From today giffgaff will offer full BlackBerry services for the first time, including BlackBerry Messenger, BlackBerry (push) emails and BlackBerry Internet. The move comes following customer requests from the community-led mobile network’s members and prospects for BlackBerry compatibility.
giffgaff, SIM only mobile network, has today launched a range of new data-only goodybags.
Developed in response to demand from its community of members, there will be three data-only options: £5 for 500MB, £7.50 for 1GB or £12.50 for 3GB. The new products join giffgaff’s range of hugely successful goodybags, which combine the value and convenience of contract bundles with the simplicity and flexibility of PAYG tariffs.
giffgaff has also launched a new app, designed to be used in conjunction with the new goodybags, which will make it even easier for members to track their usage and avoid extra charges. The app will be available on Apple/iOS, Android and Blackberry.
The new launches are available for use in all data devices including tablets, dongles and PCs as well as mobiles, and there are no restrictions for streaming, downloading or tethering. As with all goodybags, the new data-only options will be valid for one month and will give members free giffgaff to giffgaff calls and texts and free calls to 0800 numbers.
Tom Rainsford, Head of Brand and Proposition, said:
“At giffgaff, the community is at the heart of everything we do and the new data-only products have been developed in response to the high demand we saw from our members. We encourage our members to come up with new ideas and shape our products. Through consultation we aim to deliver these great ideas and be true to our ‘Run by you’ slogan. Only with giffagaff can our members get this level of interaction and communication with their mobile network.”
For more information on giffgaff – the community led mobile network – visit www.giffgaff.com
giffgaff, SIM-only mobile network, has been recognised as the number one global online community by the leader in Social Customer Solutions Lithium.
Lithium tracks the level of engagement of community members by monitoring six factors – members, content, traffic, interaction, liveliness, and responsiveness – which are combined to produce a Community Health Index (CHI) score. Not only does giffgaff now have the highest CHI score worldwide, it has recorded the highest score ever registered by the platform. The network has achieved the record in less than two years since its launch in November 2009.
giffgaff’s community of members lie at the heart of the company’s innovative business model, carrying out customer service, marketing and customer acquisition functions through the network’s online forums. giffgaff continuously engages with its community asking for ideas and input in most aspects of what the business does. These open and frank discussions have led to an extremely loyal and committed customer base and driven rapid growth in the business.
In addition, Vincent Boon, Community Manager at giffgaff, has been named a ‘Protostar’ winner in the 2011 Constellation SuperNova Awards in recognition for his work with giffgaff’s members. The awards celebrate those who successfully put pioneer new technologies in a practical context to deliver a market-changing approach in their sector.
Vincent Boon, Head of Community at giffgaff, said:
“It is a great achievement to be rated as the most vibrant online community in the world and we are over the moon at this accolade. However, the credit for the success of the community must go to our members – they have really embraced our social business model and giffgaff would be nothing without their contribution.
“The fact that the SuperNova Awards panel has also recognised the success of giffgaff as a pioneer of social business is further icing on the cake. In my view the giffgaff community is an example of the internet at its empowering and innovative best, and I look forward to working further with our members as we look to work together to drive the business forward.”
The giffgaff community in figures:
For more information on giffgaff – the community led mobile network – visit www.giffgaff.com
New Community-led mobile network provider giffgaff, which now has tens of thousands of members, is celebrating new found recognition as a top 5 ranked social media brand within the UK, according to Social Brands 100.
The PAYG mobile network operator derives its name from the ancient Scottish word meaning ‘mutual giving’, and is consequently shaped and developed by its membership to authentically meet their mobile needs. Ranked closely behind Dell, Nike Plus and Starbucks, giffgaff came fourth in a list of the Top 100 Social Media Brands, beating off competition from the likes of the BBC, Virgin and Sony and eclipsing all other UK mobile network providers.
The Social Brands 100 survey was carried out by Headstream over a three month period from November 2010, which involved crowd-sourcing nominations from Twitter and analysing 30,000 tweets, posts, comments and likes to evaluate how effectively brands used social media outposts. In addition, a ten-person independent panel of experts scored brands on their ability to listen and engage with connected communities in a manner that mirrored people’s personalities and behaviours, whilst remaining agile, transparent and responsive to both positive and negative sentiment.
Unlike other mobile network providers, giffgaff has no call centres or big advertising campaigns, but instead harnesses the power of its online community to successfully run customer services and marketing operations.
Since its launch in 2009, giffgaff has empowered its community to shape the business and its products by asking them to post their suggestions on a dedicated page on the website. This has led to 830 unique ideas being posted, resulting in 137 ideas being implemented, a further 62 accepted and 48 under consideration. There have also been over 300,000 posts made in its combined online forums, where members help each other to answer questions and queries. So far there have been more than 20,000 questions asked, with an average of 9.6 responses to each question. All questions have been answered within an average of three minutes.
In return, and as part of its mutuality ethos, giffgaff rewards its members who help out on the forums or refer friends with a bi-annual payback scheme. giffgaff’s last payback in December 2010 resulted in over £128,000 given back to the community in airtime, money or as a donation to a chosen charity, with its top earner receiving over £900.
Cristel Lee Leed, Chief of Marketing for giffgaff, said:
“We are thrilled to have been recognised as a top 5 social media brand in the UK, and the number one social brand in the mobile and telecoms industry. It really is a remarkable achievement for giffgaff, just one year on from our launch.
“We are thrilled to have been recognised as a top 5 social media brand in the UK, and the number one social brand in the mobile and telecoms industry. It really is a remarkable achievement for giffgaff, just one year on from our launch.
“It’s a big thank you to our dynamic and dedicated online communities’ right across our forum, Twitter and Facebook.
We came higher than many blue chip businesses by actively engaging and working with our members to create something better in the mobile industry, which included building new products through the use of social media. This social approach is part of our DNA as opposed to being just an add-on, and we look forward to continuing to implement the great ideas we get from our members and rewarding them for working with us.”
Kirsty Weston, Head of Social Communications at Headstream, added:
“We wanted to find out what really makes a brand social. The bad news for some is that we didn’t find a simple answer to this question because these brands engage in a diverse range of ways appropriate to their communities. The best examples, however, do stand out for commercial gains they’ve made from good use of social. ”
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