Category: Review
Clip the Trip has arrived!
The latest and greatest travel recommendation site has finally landed. This is a project I’ve been working on over the past few weeks, and I’m super excited to be writing that it’s launched.
Clip the Trip is a site which makes it easy for travellers to travel like a local. It is a platform for people to share their knowledge about a city.
Anyone and everyone can write a recommendation – the aim of the project is to make travel what it should be; discovering new places, new experiences and having an amazing time. As the clips comes from locals it aims to have deep, unmatched local knowledge.
The important thing that sets CTT apart from other travel sites is that the information is from locals. The inspiration comes from a site I previously worked on with the friend in question – where travellers based in between two popular cities would recommend home-from-home bars, restaurants, shops etc – for those who travel endlessly and miss the comforts of home.
Clip the Trip aims to home the knowledge of a word of locals in one smart place – and it relies on those who know the places best. Contribue to the site by sharing knowledge of your city and earn money at the same time – read more about this over on the site.
I’ve written some of my very own clips as well, check them out:
Vegetarian & Vegan Food In London
Social success is just a risky move away
An amazing opportunity will come to your brand on a weekly, maybe even daily basis. Identifying that opportunity and actioning it is a whole other kettle of fish. This week we all saw two great community management responses. The Bodyform video, which we’ll go on to talk about later, and the fantastic comeback from the lowcostholidays.com community management team in reaction to a user posting on Thomas Cook’s Facebook page. If you’re unfamiliar then check out the screenshot below…
It’s simple to see where Thomas Cook went wrong and lowcostholidays.com went right. TC failed to identify this as a PR opportunity, both on and offline – instead fearing the obvious backlash that handing out a free holiday could have on their Facebook page. But is a weekend away in Paris worth the exposure they’d get back?
Is it worth the risk?
No one will 100% be able to answer this question for you, and in all honesty, your client is more than likely going to opt for the less risky option. What you need to do is keep your eyes open for the opportunities that land on your page on a daily basis – watch the attitudes of those who interact with your page on an ongoing basis. If you think you’ve got something, it could be time for a creative brainstorm, work within a small team and pitch a low-level initial thought to your head of strat or social. If they think it’s worth investing in then you can start pushing it forward. The idea is to reach the client with such a creative and timely idea that they can’t possibly turn it down.
The trick is fast turnaround and low cost – don’t design or invest more than just a community manager’s time on this until you know you have the nod to make something amazing. That’s how I imagine the Bodyform video came about…
The video has now gone viral, Bodyform may now be seen as a cool(ish) brand, especially on social. It’s a tough place for the kind of product they are and they just completely smashed it by taking a huge risk. Something we often hear about social, is that it’s an area to work in an extremely lean way – win fast, fail fast. Today’s social fail will be yesterday’s news before lunch time (generally speaking that is, of course there are some risks that aren’t worth taking – but you know your brand best).
Don’t take it all so seriously
For most of us, the social space is just that – social! No one wants to write on a brand’s page to get a response lifted straight from the FAQ page, or something that feels like it’s been written by a slug. Anyone in the world can churn out generic responses, this is your chance to get creative. Don’t fear the negative backlash – if it’s a troll it’s inevitable.
The problem with the Thomas Cook scenario is just that they failed to have fun with it. They followed community management guidelines to the very word – but that’s not what it’s always about. If they’d had a little more fun – whether they’d given the holiday away or not – both customer and brand could’ve come out of it feeling a little less cheated.
Have you spotted any risky community management behaviour that’s worked well lately? Share your favourites with us in the comments below or via Twitter!
Social Engagement vs Social Commerce
I’ve collected my thoughts on the SYZYGY debate I went to and wanted to write them up as it’s a subject that’s particularly close to my heart.
On Thursday I went to SYZYGY’s debate on ‘Cuddles vs Funnels’ which explored the approach of engagement and befriending your fans or taking a more straightforward approach to converting them into becoming buyers. The panel was a selection of the best and brightest – Dr Paul Marsden, Digital Insight and Innovation at SYZYGY, Nathalie Gaveau, Founder & Ceo of Shopcade, Mark Rogers, Founder of Sentinel Projects and Luca Benini, MD of BuddyMedia EU.
The statement that made me request a ticket in a hurry was “Burberry, Heinz, Ticketmaster and Zynga all sell successfully on Facebook whereas Gap, Nordstrom, JC Penney and Gamestop have shut up f-shop from lack of sales”. A firm believer in social engagement and the friendship between brands and fans, I was *so* intrigued to hear a panel of experts discussing and rooting for the opposite. Especially because it’s most client’s number one request for return on social.
“Does social commerce work? Is there a right way and a wrong way to try and monetise your fans? Or is it inappropriate even attempting to sell to your followers, instead focusing on improving engagement?”
The panel showed a strong preference toward the funnel side – which was a shocker for me. Mark Rogers believes that “cuddles should be between humans, down at the pub”.
Nathalie of Shopcade gave a beautiful demonstration on how it should be done as she took us through the social shopping application on Facebook and how Shopcade have made shopping online a social experience. The application not only recommends items by your friends and most trusted associates but also allows you to be a trendsetter yourself by sharing what you purchase. She said that she “believes ‘cuddles’ and understanding your customers in a deeper way leads to real sales”.
