Listening to the Conversation

I used my personal blog yesterday to open a line of communication and also to collect feedback. Thanks to everyone who chipped in. Never thought I would be called colorful names in some comments. All the social media gurus told me that becoming a blogger means you are totally out in the open. I believe that now.

I want to, however, take a step back and clear the confusion on a few terms:

- Whois is a service available with reputed registrars and people use that to search for information on who owns a domain. Network Solutions doesn’t provide the only access to this info. Wikipedia link: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Whois

- Price: Network Solutions regular price for a domain is $34.99 for one year’s registration. The domains we are protecting from front runners are available for purchase at that regular price -- not for any inflated prices as falsely reported.
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- Advice to people registering domains. Wherever you search - register the name, as soon as you see the name is available. That will help you prevent anyone else from registering that domain. Here is a link to Jay Westerdal’s post regarding the use of domain search data. http://blog.domaintools.com/2007/03/stealing-domain-name-research/. And, to be completely transparent Jay criticizes Network Solutions in his latest Blog post (http://blog.domaintools.com/2008/01/network-solutions-steals-domain-ideas-confirmed/)

I have monitored the conversation and carried back the good suggestions that many have given. As a company Network Solutions listens and made some changes. I think we will continue to make improvements. I did not have the time to post a response to all the posts. but I have been listening to threads and passing on the feedback.

Also, today, Network Solutions CEO Champ Mitchell gave an interview to Robert McMillan, IDG News Service (http://www.infoworld.com/article/08/01/10/Network-Solutions-stands-by-name-policy_1.html) and coming from our “Chief Executive Customer Service” person (I hope I won’t get into trouble calling him that) so I don’t have anything else to add.

Update : 01/15/2008

See my post about updates

The following people have commented on thier blogs about the use of Social Media to listen to feedback and the role of a Social Media person.

Andrew Wright Corporate Social Media Rep = Ombudsman

Connie Bensen - Public Relations can be challenging

Ramon Ray - Network Solutions is Reaching out to Customers