Anyone who follows me on Twitter knows that I am a huge fan of a San Francisco company called Rickshaw, which makes the best bags on the planet, messenger and otherwise. I became aware of this start-up in early 2008 after reading they were making bags for that year’s TED Conference, and happily caused the average IQ of those who had personally experienced a Rickshaw to fall exponentially after buying one of the first “commuter messengers” they ever produced for sale to the public.
I’ve referred friends (like @zacharye) to Rickshaw and always gotten thanks and raves in response. These bags really are something special, and after a brief period of inactivity the company has come back strong with several new items, improved product lines, an enhanced website and social media presence - notably in the form of a pretty active Twitter feed.
One of the things they are doing on Twitter actually prompted this post, and I was going to do it in a Tweet but there was no way to get all this across in 140 characters, so here goes on Tumblr.
A mainstay of the @rickshawbags Twitter feed are Tweets that carry the #FreshBagFeed hashtag, and these special posts feature newly-made bags coming off the Rickshaw production line. What I didn’t realize until recently is that commemorating your bag in this way is actually part of the ordering process on the Rickshaw site. When a customer gets to the “place order” moment, they are asked if they would like their bag to be included in the #FreshBagFeed, and if they say yes to this and add their Twitter account information, when the bag comes off the line the good people at Rickshaw take a photo and Tweet it.
Here’s how they describe it, right out of their feed:
rickshawbags Our bags are made to order in SF! Join our #FreshBagFeed by including your twitter ID w/order to see your bag fresh off the production line
And here’s an example of a #FreshBagFeed Tweet:
rickshawbags Fun colorful Zero Messenger Bag for [@customer name deleted] in waterproof X-Pac and bright yellow. Made in SF #FreshBagFeed http://twitpic.com/47y88e
I thought this was a really great example of using social media to drive a number of key objectives - building (and feeding) a passionate community, interacting with customers, promoting enthusiasm for the brand and the products - all the way down to the individual item level. A simple little idea and execution that perfectly integrates marketing, communications, customer service and social media. Smart, strategic and organic, it seemed to me, and definitely worthy of my first Tumblr post.
And here’s my original Rickshaw commuter messenger bag, circa mid-2008. I just got a new MacBook Air and have been fighting the strong temptation to buy one of the new-and-improved (true) versions for this prized possession to live in on the rare occasions when it’s not out in the wild, but I can’t justify it. Three years later and people still ask me if the bag I’m carrying is new, right before telling me it’s the coolest one they’ve ever seen.
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