Archive for the 'Business' Category

Oakwood Creative and NetRelations of Scandinavia

Published by
Tommy Sollén
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Tommy Sollén
August 16, 2007 in Business, CommunityOfSweden.com, Design, News, Press Release and Tech. 0 Comments

After a tough and stressful July of inviting tenders for the online community design, we’ve finally selected who we want to work with.
Unfortunately, because of the cramped time table, we didn’t have time to show you all the designs and vote on them. I hope you will like the end result anyway.

Design created by Oakwood Creative

As I’m writing this they are working hard at creating a beautiful and user friendly design. The first prototype has now gone through a couple of iterations and we’re close on reaching the final design template to proceed.

Oakwood Creative is a small web design agency located in Gamla Stan / Old City, Stockholm.

Design implemented by Netrelations of Scandinavia

I’ve chosen the perhaps unusual approach of letting another company implement the design. I’ve continued our “dream team” approach to this project and NetRelations have a very good reputation especially when it comes to implementing web sites according to standards, usability and accessability.

NetRelations of Scandinavia is a consulting agency specialized in accessability and web standards located in Gothenburg.

In the next post I hope to show you how far we’ve come with the design! :)

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The design proposals are in!

Published by
Tommy Sollén
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Tommy Sollén
August 1, 2007 in Business, CommunityOfSweden.com, Design, News and Planning. 0 Comments

We’ve now received a good selection of design proposals for the online community. I’ve started the process of going through them, evaluating the designs and the costs etc. It’s all very interesting and inspiring!

Stay tuned for more updates!

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Who will design our online community?

Published by
Tommy Sollén
on by
Tommy Sollén
July 9, 2007 in About, Business, CommunityOfSweden.com, Design, News, PR and web 2.0. 1 Comment

Last week we invited tenders for the design of our online community. A couple of web design companies now have until the 25:th of July to submit their offers.

The invitation by email included a descriptive document, general design guidelines, company information and a few selected wireframes. We’ve asked for design prototypes on two of the wireframes, first page and member profile page, and a rough time and cost estimate.

We will choose a few of the best design prototypes that arrive and publish them here for your viewing and voting. You will have the chance to make yourself heard and say which design you prefer the most!

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Difficulties in scheduling resources during summertime

Published by
Tommy Sollén
on by
Tommy Sollén
June 12, 2007 in About, Business, CommunityOfSweden.com and Planning. 0 Comments

After a period of what I can best describe as the calm before the storm the wind is now starting to pick up in strength.

I’m working hard on all the preparations and one of many tasks is to schedule time and resources for the development and programming of the community. This is proving to be more difficult than first suspected and one reason for this is that we’re fast approaching the Swedish vacation period.

Swedes love their vacations and rightly so. After having spent most of the year in cold dark winter we live for the summer and the sun. That’s why most of our 4-6 weeks of vacations take place somewhere in june,  july or august.

Because of this and the fact that our planned community supplier Trive is extremely busy we’re having a hard time to schedule the resources needed to meet our internal deadline. But it’s not over yet! A solution will be found.

Note to self: don’t plan development during the summer. Or just plan better and earlier…

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“Phasers on stun” - Community Launch Strategy

Published by
Tommy Sollén
on by
Tommy Sollén
May 21, 2007 in Business, CommunityOfSweden.com, Planning, Tech and web 2.0. 1 Comment

I’d like to say a few words about our launch strategy. By just looking around at other new online communities it’s obvious that there are many ways to go. Launch everything at once. Private beta phase. Public beta. Launch a little, then a little more etc.

These are our thoughts

  • We’re planning a private beta
  • Then a public beta period (phase 1) which is the official launch
  • Phase 2 launch, end of beta
  • Phase 3, slower continuous development

It’s hard to wait with functionality to later phases when we know it will add a lot of value but there are a few good reasons.

First of all we don’t want to put all the eggs into one basket. Also I don’t think the users want an overwhelming amount of features to hit them at once. Better to let them discover the features one by one and give feedback on what works and what doesn’t. We can then take this feedback and compare to our own release plans. Hopefully they’re in sync, otherwise we will have the opportunity to adjust our plans for the next phase.
This strategy helps the development process. If we see a demand for a particular feature we can prioritize amongst what’s in the pipe line to accommodate our users. We want to respond to their needs and to show that we listen and care.

