Cre8Buzz Reaches Out To Users During Revamp

As many of you know, I covered Cre8Buzz a while back here on the site when it was just starting out. I tend to think of Cre8Buzz as the little social content network that could. I have a unique behind the scenes perspective of the company, and the people behind it work hard for its success.

That said, in spite of all their hard work, those of us who are on Cre8Buzz as users or on the board have watched them struggle. They have had developer problems, issues rolling out new features, trouble prioritizing certain fixes and more. Interestingly, they haven't let the problems dissuade them from trying to make Cre8Buzz a success.

In my opinion the best part of Cre8Buzz are the users. The community over all is incredibly involved, very welcoming of new members and supportive of the content new members provide. After all, Cre8Buzz is a social content site more than anything, existing to give its users a place to show off the creative things they make and do and connect while they do it - it is all about supporting each other.

Why write about Cre8Buzz again, many months later, when many would say it is limping along and destined to fail? Because of the company's approach to fixing the problems. The people behind Cre8Buzz have decided to elicit the help of their members and use social media to get the word out about their problems. They are doing the rare thing in this Web 2.0 world: asking for help.

Their new community relations director sent out a plea for help on new social video site, Seesmic:

Their company… mascot or voice, I guess you'd call him, Antman, has been developing a presence on Twitter and asking for help there. The community members and BuzzBoard members are responding with replies on their blogs, their Twitter accounts and on the Cre8buzz corporate blog.

What does it mean when the company says it is opening the kimono and seeking help? They are going for full disclosure. Over the coming days you will see their business plan posted, their finances, a list of what's gone wrong (and what has gone right) along with suggestions they receive and how they are approaching each problem. This is a rare case of a company eating crow in a very public fashion, and letting its human side show.

What do you think? Do you think the "open kimono" approach, which I think takes some serious guts, is laudable or laughable? If you are on Cre8Buzz, are you going to give them your two cents? Or do you think the approach they have chosen is off the mark? Would you join the network for the sole purpose of offering advice? I'm very interested in hearing thoughts from some of the social media leaders in the comments. What would you do if this was your floundering company?