I write about strategies to turn fans into customers and customers into fans. I also share ways to use real-time strategies to spread ideas, influence minds, and build business.
Daan Weddepohl points us to this interesting way to launch a new Website.
When Recensiekoning, a Dutch news site, implemented their site redesign a few days ago, they called on their fans for real-time support.
Recensiekoning counted down the time until the new site was to be unveiled and fans who tweeted about it got their Twitter photo or avatar on the countdown screen.
This is a great way to include people something that is obviously exciting for the company and might otherwise be ignored.
The tactic worked great. Hundreds of people jumped into the game. Then thousands. Soon Recensiekoning was a trending topic on Twitter in the Netherlands.
The team generated more views in three hours than they normally handle in two weeks.
But then overwhelming demand crashed their servers.
While they couldn't offer viewers the new and thoroughly tested website the way had planned, they did some real-time fixes that worked out in the end because of the tremendous attention the site and the fan interaction created.
Team Recensiekoning produced this real-time video to show how it all went down.