03.03.08

Why do I love trustedplaces.com?

Posted in business, interweb at 12:29 am by coldclimate

I love trustedplaces.com, and because I love it, its the only site I spend time being active in really.  I’m a passive user of hundreds of sites and numerous emialing lists, but there are a couple of sites I actually contribute content to, and trustedplaces.com is one of them.  The big question is why.

Well, it’s a bloody good service is one answer, and I’ve used it to find places to eat, but I must have uploaded more articles than I’ve used, possibly even more than I’ve read really.

The answer is simple.  I have a vague and distant connection to it, and this makes it seem just a little bit more “mine”.  I’ll happily tell people about it, recommend it, and when I go somewhere that I’ve found through it I try to make sure they know thats why I’m there.

How do I have this connection?  Nothing really.  I once went out to dinner with Randomcat Chris whom I’ve know a very long time.  He in invited Gareth, who know in passing and have a huge amount of respect for.  Gareth brought with him Ian Forester, who at the time I didn’t know, but I was amazed by backstage.bbc.co.uk, and it turned out Ian headed it up.  I started reading Ian’s blog, which is excellently written and well thought out unlike many of my rambles, and he mentioned trustedplace.com.  I wandered across it, thought it looked interesting, quite liked the idea of writing for a different audience (learn by doing I guess) and so I signed up.  I’d been there all of about 2 minutes before I recognised a name, and found that Tom Reynolds who writes the brilliant Random Acts of Reality was also a member, and I was hooked.

Now this is all pretty patchy.  I’ve never me Tom Reynolds.  I’ve only met Ian once.  I suspect it’s at least a year since I’ve seen Garath.  Really, these are all pretty tenuous links, but they got me started.

What’s held my interest is the love and time that the sites founders clearly have.  I emailed them when I found a minor bug, and they got back to me in hours to say thanks.  They’ve asked me to go along to some of their social events, all of which I’ve managed to miss, but their asking increased my connection to the site.  I’ve even “friended” them on facebook (bah! spit! more on this another time) but the key thing is I’ve built a relationship to the trustedplaces brand, and I have customer loyalty.  There are lots of ratings sites out there, and I won’t touch them.

Thats the kind of marketing that can’t be bought.  I takes time, dedication and the sort of investment that big companies just won’t make, and I suspect it’s the real power of scial networks, be they digital or physical.

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