Repsol Guide. Promotion and increasing loyalty through Social Media.
Posted by igsegma | Social Media | Posted on July 31st, 2010
I have just read the post “Repsol Guide reaches 50,000 fans in Facebook”. This certainly proves the success this Guide has gained in Social Media.
I recommend you all to read it very carefully and visit all the links it offers, as it may be seen as a masterpiece on how a brand can make its way in the Internet through Social Media.
What does success mean for the Repsol Guide? I guess success means gaining more and more Internet users accessing their web page when organizing their trips, searching for accommodations, or choosing restaurants.
In a different stage, it also means attracting Facebook fans to participate in the Guide’s suggestions.
In my opinion, the Repsol Guide has found the best way to keep their paper-format guide alive. I am completely sure the sales of the guide have not gone done, but increased. This is certainly a lesson to be learnt by the rest of media written in paper, although I guess the situation is different if compared to general information newspapers.
I feel the Repsol Guide has understood it is difficult to stem the tide. It must be the user himself the one deciding whether he prefers written or digital information. I believe the profile of both types of information is totally different, although changes are expected in the future.
The Repsol Guide offers users the possibility to reach interesting information that could be once checked in the written version, although now it is accessible in a more efficient and enriched manner; that is to say, in a more internet-like way.
The Repsol Guide website has the same type of problems any website has. You may access fantastic content, but users will not surf your website just because you offer loads of information and services. People don’t have time to surf the net, or they simply don’t want to. When visiting a website, we just consult the info we are looking for. People need to see a whole, piece by piece. Most people are not interested in the Repsol Guide in the whole, as they are just looking for specific information. There is so much high-quality content to visit that it is impossible to check everything. Users often check the links they have been recommended. This is what Social Media are all about. Forget about Internet searchers. People use other people they trust to filter the things they are really interested in. The Repsol Guide shows different proposals and games to prove how useful and interesting their contents are.
The Repsol Guide is becoming a referent in the blogosphere as it has slowly and quietly got into this world, trying to understand how this environment works, and adapting to it by encouraging bloggers participation.
As a result, it is not a surprise they get more benefits than Movistar or El Corte Inglés.
One of the most interesting things I have experienced in the world of wines was that in 2005 a man called Hugh McLeod, who worked in a small winery in South Africa called Stormhoek, sent a bottle of wine to all French and English bloggers who could prove they had been participating in his blog for at least three months. The results were impressive. This is what I call understanding the essence of the Blogosphere.
I believe guiarepsol.com understands and handles the blogosphere nowadays in Spain the way Hugh did back in 2005 with magnificent results.
Congratulations.
This post in Spanish: Guía Repsol. Dar a conocer los contenidos y fidelizar con Social Media.
