White Agency Blog
White Agency launch social networking site for Swift Group
White Agency has successfully launched their first social networking site www.swift-talk.co.uk for the Swift Group. Swift Group were active on a number of industry forums answering customers product related questions. To help provide an even better customer service, Swift approached the White Agency to ask if they could develop a social network which would put them directly in contact with their customers, providing one focused area for customers to liaise with Swift and also growing a Swift community online that would be united in their interests in caravanning, motorhomes and touring in general.
After some research the Agency’s Development team chose to work with Ning, an existing online platform for companies to create their own social networks. Ning was chosen for its flexibility, as the Agency could control the visual look of the site, what features would be available to members and member data.
One of the main features of Swift Talk is the forum area which encourages direct interaction and allows members and Swift staff to publish their comments on specific topics or questions. Other features include the news which is fed through from the Swift Group website, tweets that have been posted through the Swift Group Twitter account, an events calendar, member blogging and photo and video sharing which allows members to upload and share any photos or videos. A Group Creation feature also allows members to organize themselves into groups, where they can meet new friends and discuss group-specific topics in the group forum.
All areas of Swift Talk are controlled by Swift Group via a back end control panel. This gives Swift Talk administrators the ability to moderate content such as the forum discussions, photos and videos and manage members. Swift has also gained useful marketing information by customising members profile questions when they first join to find out about such things as members interests and whether they own a caravan, motorhome or holiday home.
Swift Talk was launched in May 2010 and although not actively marketed, the membership has grown to over 1800 members through word of mouth in just 5 months and is continuing to grow at a rate of 100 new members per week.
In such a short time Swift Group has already found Swift Talk invaluable and feel that it has enhanced the Swift brand as it has given them a platform to engage their target audience directly. Feedback from members has been extremely favourable, especially as Swift Group has been seen to be proactive in dealing with customer queries therefore making members feel valued and cared for.
