.
I have recorded a video expressing my thoughts on this decision. In short, I believe seesmic has damaged the personal brand and loyalty established over the past year in making this choice. The entire idea behind the social media movement from a business perspective is the added benefit of transparency. However, transparency can go from being and asset to a liability when you fail to execute on your stated mission plan and general take on business.
I wish those who were let go the best in their search for future work. Three very talented individuals in the startup market have just become available. I’m sure there are plenty of startups who would be very thankful to have their experience and expertise as part of their team.
Day 2- The dust starts to settle.
Chris Cavs took a bit more of a business / tough love look at the situation on his blog. I responded with my thoughts now that the dust has settled a bit by playing bad cop with myself and taking a more analytical look at the situation. I am still very unhappy with the way this was handed but I am trying to look at the other side a bit as well… which is difficult given the emotional connection to these individuals. My response to Chris follows:
As the dust settles and a new day is upon us, I think we can all stand back and take a fresh look at the situation setting some emotions aside. Loic had to make some tough choices and he did what was probably dictated to him by investors. As more unfolds, and given the timing of this choice so closely following TC50, I think there is a strong possibility he may have been pressured to make a change by those backing the project.
As I sit here this morning and run over everything in my head once more, I am feeling less emotional and more analytical about the event. I still believe it would be a very positive gesture on behalf of Loic to make us aware of the real future direction of seesmic. Sure, he doesn’t have to do it, but as the people who are really passionate about the community it would be nice to know. Also, it would be nice to have an idea of where things are going as we try to recruit new users - part of our responsibility, in my opinion, as alpha testers.
I think a big part of the reason why I want to know more behind the story is the departure of Joan, the former Head of Marketing. It is obvious that a very different direction is more than likely in the works so curiosity is running high for many of us. However, another factor that may be overlooked right now is the possible limitations Loic may be facing at the moment. How much control is in the investors hands vs. his. His silence may be part of a deal for additional backing. They may worry he could put egg on their faces if he tries to explain the decision.
Overall, a mistake was made in the past direction of the company and the investors didn’t like it. Personally, I enjoyed the seesmic generated content but I realize others may not have seen it that way. I do wish we could see a bit more transparency out of Loic in the situation. As hard as this is, he has a great opportunity to try to show his character and help get people excited about seesmic all over again. Sometimes when tough times hit, the best thing to do is be upfront and honest with your investors - be it time or money. Sweeping trouble under the rug only leads to bigger issues.
As a time investors, I would like to at least have a small idea of where we are headed that has more substance than the generic statements we have been hearing about the interface changes. Sure, we did not invest any money into the site but many of us did bring in users, test scalability, report bugs, etc. In the end, I think many of us just expected a little more out of seesmic due to the personal connection we feel to the site and the people. But as you said, they really don’t have to and business is business. The good news is, as you pointed out, Rachel and Sukhjit are no strangers to the game and are incredibly talented. They, as well as Joan, will have no trouble finding a new project on which to flex their creative muscle.
Thanks for sharing the tough love side of the issue. Seesmic was an environment where becoming emotionally tied to these individuals was nearly impossible to avoid. That made the blow hard for many of us - especially those who recently shared good times with them. As we all blow off steam and emotion with each other, the dust will continue to settle. I think long time seesmic user Freida said it best last night - “this is why I got out of business” haha.
on Sep 16th, 2008 at 10:44 pm
Yes. Based on what we were talking about, they were the brand culture of Seesmic and some of us feel that the overall brand has been diluted now. Very nice delivery.
on Sep 16th, 2008 at 10:56 pm
you totally took the words outta my mouth, Sukhjit was one of the first people to respond to some of my first videos and welcome me so its kinda tough to see her go. I wish all three the best luck
on Sep 16th, 2008 at 11:01 pm
Well put. I couldn’t agree more. I couldn’t of been more disappointed when I realized what happened.
A social conversation platform like Seesmic needs dedicated conversation and content producers like Rachael and Sukhjit.
