When I began this week's assignment to "Research and discuss on personal blog two examples of effective community management by a Canadian company or organization" I found myself coming up with all these examples of US companies, but not so many for Canadian ones.
Anyway, I was able to find two good ones -- Porter Airlines and Joe Fresh.
Porter Airlines, who recently celebrated their 5th Birthday built a strong reputation for affordable flights, outstanding service and a hassle free commute. To my surprise, Porter has done an excellent job at using Social Media to enhance their brand and communicate effectively with their customers. Porter uses, Facebook, Twitter and YouTube.
Through Facebook, Porter understands and embraces conversations with their customers. On their Facebook page, they post questions asking their customers what they want to see, as well as answer any questions or concerns expressed by those very same customers. In addition, they provide their Fans with a lot of great content in terms of news, promos, photos and videos.
Although I myself am not a huge Twitter user, I did a search of Porter's tweets and found that the use it quite well. They first and foremost use it to communicate directly to their audience, for example they have Tweeted job postings, flight delays or policy changes in the past. Secondly, they Tweet about Porter in the News (I guess to further enhance their media coverage). Lastly, most of their Tweets are replies to their followers, which means they are listening, and they are responding. bombarding their followers with prices, deals and flights.
Porter’s YouTube channel isn’t anything spectacular, but at least they use it. Recently, they posted a video about about Queen Elizabeth II and Prince Phillip flying Porter as part of their tour around Canada.
The second company I want to discuss is Joe Fresh. Joe Fresh is a fashion brand created by designer Joe Mimran for Canadian food retailer Loblaw Companies Limited. A couple years ago, no one really knew who they were but now their line has entered the American market with the opening a several permanent and seasonal ‘pop-up’ stores in New York City and region. The brand's new international flagship store on Fifth Avenue will be unveiled in 2012.
Joe Fresh is a heavy user of Facebook. They have a wall post almost every day or every two days. They also use Twitter quite a bit to communicate with their consumers. Friends of mine who have mentioned JoeFresh in Tweets have received responses or Retweets by them. JoeFresh also has their own blog linked to their website called "Joe Fresh Life" where they promote new products, events and beauty/fashion tips. They even have guest posts, where they allow consumers to post their pictures and thoughts. Great idea to get the community involved and shows two way communication.
To wrap up, I am a true believer that if you are going to get involved in the social media space, you have to actively be involved and not just create a Facebook page or twitter account to save you are there. However, where do we draw the line between being involved and two much information to the point where people think they are being spammed?
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