Corporate Communication at Six Apart

Last night Jason Kottke posted a meditation on this essay. Towards the end of Jason’s post he took a swipe at Six Apart, the company that makes Movable Type, which is the software that powers this blog. Mena Trott, one of the founding partners of Six Apart, responded at length within hours of Jason’s post. My analysis of this situation has less to do with the substance of their argument but rather an observation about Six Apart.

Since the 3.0 release of Movable Type when Six Apart really came into itself as a company, they have moved from disaster to disaster in terms of their corporate communications. By all accounts, the 3.0 launch was executed poorly, which led to a user revolt. Some users—such as the author—stuck by Six Apart, but a sizable share left for other pastures. The inferior and spam-friendly WordPress picked up some of the slack. But while Six Apart was stung badly at that time, they seem to have not learned from that lesson.

Trott’s post, entitled “I Take The Bait,” is interesting. It is important to note that fact. Six Apart are leaders in the personal publishing field and to read about why they do what they do is patently a good time. The problem is the circumstances under which corporate communication from Six Apart happens.

What happened in last night’s instance has happened before. Someone attacks Six Apart for reason X, and Mena responds. This is virtually the only time the users are communicated with about corporate policy. Only when Six Apart is attacked do they allow a look at how they work. Months and months go by with no communication from Six Apart to the users, but then under duress they offer a view of themselves that is appealing and strangely unaccessible at other times. For a company that makes communication tools, they seem to have some pretty serious communication problems.

What is Six Apart afraid of? Their users would be better served by improved communication, which would help to spread word of mouth about their products.

But communication appears to be a systemic problem in their organization. A simple glance at the website for Movable Type reveals mixed messages. Have they figured out who is their target market for Movable Type? The copy on the page says that Movable Type is “the premier weblog publishing platform for businesses, organizations, developers, and web designers.” In other words, it is marketed as a serious tool for serious people. But look at the two photos of people on the page. Both the boy and the girl are young—they look about 20 and both are in casual attire. Are businesses going to look at this page and see themselves reflected here? Most likely not. In actuality, the two photos are parts of advertisements for other services from Six Apart and are not actually related directly to Movable Type, but that’s where the eye is drawn to.

Possible solutions to the communication problems at Six Apart need not be complex. One solution might be to hire someone to oversee corporate communications. They may already have a marketing director, but that person does not appear to be doing a very good job. The easiest and cheapest solution would be to communicate with users more often. Make Mena’s Corner a regular column—either a shorter weekly communication about the blogging business or a longer monthly round-up of what’s been going on at Six Apart. Mena Trott could write the column occasionally, but other staffers at Six Apart could chime in with columns about their product areas.

The point is that users want more communication from Six Apart, but the only time they get it is when the company feels attacked. Using triage as a primary communication vehicle for the company gives more credence to the attacks. Six Apart takes on the role of communication reluctantly, and they are only diminishing themselves in the eyes of their supporters by putting up a wall.