Nothing new under the sun here. I think this is how most other community drivers think. I just wanted to bring it out in the open so we can discuss it if you feel like it :)

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Consumer generated content (CGC) influences $10 billion a year in online travel bookings

Published by
Tommy Sollén
on by
Tommy Sollén
May 11, 2007 in Business and News. 1 Comment

A study released by Compete Inc in march revealed these key findings:

  • Consumer generated content (CGC) already influences $10 billion a year in online travel bookings.
  • Consumers are increasingly embracing their peers’ voices online: 20% rely on CGC when planning travel, and they consider this content more credible than reviews from professionals or information from the brands themselves.
  • In many situations, consumers will welcome brands to participate in the conversation
  • CGC can have a direct and positive impact on eCommerce performance
  • Brand advocates are hard to come by, but have a significant ability to shape the effectiveness of CGC campaigns

Compete’s research is based on its panel of two million consumers and behaviorally targeted surveys to precise consumer segments.

Read more here.

This study is shows that we’re on the right track. :)

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Press release: VisitSweden to let private individuals promote Sweden

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Tommy Sollén
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Tommy Sollén
March 22, 2007 in About, Business, CommunityOfSweden.com, News, PR and Press Release. 2 Comments

In launching an online community, VisitSweden will use social media as a tool for promoting an entire country – a highly innovative approach that only a handful of countries have tested. Previous and potential visitors, as well as Swedes, will be able to discuss Sweden as a tourist destination – for instance sharing travel experiences, giving useful tips and learning about the country – in an online community to be launched this autumn. The community will be at a location linked to VisitSweden’s official tourism website, and will be the first one to focus on an entire country.

Sweden has a strong international brand, with diverse themes for travel, including design and culture, mountains and archipelagoes, food and children’s activities. However information on these themes must be more accessible and always up to date. VisitSweden, with the objective of promoting Sweden, Swedish destinations and experiences to an international audience, is always looking for efficient ways to reach the selected group of people who are most likely to travel to the country.

The trend towards interactivity and user-generated content on the internet, also known as web 2.0, is growing exponentially. Internet users are keen to tell others about their travel experiences and share information about their favourite places. An online community at www.visitsweden.com will be the link between the people who know and love Sweden, and those who are curious to learn more. The virtual meeting place will enjoy a high degree of credibility, since the users themselves will be able to present ”their” Sweden.

”We hope that the foreign visitors, together with residents of Sweden, will become a natural part of the international marketing of Sweden, by inspiring one another”, says Maria Ziv, marketing communications director at VisitSweden, and adds: ”There is a huge potential for a Sweden-related community, and we want it to complement and strengthen our other marketing activities, such as consumer marketing”.

In particular, VisitSweden aims to reach young childless couples, who are an important group for travel to Sweden and regular internet users.

”An online community can make Sweden’s vast range of experiences accessible to anyone, regardless of time and place. Today there are communities for almost every area of interest, but not a single one with the aim of marketing a particular country”, says Hans Leijström, community expert at Trive, which together with VisitSweden is developing a concept and platform for an official Sweden community.

Trive will base the community on StarCommunity, a product from Netstar.

The development of VisitSweden’s community will take place in a completely open environment. Future users and potential partners in the Swedish tourism industry will be able to follow and influence its development by way of a newly started blog, http://devblog.visitsweden.com. The blog will be an important part of the community’s development, and communication with the blog’s readers will inform many strategic decisions.

For more information on VisitSweden | www.visitsweden.com

Blog on the development of the Sweden community | http://devblog.visitsweden.com

For more information on Trive | www.trive.se

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Community platform chosen!

Published by
Tommy Sollén
on by
Tommy Sollén
February 19, 2007 in Business, News, Planning and Tech. 0 Comments

It’s not easy to choose how the online community should be developed. Should it be open source? A more official tried and proven solution or something new and daring? Perhaps not even a platform at all but instead more of a mash up solution.

Finally the decision was made. We’ll be using StarCommunity from Netstar and Trive will implement it. It finally came down to the extensive experience Netstar and Trive has in the world of communities.

We’re both very excited about this project. An official press release is in the works. Stay tuned!

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