The pulses behind some of the biggest brands
It’s been two months since the launch of our spingly spangly new GlobalPersonals.co.uk website and well, quite frankly following positive feedback we’re on a roll. As we witness the metamorphosis of the company from a hairy caterpillar to a fluttering butterfly, it’s critical for us to have a platform on which to let our teams shine. Therefore making this site the very best that it could possibly be is incredibly important to us.
The Task
Having been given the task to reassess and write briefs for the further development of the GlobalPersonals.co.uk website, it became clear that the site should really enable us to highlight the human element of the company as opposed to explaining the platforms or own brand sites, as this was all being done elsewhere on the WhiteLabelDating.com site which is currently under construction. Instead the GlobalPersonals.co.uk site can remain a hub, pulling everything together and giving each and every team member the ability to speak and be heard, representing the company and everything that we stand for. Therefore this means reviewing which of the social features work and how we can expand this further.
For many companies, there is a concern over giving such responsibility and freedom to their staff, but I sincerely believe that as long as you hire people that truly fit your culture and provide them with a framework to work within, you can take that leap of faith with the best possible confidence.
Given how important we see the role of each of the guys and girls working for us, I decided to undertake a project to look at companies doing this well on their websites. It was surprising how many companies still don’t do this well. They may have their teams engaging on social networks such as Twitter and Facebook (the starting ground for so many companies!) but there was very little interaction going on in their own sites. Now I’m the biggest advocate of going to the masses and engaging in environments in which they’re comfortable, but I also believe that this should be continued throughout your own online properties. If you’ve decided that you want your brand to be authentic and engaging, this should be a culture that you live and breath – and for me this means exposing the faces and personalities behind the brand.
After many hours of searching, I found a few good sites, which did a great job of communicating their culture, highlighting their teams, showing the pulse behind the brand and engaging with their consumers. I thought that whilst we continue to build and polish behind the scenes on our own site, I could share these with you:-
Virgin.com
Following the re-design of the Virgin website by my good friend Alex Hunter, the site encourages interaction brilliantly. Now whilst it mightn’t show the teams behind the brands (they do so much!), it does give you great insight into Richard’s life and thoughts and with the use of the community talk, ask richard and quick talk, lowers any barriers that may exist for people to engage with the brand.
Rackspace.com
As a company that prides itself on fanatical support, Rackspace do a fantastic job of giving their consumers as many ways of connecting with their teams as possible and explaining their culture with the use of “the anatomy of a racker“. There are then voxpops by several team members explaining what fanatical support means to them. It’s clear from the site that everybody understands the purpose of the company and that the customer is centric to everything that they do. A real differentiator from all of their competitors.
Etsy.com
The guys and gals at Etsy have done a great job of illustrating all of the individuals behind the brand, giving a real sense of the size of the company and through laying out the teams visually shows which teams are weighted most heavily – focussing on the areas of customer care and development. There are also visual demonstrations of the Etsy community both in terms of numbers and location which gives the brand a real sense of power and encouraging visitor interaction on the site.
Of course, I’d love to discover further sites, I’m pretty sure that there are lots of small boutique sites out there doing great work that don’t always get the recognition they deserve. Have a great site? Know of one? Drop a link in the comments below and let me know your thoughts. Of course, if you have any feedback of your own on the site and what you’d like to see, this would also make my job a LOT easier, just sayin’.
Site design briefing head taken off for the day. Thank you.
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