June 2009

Chapter Business

 

Presentation: TripAdvisor - From Me to We to Web 2.0: Building a Community -- and Company -- with Help from the Masses

Abstract

TripAdvisor is the world’s most popular and largest travel community. With 25 million reviews and opinions contributed by more than 10 million registered members, we’ve learned a few lessons about reaching out to consumers, building community, and creating a sustainable business through user-generated content. In this presentation, we’ll share 10 things that have contributed to TripAdvisor’s success, how we keep these in mind while designing the user experience, and how you might put them to work for you.

Specific discussion points will include:

• Motivating consumers to join and contribute

• Giving back to nurture and grow your community

• Leveraging social media for brand and content building

• Repurposing content into new product as times change

• Iterating as you go until you get it right

• Monetizing your site … making a buck or two off of UGC


Bios:
Cindy Roche, VP, Site Experience

Cindy Roche heads site design and architecture, copy development, content production and translations and content integrity for TripAdvisor. Before joining the company in 2008, she was VP, Design and Customer Experience, at Fidelity Investments. Her team focused on online user experience and information architecture for Fidelity.com. Previous positions include Creative Director at Digitas in Boston and Interactive Community Manager at Firefly and Prodigy. Before there really was an Internet, Cindy was a literary agent in New York and represented the likes of Jhumpa Lahiri, T. Coraghessan Boyle and Louis Menand. Cindy has a BA from Princeton University.


Patrick Coyle, Creative Director

Coyle joined TripAdvisor in March 2007 to spearhead the visual component of a major site redesign. Leading a team of designers to create the new online brand and visual direction for TripAdvisor.com and foreign sites in the UK, France, Italy, Germany and Spain, Coyle oversaw the process from offline, conceptual branding exercises through implementation, testing, and QA. He worked with Information Architects and CSS developers to create a scalable solution that allows TripAdvisor's site to expand with ease and speed. With the redesign successfully launched, Coyle remains at the helm of art direction for TripAdvisor, continually advocating for the benefits of strong design and simple, usable interfaces. Prior to joining TripAdvisor, Coyle served as Art Director of Molecular, Inc. and of Lycos, Inc. and Design Director of Razorfish, Inc. He holds a BFA in Illustration and Design from the Rochester Institute of Technology.


Lauren Hanlon, User Experience Specialist

Lauren joined TripAdvisor in January 2009, and has helped introduce Information Architecture more formally into the design process. She also conducts various types of user research including usability tests, surveys, focus groups and ethnographic research. Prior to TripAdvisor, Lauren was a user experience consultant for a small start-up called UpDown.com and held various roles in both the Design and Brand/Advertising groups at Fidelity Investments. Lauren has her BS in Engineering Psychology from Tufts and recently completed her MBA from Boston University.


Directions:
From Route 128/95 - Points North and South:

Take exit 19A for Newton and proceed around the ramp toward Newton. Turn right at the end of the ramp onto Highland Ave., which turns into Needham Street. You will pass through several traffic lights. Just after the second Filene's Basement and about one mile from the highway, on your left, you will see a sign for Newton Technology Park, 141-173 Needham Street. Once you enter the driveway our building is the first on your right. There is plenty of parking in the lot surrounding the building.


Public Transportation:

Green Line: D train to Newton Highlands stop.

Walking from Newton Highlands station to TripAdvisor


1. Head southeast on Walnut St toward Floral St

2. Turn right at Centre St

3. Continue on Winchester St

4. Turn right at Needham St


Contact with further questions:

Lauren Hanlon [lhanlon@tripadvisor.com]


Meeting Notes -- Greg Raiz

From Me to We - TripAdvisor meeting


TripAdvisor history.
The Founder, Steve, is on vacation. He goes to two destination. One was great the other was terrible. How could you prevent this?
The company was founded in 2000 and has been growing since.

Stats
- 25 million monthly users
- 10 million registered users
- over 1 million destinations

A core principal at the company is "Speed Wins"
- Speed Wins - make decisions quickly, get to market first
- The founder has a hand drawn sign on his door that says 'speed wins', nothing fancy, it reinforces and reminds people of it's own message.
Simple is complex
- Making things easy is not easy

Understand how the company makes money
- Internet company / ads for trip advisor

See the whole picture
- It's not just hotel or food, it's the whole trip, photos, videos, forums, flights, etc. End to End Experience

It's a small world....
- International, locaization, globalization
- Different cultures travel differently. Europeans tend to take mini-weekend vacations.

Empower the community
- Give users the power to add content, moderate. Travelers helping travelers is how the site was built.
- It's a balencing act between the needs of different communities.
- Empower the communities but be careful not to entitle them.
- In some cases your core target user isn't the loudest user on your forums
- Try to give back to the community

It;s all about content
- Go to the people, don't expect them to come to you.
- If the people are on Facebook then you should go where the people are.
- Don't expect people to come to your site.
- Tripadvisor has 6 million pins on Facebook

How do you build a community?
- A lot of reasearch on why people write reviews
- If users get value out they feel a need to give back
- When users can interact they want to communicate and that makes people want to come back.

How do you deal with bad things?
- Community users flag content
- Team internally finds and spots stuff
- Certain users can get a time-out or eventually banned if needed

Community building takes time. A strong community is at the center of a strong site.
It can go beyond the technology.