To let them go was devastating and they will be well missed as active faces to the Seesmic brand and persona.
on Sep 17th, 2008 at 12:50 am
Thanks for the feedback everyone. It is so great to see what a positive impact these individuals had on so many seesmic users. I look forward to hearing what other have to say and to seeing if seesmic comes back with any kind of official response.
So many of us have been huge time investors into this site and I think we deserve some kind of an explanation of where the site is headed.
on Sep 17th, 2008 at 2:25 am
I think Sukhjit is amazing and am very sad to see her go. I don’t know Rachael or Joanne that well.
First, businesses change their market strategies all the time. The market is changing and, as you’ve probably noticed, the economy is capable of changing, too.
Second, in the video you mention “Seesmic will be fine” and also that it is a “blow” to their personal brand. It is a corporation whose sole purpose is to generate ROI and differential gains over the market and other competitors. The extent that it can be “fine” while harming its personal brand is the extent to which personal brand is an irrelevant feature pursued by a minority of early adopters who don’t represenent the coming mass userbase. On the other hand, if personal brand damage is serious enough to harm their ROI — which you didn’t say — then it would be meaningful. But you didn’t say that.
on Sep 17th, 2008 at 2:48 am
Hey Brad, you bring up some good points and thanks for continuing the discussion. I will attempt to clarify my opinions on this event. First, I do believe seesmic will be fine and will move on from this incident. However, I think they have harmed the confidence and loyalty of many of the individuals who have helped build the community.
Will it hurt their ROI? That is hard to really know since we don’t really have a solid grasp of their overall business plan and future direction.
What I do think may be an issue is many of the people who have joined into the community have been referred by the early adopters. If those individuals, as well as those who have joined even in the past few weeks/months, stop referring the service seesmic could see a drop in already unfavorable numbers.
Then again, until any of us really understand where seesmic is attempting to take the site, I suppose it will be hard to understand the repercussions of this choice. I do believe that they have slowed down progress in making this decision.
on Sep 17th, 2008 at 3:33 am
Well put Chris. I couldn’t imagine a more backwards track to put Seesmic on, than removing it’s dedicated content providers.
I think the format of Seesmic should be going forward in this featured content direction, it seems to me the best way to generate traffic. Daily featured shows, 2-3 a day, 3-10 mins each, inspiring conversation spires from the themed programming. This would have been huge for Seesmic. This alongside a ‘public’ timeline interface and an addition of posting capabilities from an imbed location would have made them unstoppable. But I really think it’s this trifecta of versatility that would have made it so attractive. Only utilizing the public timeline is a retro backwards moonwalk into a holographic AOL chat room. Let’s face it! This can’t survive on it’s own, and it CERTAINLY can’t generate revenue. Sure it cuts costs, but that only matters in the short term when you’re still establishing and creating yourself, i.e. unwise cuts = death.
on Sep 17th, 2008 at 8:57 am
Hi Chris,
I’m not sure I agree with everyone right now. While I love Sukhjit and Rachel, this whole “defection” thing and this huge response to the layoffs is largely emotional, and will have little effect on Seesmic’s business. Layoffs happen all the time, and in this economy, it’s not really a surprise. Sukhjit and Rachel are television producers by trade, and they know how difficult it is to work in this business. I know they will do well elsewhere.
As far as content goes, that was a decision to experiment and obviously didn’t fit into whatever plan Loic has for the company. Plans change, and we need to understand that.
There will be no problem with people referring others to Seesmic. Sure, the current active community may not like what happened, but there were those of us before this one. Some of us returned, others didn’t. Some of us are bored with video convos, others aren’t. Loic & company are doing well promoting the service, and a new generation of users will come to Seesmic, as long as the basis of what they purport the service to be remains: a video conversation. The first gen people remember what that was, and that’s why we were there. I’m ambivalent to the “content” they had been providing. In all reality, the only thing I regularly watched was Seesmix because it involved the community. The other pieces - while produced well and often interesting; and not to demean Sukhjit’s and Rachel’s jobs - were just extra fluff to me.
I’ve written a post on my blog about this: http://filmosity.com/ioreality/2008/09/17/seesmic-shit-hits-the-fan/ and I’d like to get your feedback on it.