Ikea assembles its own photo-based social network
The Swedish furniture retailer asks customers to post photos of rooms featuring its furniture or other merchandise for the home.
Swedish furniture giant Ikea is asking its customers to help them build something, but unlike the company’s bed frames and end tables, there’s no Allen wrench required. All you need are a few photos of your Ikea-furnished rooms.
The video that greets visitors to Ikea’s Share Space website calls it a place “to share spaces made by, and for, people like you.”
“You don’t have to be an interior designer, just a lover of design,” the video assures viewers.
According to Christine Whitehawk, communications manager for Ikea North America Services, nearly 3,000 people share that love and have signed up for Share Space accounts. Those folks have shared a total of about 650 rooms, she said, each of which contains at least one Ikea product.
The company’s social media effort ties back into its retail business. Visitors to Share Space can click each Ikea product in each room to buy one for themselves.
Building the space
The idea for Share Space came from Ikea’s communications agency, Ogilvy, as part of its 2010 agency pitch, Whitehawk says.
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