Normally, when you build a website, you have to spread onto Facebook and Twitter shortly (or immediately) thereafter. That is the way of things. You don’t go the other way round. Unless you’re Great Little Place, that is; the capital’s hub for interesting venues has just managed to ride its fans’ coat tails all the way into a proper life online, free from Zuckerberg’s blue walls. Err…How?
Long name ‘I Know This Great Little Place In London’, GLP last night launched a website that’s taken some 24 months to get made. The group began life as a Facebook page in 2010, dedicated to letting Londoners share their tips and hidden gems.
It’s crowd-sourced nature ensured its popularity grew at a maddening pace; within two weeks it had 20,000 fans, and two years later it boasts over 125,000. Which was good going for a Facebook page, but there’s only so much you can do from within people’s feeds.
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And then, last night at 8pm, the page posted this on its feed:
“After two years in the making, it is with enormous glee that we announce the launch of the brand spanking new Great Little Place website.
“This is the site we were harping on about with the crowd-funding quest, if you were with us then, and it’s finally live, enabling you to find and share nothing but great little places, everywhere. Thank you to everyone who supported its making – you are duly credited – without you it quite literally could not have happened. Sorry it took ages.”
Two years is quite a long time to build a site, but then this is a site that started with nothing and took in cash on good faith based solely on the fact that it was providing a much-needed, quality service. Turns out that that’s enough.
Facebook page to bona fide website? Off the back of random donations? It’s possible. Where you can go from there? Hopefully up and up, but either way, GLP is now an actual business, and will likely begin pulling in money.
“We’ve got masses of new features we want to roll out and we’ll continue doing so,” says the new Great Little Place site. “We’ll be improving all the time, and across more platforms, with an App around the corner, better Facebook presence and more. And we’d still love to write a book or two, old school.”
If nothing else, it’s interesting to see the power of Facebook as a launching platform, rather than just an extension of an existing property. The start of Facebook’s new role as a business springboard? It could well be, so long as you have the right idea and enough loyal support. Time to engage thinking caps, people.
Link: Great Little Place
