Introduction
Solution Partner, Digitas, introduced Solid State Group to the Shell Group as a technology partner on the microsite, ‘Shell Dialogues’. The site was created to provide an on-line presence for Shell to enter into a dialogue with the public on a number of important subjects.
Shell Dialogues Website
Website
Background
With the launch of Tell Shell back in 1998, Shell was one of the first large, global corporations to actively invite people to post questions about their industry.
Shell wanted an upgrade to the dialogues site where members of the public could ask questions, download reports and engage with an active community on the shell site. This centered around the annual release of the Shell environmental and sustainability report.
Objectives
- Promote accessible and interactive debate
- Enable user generation and ranking of dialogue to draw public in
- Allow members of the public to ask questions and leave feedback about the report.
- Enable the report to reach more people through more channels.
Solution
Solid State Group built a custom interface to Cookie Jar CMS that was tailored to Shell’s workflow process. The system allowed users to ask questions about the report and general policy on the environment and sustainability.
Shell could choose and then publish the 10 most relevant questions to topics that were being raised. These questions and answers were then rated by public users on a scale of 1 to 10. Content tags, tag clouds and RSS provided alternative methods of accessing the dialogues.
Fig 2 – Shell Dialogues tag cloud
Cookie Jar then processed those questions into a carefully thought out moderation workflow. Some questions were answered in an online debate streamed live from the website, some questions were answered in text on the website, others were answered direct in email and others were unsuitable for answering.
Cookie Jar CMS was integrated with data from shell.com to pull in content already in use on their main website. The shell.com site, built on Interwoven’s TeamSite CMS, shared videos and documents that were all tagged in Cookie Jar and displayed alongside relevant content.
Results
The dialogues website was well utilized by the public and the system processed hundreds of questions which were moderated and answered online. Shell were able to display a willingness to discuss matters of the environment, something oil companies have traditionally had problems with. They were also able to moderate and control the discussion so activists couldn’t use it as a tool for anti PR.
Shell were extremely pleased with the outcome.
About Solid State Group
Solid State Group is a web platform software vendor and technical agency. The company specialises in solutions for managing web content and digital assets as well as social networking. Our products enable the rapid development of web sites and applications on proven and stable architecture. We also develop bespoke web applications from scratch and offer a full service solution including strategy, design, usability, SEO, and integration into third party systems.
The company has developed over 100 web projects since 2002 and complexity ranges from simple brochure websites to complex social networks, intranets, payment processing portals and eBay style ecommerce sites.
Our client list consists of blue-chip, public sector, SME and not for profit organisations. Blue chip clients include Shell, Disney, 20th Century Fox, Sony, Yahoo! and Ericsson. Other clients include NHS, Amnesty International, Brit Awards, Odeon and i-level. For more information please visit www.solidstategroup.com or call 0845 838 2163.