Luca Benini talked of using social engagement tools, such as Buddy Media, being able to identify and intercept your consumer’s moment of need. He told a brilliant story of a particular airline’s passenger running late, who’d tweeted frantically about missing their flight – the tool picked up the sentiment and their social influence, even though he hadn’t @ mentioned the company, and threw him to the top of the priority queue. The brand was able to get back to him and let him know which terminal to head to and who to speak to, reassuring him that they would be waiting and wouldn’t leave without him. He’s now one of the brand’s biggest advocates! This scenario is totally about cuddles for me – the cuddle and reassurance led to him becoming a regular flyer.
What was my takeaway?
It was *so* refreshing to attend a discussion that was actually extremely brave and current. Though I still believe in the power of cuddles, I now understand the importance of creating a branded experience that’s not just about being fluffy. Paul Marsden said “shift your focus on to the advocacy value of a customer, not just the revenue they provide” which really stuck with me – not that I ever like to put a monetary value on my community anyway, but it was brilliant to hear a social pioneer discuss the value of an online advocate.
You can watch the debate online if you’re interested in discovering more about the subject.
Social engagement tools: five to consider
I’ve spent the last few weeks reviewing social engagement tools – something I did at my previous agency, but this time I was a little more involved in actually setting up demos and cherry-picking who we should speak to, which I realised took a huge amount of time. That’s why I’ve written this post to guide you and hopefully help shorten the process down to help you figure out which could be the best option for your client. It should save you some precious time!
Firstly, here are the tools I’ll be covering; This Moment, Conversocial, Spredfast, Sprout Social and Radian6 Engagement Console. I would also be covering Buddy Media Conversation Buddy, but even though I’d already worked with them on an alcohol brand over at AF, they repeatedly ignored my demo request, even though they promised to get through to me on Twitter. Named and shamed! Bad practise guys, hopefully your tool will pick up some negative sentiment over here.
This Moment
A fantastic tool which would be ideal for a company with limited access to developers and designers. You have custom built templates for Facebook apps and YouTube channels that are genuinely gorgeous – and a huge variety so you wouldn’t have to worry about dodgy duplicates with other brands. The DEC is a system for managing a your presence and mentions across a multitude of sites and platforms including Facebook, Twitter and YouTube . You get all basic Facebook and Twitter functionality thrown in.
It covers such a gigantic variety of sites and platforms that I’m sure it will cater for most brands’ needs. Well worth a demo and consideration.
I’d recommend it for smaller brands to get set up, follow leads and engage with people talking about your brand.
Clients include: Barnes and Noble, Socialtext, Acxiom.
Conversocial
I have reviewed this tool in a little more detail, because I’d been considering it for so long, so give that a read if you’re interested in more info.
Conversocial is one of those tools that initially wowed me – clean layout and design, simple functionality that just works and basic workflow functionality (with some nice analytics at the same time). The only downside was the variety of channels available to work with – just Facebook and Twitter right now. A great tool to use to get on top of your mentions, create keywords to follow (ace for competitor monitoring and engaging) and build genuine relationships with your community. It will help you engage more efficiently and effectively.
Clients include: River Island, Cafe Nero, Tesco, Hertz, Odeon.
Spredfast
My winner by all accounts – Spredfast is a dynamic, fantastic and adaptable tool. You can pretty much customise *anything* which means that it can easily tick many of yours or your clients boxes. It also enables streamlined collaboration within your team, from integration of social data through to existing business systems. You can access tons of channels from the platform, including Facebook, Twitter, YouTube, LinkedIn, Blogs and Flickr to name a few.
You can prioritise conversations, assign tasks, manage your social inbox and create analytics reports in one space. I can’t recommend enough that you consider this tool for *any* client. The only thing could be cost, but from research I gather that price plans start at $1,500 which is really reasonable considering competitors.
Clients include: Starbucks, Warner Bros, Whole Foods, at&t
Sprout Social
I *loved* Sprout Social. It’s a real community manager’s tool that allows you to view previous conversations (awesome for new starters and for anyone in the team to understand context) and engage in deeper way.
It all depends on what your client is looking for – this tool wouldn’t really be ideal for a large team across multiple countries with regards to workflow (assigning, delegating, following up). A little feature I especially like – it puts a little star on influential users who’ve mentioned you. It’s fairly affordable, so ideal for smaller clients, or a section of the brand you may be covering in just a few countries. The only real criticism I have is that you only have two levels of permissions – one who can do everything and then one
The best bit has got to be the reports it produces – they’re incredible! Clean, easy-to-read and designed to your specifications. Give @SproutAngus a tweet for more info on this tool.
Clients include: Fender, McDonalds, Groupon, Adobe.
Radian6 Engagement Console
I’m going to be brutally honest – I just was simply not impressed with what the tool offered.
There were nice aspects, such as a great mobile app and keyword groups but as a comms manager, you can’t do basic things such as upload photos, videos or any sort of attachment with your updates. You can’t schedule any updates (wtf!?).
You can have a section of the tool dedicated to procedure guidelines, so anyone within the team can access your best practice guidelines at any time. Really nice, but not a deal breaker at all.
I have a feeling because they’re all part of the new SalesForce family that they’ll probably be pushing for people to use Buddy Media.
sophie loves social 