Aug
30
2006Open Letter to The Tube
30
2006
(What follows is a message I just sent to The Tube regarding their unfortunate web strategy - or lack thereof)
I love The Tube, and watch it all the time. I finally got around to investigating your online presence, and I have to say it’s mighty confusing. I have no problem at all with your web site being primarily an e-commerce vehicle, but it’s nearly impossible to find general information about the actual channel. Even the links that say “More About the Tube” just redirect back to the store homepage.
The Tube is GOING to develop a huge fanbase, and your site should serve the needs of a passionate, growing community - not just bounce you into a shopping area no matter where you click. You’re squandering opportunities left and right by not treating The Tube as a full-blown “lifestyle brand”.
Don’t change a thing about the channel, but please realize that you can’t build a community around a thinly branded generic storefront.
If you do happen to want actual information about the channel, you can find it at www.tubemediacorp.com, which - as far as I can tell - isn’t linked anywhere from their “consumer” site.
Update: My comment sent via their web form bounced back to me via email - It’s worse than I thought. This is why I like to mirror correspondence like this on my blog - at least SOMEONE can read it.
Update 2: OK… Even though I got an email failure message, someone wrote back to me to tell me that clicking “More About The Tube” goes to a different site called “www.TheTubeTvInfo.com” - which it does - but which it didn’t do when I wrote this post!
They say when you find yourself in a hole, the first thing to do is stop digging… so I’m going to drop this subject now and get back to not blogging.