Lindsay Casey

Why Your Business Doesn’t Need An App

A friend recently mentioned to me that an acquaintance of his wanted to build a mobile app for his pub. Not a mobile website, not a responsive website, but a full fledged app.

If you’re starting a new business or just getting your existing business online, I can see the allure of a shiny, new app. But you don’t need one. In fact, you shouldn’t make one. It’s a terrible idea. Here’s why:

  • Nobody is going to use it. When I want to see a menu or see what events are happening at the local bar, I check their website. I’m not going to go to the app store, download and app and give it prime real estate on my already crowded iPhone screen.
  •  It doesn’t DO anything. Think about what your bar or restaurant’s app will offer to your customer. If a potential customer does download your app, all it is going to do for them is take up time and precious smartphone space. Unless it takes reservations and includes other value ads, it is useless to the customer. If it does offer these things, it’s likely too expensive to maintain. Which brings me to my next point…
  • It’s expensive. Developing an app for your restaurant (or almost any retail business) is a waste of money. People want to view a clean, informative website that is responsive across all devices. Why spend money developing something nobody wants to use? Put your money into a user friendly website. You’ll have money left over and a happier audience.

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Lindsay Casey

Make Social Selling Easy With Chirpify

Social media is everywhere and that isn’t going to change. Our digital lives are becoming more integrated with our offline lives and I believe the next phase of this combination is e-commerce.

Some people have been slow to accept internet banking and other forms of online financial transactions. However, with companies like Square processing payments on smartphones combined with a generation of people who’ve grown up with online banking, it’s clear that the next step is seamless integration between shopping and social media.

Chirpify, the only in-stream social commerce platform, is a forward thinking company making e-commerce simpler than ever.

The Social Commerce and Payments Platform from Chirpify on Vimeo.

See something you like on a Facebook page? How about Instagram? With Chirpify, you can buy, sell or pay for items with a single comment on Twitter, Facebook or Instagram.

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Lindsay Casey

The Winner of Volvo’s #LastEverC30

Volvo #LastEverC30 Winner

Remember Volvo’s genius social media competition to give away the last production model of their awesome little hatchback, the C30? Well, they have a winner!

Huge congrats to James McKenzie! After tweets using the hashtag #LastEverC30 moved the car from Gothenburg, Sweden to England, Volvo released cryptic clues to its location. James picked up on the clues, found the little car in North Oxfordshire, tweeted #GiveMeTheKeys to Volvo and now he’s the proud owner of the Last Ever C30. Here’s the winning tweet:

Last Ever C30 Winning Tweet

What a great campaign! However, the campaign’s website looks like it has been kind of abandoned. Volvo has the winner up with a congratulatory note, but hasn’t removed the twitter widget that asks people to tweet an outdated message of “Solve the #LastEverC30 clues to win the car today.” If I worked for Volvo, I would suggest doing a photo shoot with the winner and putting a real face to the completion of the campaign. Perhaps even keeping a sporadic follow up blog would be fun. I’m sure the new owner wouldn’t mind updating the public on the adventures of his prize once in a while.

Overall, I think Volvo did a great job with their #LastEverC30 contest, but I would recommend proper closure. An abandoned website doesn’t cut it.

On more of a gearhead note, here are some notes on what made the Volvo C30 such a great little car.

Lindsay Casey

How Ford is Leading the Race in Social Media

It’s hard to ignore how well a massive company like Ford has tackled social media. The automotive giant is arguably one of the best brands on social media right now and what I like about them is that they aren’t shy about sharing their strategies. Ford’s head of social media, Scott Monty, has been really open about their strategy of humanizing the brand and adding value in a “140 character society.”

So, what makes Ford so great at social media?

fordNostalgia – Did your dad drive a Mustang? If he didn’t, I bet he wanted one. Just try saying the words “Shelby Cobra” and see how long he goes on for. Few brands are as iconic as Ford and their social media team is using nostalgia to keep their audience talking. Through posting vintage photos of cars and trucks and quotes, like the one pictured to the left on Facebook, they’ve got the audience telling their own stories about the brand.

Conversation – I mentioned about Ford’s genius move of getting their audience to tell the brand stories for them. Well, this creates a prime environment for Ford to engage in meaningful dialogue with their audience. Whether it’s a story about Grandpa’s first truck or the car a father and son team lovingly restored, Ford’s social pages are full of stories and Ford does an excellent job at celebrating them.

Contests – Whether it’s sneaking a peek into the design of the upcoming Mustang or . Ford has also been smart about using social media contests to drive buzz. Their brilliant #Fiestagram campaign generated thousands of photographs on Instagram and the Fiesta Movement Campaign saw Ford handing the keys over to 100 bloggers for a six month long, all expenses paid, test drive.

Plus, they’re funny. Take this, Jeremy Irons.

Final verdict: Trailblazer. In every way. Catch up with Ford on Facebook, Twitter, YouTube, Instagram and Ford Social.

 

Lindsay Casey

Xplornet Gets a D- in Engagement

Xplornet

Rural Canadians depend on Xplornet for high speed internet access. Unfortunately, as is the case with many companies who service rural markets, they have been left in the social media dust of larger, rival companies like Bell and Rogers. At this time last year, Xplornet’s Facebook page was a ghost town and their Twitter stream was barely updated.

To their credit, Xplornet does seem to be stepping up its efforts and I can personally say that I have received great customer service resulting from a tweet. However, the overall effort still comes across as weak.

xplornet

Blog – Xplornet has launched a company blog. It’s poorly laid out, which means it doesn’t actually look like a blog at all, and it’s difficult to find. Some of the content is outdated – even though the audience is a rural one, I’m pretty sure most people know that Google is a verb by now.

My Recommendations:

  • Write shorter, more engaging posts and make it easier to find and share them.
  • Get  rid of the Captcha system and use a back end spam blocker.
  • Ditch the corporate responses. Not every comment needs to end with regards, the customer service rep’s name and their job title.
  • Change how posts are tagged. I find it icky that blog posts which have nothing to do with Xplornet’s services are tagged with the names of all of their internet packages.

Twitter – Over the last few months, Xplornet has been providing quite good customer service on Twitter. However, it’s all reactive. I don’t see anything proactive there. While responses to customer complaints are good, it would be better to have some positive tweets displayed when you land on their page.

My Recommendations:

  • Start engaging. Retweet and thank people for positive tweets when they show up.
  • Be human. Can the corporate speak and let the reps talk like humans.
  • Share. Find relevant content and share it. Show some behind the scenes action. Humanize the brand.

It’s difficult for a communications company, especially one that works in rural locations. Services go down due to remote locations and weather and when people get frustrated, social media is rapidly becoming the first place to air frustrations. However, by being proactive, heated situations can be diffused and by humanizing the brand, a company can begin to build customer loyalty.

It currently seems that people are with Xplornet because they have to be, not because they chose them. If I were in charge at Xplorenet, my goal would be to be the company people would choose even if another company entered the market.

Final verdict: D-. Not a complete fail, as progress is apparent and it’s nice to see them making an effort, but  they still have a long way to go.