Comments on: Could this be the best use of social media in Australia?

By: 7 Australian Social Media Examples & Case Studies |

7 Australian Social Media Examples & Case Studies | — Mon, 26 Oct 2009 03:20:15 +0000

[...] its brand whilst also providing a platform for peer to peer advice and knowledge to be shared. View more about the strategy View the [...]

By: Brighita

Brighita — Mon, 20 Apr 2009 13:13:04 +0000

I think this is a great idea. Parents are going to chat whether its positive or negative. We’ve seen it here at Market United with http://www.minti.com. I think it’s great that ABC are doing something rather than burying their head in the sand like far too many brands do today.

Completely unrelated to Parenting but American Apparel have a review facility on their site. Some of their products have hundreds and hundreds of reviews and not all of them are glowing but it aides the purchasing decision.

Thanks for sharing Matt!

By: Matt Granfield

Matt Granfield — Mon, 20 Apr 2009 07:49:40 +0000

@Kate: I think in the words of the immortal Robert Allen Zimmerman: “when you got nothing, you got nothing to lose”!

By: Kate

Kate — Mon, 20 Apr 2009 07:43:04 +0000

I think this has excellent potential and will be following it closely. Many recommendations are made to companies to engage and communicate but for the most part they’re petrified of the negative and don’t appreciate the value of the positive. Hopefully this will see success and the general public will get behind it and embrace it as an opportunity.

By: Matt Granfield

Matt Granfield — Mon, 20 Apr 2009 07:33:41 +0000

@Isaac: Yep, we got a few parents to upload stories and videos to get the ball rolling - we didn’t want to launch with a completely empty forum, but we were up front about that. Everything in the forum is in the parents own words and they weren’t leant upon to be favourable or read off a script.

We looked at Get Satisfaction, but it wasn’t quite what we wanted - the system is based on forum software that’s used by a lot of sites, that was a plus because parents are already familiar with it.

By: Isaac

Isaac — Mon, 20 Apr 2009 06:14:31 +0000

Did you seed the forum long before taking it to the media/public?

Only had a quick skim of the site, but it reminded me of User Voice and Get Satisfaction. Did you look at branded versions of either of those, rather than rolling your own?

As for Dirk’s link - I agree. Came across similar info the other week and it’s been one of the more practical things I’ve learnt so far in 2009.

By: Matt Granfield

Matt Granfield — Mon, 20 Apr 2009 05:55:07 +0000

@luke: We’ll be encouraging the 6-18 month demographic to Tweet about their experiences shortly.

@James Duthie: We’ve sent letters to 100,000 ABC parents letting them know about the forum. We’re guessing that they’ll get involved because speaking up about their local centre helps them justify their decision to send their kids there and by talking to other mums and dads around the country they realise they aren’t bad parents.

@Dirk Singer: Thanks for the research, that’s a great link mate.

By: Dirk Singer

Dirk Singer — Mon, 20 Apr 2009 05:48:08 +0000

Hi, another really interesting case study from the other side of the world, thank you for sharing!

The point about how a few ‘devils advocate’ negative reviews actually add credibility was also confirmed in a study last year by a group of Korean researchers:

http://bit.ly/7iEi0

By: James Duthie

James Duthie — Mon, 20 Apr 2009 05:28:49 +0000

Kudos Matt & Nathan for getting this one across the line. I daresay management hesitance would have been significant given the state of public opinion. Agree with your theory, but the real challenge will be to actually motivate the satisfied customers to speak up. Easier said than done. Would be interested to hear what tactics you’ve got lined up to promote positive participation (because we know the negative will come naturally).

By: luke

luke — Mon, 20 Apr 2009 05:05:51 +0000

great idea. definately huge market potential.

also looks like a great network for kiddy fiddlers and pervs.

not to mention getting kindy kids hooked on social networking before they can even say Facebook