Here’s what I took away from PodcampNYC 2.0:

Doing 1 thing great > 2 things good > 3 things average…etc.

But how do you do one thing really great as a business? Start by listening.

Provide a space, physical or digital, for your customers to ask you questions, ask each other questions, make suggestions, complain or praise.

Then:

• Answer questions
• Thank people for their suggestions and look at implementing those ideas
• Apologize for mistakes or defects and fix promptly
• Humbly accept compliments
• Be quick
• Be human

Interact with a customer on their terms. That’s the beauty of the web. It is live and asynchronous all at once.

Be aware, when you do open up, you’re going to see some criticism. Some of it is probably going to be harsh and that’s OK. Take a deep breath. Respond politely and try to ease their pain. Imagine if you convert someone who really hates you. They’ll probably give you twice the respect and be a outspoken advocate.

So, what are some online tools to get you started?

Twitter (in practice with JetBlue)

Get Satisfaction (in practice with PBwiki)

Can you create a vital community-driven Web site in six months? Now, can you do it from 1,366 miles away?

I’m about to find out using my hometown Marshall, Minn., as my test subject. Using my personal contacts (my family) and some grassroots efforts online I want to create a vibrant user-powered community center. I dub thee “The Shall.”

For at least 6 months I plan to:
- Log in and post something relevant to the community daily
- Document the process (challenges, successes, humorous anecdotes)
- Try and have some fun connecting with the prairie town I grew up in

Residents get their local news and gossip (they hosted who for dinner?) from two primary places: The Marshall Independent (a hard-working and award-winning paper where I did a summer internship) and gomarshall.net (oh, Lord have mercy…that is a marquee).

And while both sites have some sort of social networking/communication going on, it’s no where near something like mnspeak.com.

The Shall is going to aggregate everything related to Marshall (on YouTube, Flickr, news stories, events) and allow citizens to publish their own content (news, questions, garage sales, video from the basketball game).

I was inspired to try this after I saw the Boulder Daily Camera move their community site to Ning.

I’m starting with a loose framework and an open mind. Let’s see what happens!

Disclaimer: I own stock in Netflix.

Netflix is doing a great job of opening up lines of communication with its customers. It’s simple and it needs to be a standard for all businesses.

They’ve set up a community using Ning.

They’ve also got a blog. Oh, and did I mention their Facebook page?

Why every business doesn’t have a blog and community (and sometimes wiki) set up is lamebrained. You could literally have all two or three up and running in under an hour using Blogger, Wordpress, PBWiki, Ning or a host of other free/cheap service providers.

It’s especially useful when customers have a complaint or question about your product. In the case of Netflix, it’s been especially useful during the past year in explaining to customers the stopping block for instant viewing on Macs and on Firefox.

It won’t necessarily make the problem go away, but as a customer, knowing someone is listening and working to fix the problem is more than half the battle.

We live in a culture of change and the fast flow of information. The worst thing you can do is forget to lay the plumbing down.

You certainly don’t want to end up here.

I had the great fortune to work for Dana Yost a few summers ago as an intern at the Marshall Independent and want to express my gratitude for all of his efforts and time spent there.

It was recently announced he will be taking an indefinite leave of absence.

He has the abilities and insights to work at any major news organization in the world. They all would be lucky to have him. But, Dana chose to dedicate his skills to the community, because it’s where he grew up and what he cared about the most.

In his stories and editorials, he addressed the most important questions we, as journalists, strive to answer. What does it mean? Why does it matter? How will it affect my readers?

For Dana, it was never about himself or winning awards or impressing anyone. The man has no ego.

He’s always had you and your family in mind when putting out the paper.

Now, it’s time to return the favor. The Independent’s readers owe Dana a standing ovation. I hope we should all be so lucky to get an encore someday soon.