There are many reasons we love to work with clients like Dell, Inc., not the least of which is that they genuinely want to engage and listen to their brand community. It is not unusual for Dell, Inc. to launch an application like IdeaStorm to take suggestions directly from the mouths of their community members, and then make changes to their company and products based on those suggestions. The next in the lineup of community applications is Community Pulse.
Community Pulse allows anyone to submit their thoughts on Dell’s products and business. Users don’t have to register. Each post is completely anonymous, making the process as simple as possible.
For this application, 160 topics were defined to encourage discussion among users. A user can make a post by choosing one of these topics and then submitting a compliment, comment, or complaint about the topic. The topic cloud on the site then displays each topic based on its general tone (the closer to the top of the page, the more compliments), the amount of people talking about it (the bigger the font, the more posts), and how recently its been discussed (the closer to the left of the page, the more recent the last post), allowing the user (and Dell, Inc.) to view a multidimensional graphic display of what people are saying.
We also built a Google Gadget that displays the topic cloud and latest posts, and allows users to see the tone over time (the pulse) of any topic.
Community Pulse is still in Beta, so feel free to go check it out and tell us what you think by making a post on the site under the “Community Pulse” topic!
We’ve been posting screencasts on Nuts About Southwest, our latest project with Southwest Airlines. When building the site, it was important for us that users be able to access as much content as they wanted on the site, or view each piece separately in various forms. This way more users could interact with more content in more ways, fitting various life styles and preferences. The last few screencasts have been focused around how to interact with Southwest content off the actual site - so far, on Flickr and through RSS feeds. The latest screencast is on how to subscribe to Southwest’s podcast through iTunes.
Enjoy!
Nuts About Southwest part 5 - Subscribing to the SWA podcast in iTunes
Other screencasts in this series:
For some people, RSS (Really Simple Syndication) is a way of life. For others, it’s just another acronym that they kind of/mostly/pretty much understand. In part 4 of our screencast series on Nuts About Southwest 2.0, Eric discusses RSS basics using examples from the various feeds on the Nuts About Southwest site.
And don’t worry, I’ll be back around next time. Enjoy!
Nuts About Southwest part 4 - RSS Feeds
Other screencasts in this series:
We’ve added a lot of functionality to Nuts About Southwest (Airlines), and we’re filming this screencast series to be sure that none of the cool new features get lost in the excitement of a new site. The following screencast is “a behind the scenes look” at the flickr images you see on the Nuts About Southwest site. It presents a basic step by step look at how to post images on flickr and to the Southwest Airlines group.
Presenting, part 3: Nuts About Southwest part 3 - The Southwest flickr Feed
If this is basic knowledge to you, you are among the few flickr users who know how to join a group (many don’t). If this screencast shows you something you didn’t know before, you’re definitely not alone.
Other screencasts in this series:
It’s the same Nuts About Southwest, but of a slightly different variety. Some like their peanuts dry roasted, some like them salty. Even if honey-roasted is your flavor of choice, there’s something for you at BlogSouthwest.com.
The blog for Southwest Airlines just turned two, and we are celebrating by bringing the conversation to a wider audience. We know that people engage websites in different ways. While I might prefer to spend my time reading Brian Lusk’s blog posts, others may prefer to listen to Steve Heaser’s radio voice on RedBellyRadio. Then, if you are into watching video, Christi Day shares her enthusiasm on the Video Blog. Of course, there are many who like it all mashed together, providing everything in one place.
We hope you enjoy the new BlogSouthwest.com. We have had such a great time working on this and have had a rare experience to do exactly what we LUV to do. Gotta hand it to the Southwest team. They have the content part of this whole thing figured out.
We’ll be posting more later on this as we want to help Southwest share the features and functions. Our team is preparing presentations for our blog where you will get to meet them and hear about their contributions.
Many thanks also to Paula (did you think I would forget you?). Not least, Paula Berg (AKA BlogGirl) is a rock star who does everything at 100 mph… without sleep!
UPDATE:
Here’s an introductory screencast, the first in a series we’ll do on the new site. Thanks Caitlin and Eric for the narration!
Nuts About Southwest 2.0 - Introductory Screencast
UPDATE #2:
Screencast part two - logging in to the new Nuts About Southwest. Enjoy!
SWA screencast part 2 - logging in
There’s (still) lots more to come!
UPDATE: The CNN URL has changed, but you can also check out the press release on Yahoo business here: http://biz.yahoo.com/iw/080506/0394111.html
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We’re thrilled to see this press release on CNN Money on the Nuts About Southwest launch.
If you scroll down, you’ll see a quote from our very own Chris Ronan:
“Southwest took a big step when it launched Nuts About Southwest two years ago, and they’ve proven their ability to conquer the most difficult challenge our clients face — consistently creating great content,” said Chris Ronan, President of RD2. “What’s different this time — we know that the Southwest Team generates meaningful content, which has allowed us to focus more on context. We asked ourselves, ‘Who are the users? What are they reading? How do we give them a more diverse tool set to communicate with Southwest?’ In applying these contexts, we can think of Nuts About Southwest as a platform for many applications, instead of just an application itself.”
The launch has been several months in the making - and we’re all really proud of our team who has been working hard to get the site up!
The goal for 2M’s site redesign was to showcase their community, values, business, and support for the arts online.
Mort Meyerson, the CEO of 2M Companies Inc., and the rest of his team tasked RD2 to convey their mission to seek the greatest good for their communities, and operate under the principle that “philanthropy and business are purposefully intertwined.” With this vision in mind, RD2 used photography and multimedia to expressively portray many unique sides of 2m’s organization. The result is a beautiful online experience.
Andrews Distributing is one of the biggest beer distribution companies in Texas. When an organization delivers countless cases of beer to every type of restaurant, bar, and nightclub imaginable, it starts to notice some things. Andrews started to notice that every client they work with presented a unique experience for its patrons, ranging anywhere from overall atmosphere to the way it presents its menu and cuisine.
If this experience could be presented for food, why not for beer? By focusing on craftsmanship, aesthetics, and rich historical details, Andrews adopted a philosophy of turning beer into a “destination product” - the central part of an experience, rather than merely an auxiliary item.
Andrews and RD2 worked together to create Destination Beer - a repository of information on every beer carried in the Andrews Distributing lineup.
Different beers contain information on history, food pairings, brewing processes, and recommends several similar beers to the user that they might have never heard of otherwise. The site as a whole helps educate retailers on the beers they serve, allowing them to place more emphasis on their beer selection and presentation in their establishments.
We were able to match the information architecture developed by Eric and myself with striking design and a custom-built Ruby on Rails back-end to make Destination Beer a destination in and of itself.
Destination Beer is known around the office as “the best research project ever.”
Turchin & Voorhies is a boutique investment bank here in Dallas, Texas. Gil Turchin and Paul Voorhies have been around the block a few times, and help their clients navigate through complex transactions.
Turchin & Voorhies needed a new brand identity package, including a website, to communicate their message. They realize that value of the first impression, and the second. When meeting a perspective client for the first time, Turchin & Voorhies have much to show at face value. The identity and communications of their materials and business cards are completely integrated with the look, feel, and messaging of their website. Their clients put a lot of trust in them, something they wanted their integrated brand to communicate.
So it’s been a really busy couple of weeks here in the West End, but that hasn’t dampened our enthusiasm for blogging. And we couldn’t be happier that one of our favorite clients still LUVs to blog.
Here’s wishing you more candy than you should be allowed to eat at once for Valentine’s Day.
