The reason is simple: even if Poken is “just” a service, it’s a social one. It’s about social connections and targets people that already use one or multiple social networks. But those are people that are used to actually have some kind of dialog with their service platforms.

Facebook, Flickr, and such are social networks all right, but are above all they are a service. They are a product. And they do their best to talk to their customers and to get into a dialog with them. Because they want to create a positive experience for their users. To make them feel like they are part of something. To show them that they are important and to value their membership.

Now, Poken has a link to Get Satisfaction on their feedback page. All right, but Get Satisfaction is a platform for customer support, not to get into a dialog. This is shown by the template-like answers to user input. “The company is working on this idea” – what does this mean? It will be there next week? Next month? By the end of the year? What priority does this have compared to, let’s say, bugs? It’s an information all right, but it’s not really communication. At least not clear communication withou clicking through the respective threads, hoping to find some answers.

A Twitter-search for #Poken shows many many people that are making their first steps with their new Poken. But it also shows people with questions and people that are unsure or misinformed. It would be better to go out, find and talk to those people to clear up their issues. If you are in doubt that this would help, just follow this little chat.

But not only the missing channel from the users back to Poken is a problem right now. Also the communication from Poken to it’s users has severe issues. For some time people are complaining that they can’t activate their social networks. And what is the answer in Get Satisfaction? “The company is working on this problem”. Yeah, right. So, what is the problem? When can we expect it to be fixed? Why do I have to scroll down to find this information? And why is there no information about this on the Poken news section on the website? It’s a base functionality – one that every new user that just payed money for a Poken is likely to run into when he creates his account. He needs to know that this is just a minor issue that is being worked on and asked to be patient.

So, I think Poken needs a community manager that..

• clears up questions in the community
• gets in touch with the unsure and misinformed
• gets into a dialog with the community
• explains the community what is going on inside Poken S.A.
• explains Poken S.A. what is going on in the community
• spreads the word that Pokens are awesome

If right now I had just one wish to Poken S.A. it would be this one.