Advice from Craigslist's Craig Newmark

The WSJ interviewed Craig Newmark, founder of Craigslist, which now advertises in 560 cities around the world and has more than 12 billion page views a month. Craig reflected on his experience with Craigslist and his career. His most sage advice to young entrepreneurs is:

Treat people like you want to be treated, including providing good customer service. Listening (skills) and effective communication are essential.

He also discussed what he believes Craigslist's future is:

Continue serving the community, perhaps more cities, countries, and languages.

His advice and viewpoint are simple, but particularly easy not to abide by. Craig's simple view and straightforward, "golden rule" approach are what management teams like those at Facebook need.

Facebook has gone too far off the beaten parth, especially with the launch of the infamously intrusive Facebook Beacon that reported people's purchases at third-party sites into the mini-feed. Craig's belief is that Craigslist should keep doing what it has been doing. Don't try any crazy tricks--just listen to the consumer and provide what they want.

Facebook does a decent job of throwing a lot of ideas into the mix, but I don't think it does a good job of listening to its audience. Facebook, especially now, is one of the largest photo sharing sites on the Internet, yet when people upload photos you can only download them in the low quality format you get of the Facebook pages. It would be nice to have an option to download hi-resolution images, like on Flickr. I think this would dramatically increase Facebook's engagement with its users and increase customer satisfaction.