Sometimes I’m asked what we’re doing in social media to help people. Well, instead of answering this question individually, it would be best to share how we use social media to connect with customers (and prospects) so we’re all in sync and working collaboratively.
What are we working towards? As a community of entrepreneurs, we all work to liberate ourselves from the pains of running a small business. See how social media helps us, help you grow your business.
Social media is so much more than just Twitter. Really, it is. Before “social media” existed, “community” prevailed and very much has its roots in all the social media practices that lives today. In this post, I’ll share what we are doing to communicate with customers, prospects and the industry – you.
Email Newsletter
While not as modern as the likes of Facebook or Twitter, we use our newsletter named The Vault, which allows us to share current news and events on a monthly basis. Soon, we’ll be giving The Vault a blog on all its own so you can easily access and share content with peers. But e-mail combined with our other efforts allow us to keep close with customers and prospects.
Blog
If you’re reading this, you’re on our blog. We use our blog to share a variety of perspective, even a little spin. (At least I admit it, unlike other places.) On the blog, we share useful information that helps Infusionsoft users apply good marketing principles and strategies that help them double their sales. We also accept feedback from anyone who comments on entries.
We engage where our customers are — and many of them are on Facebook. To be exact, from a survey we conducted a couple months ago, 89% of customers indicated they are on Facebook. Our Facebook presence is in the form of a Page that anyone can access and become a fan of. We hooked up our blog so if you’re on Facebook, you’ll see our blog entry and you can comment from within Facebook. In addition, we plan to expand and offer more exclusive community interactions on there in the form of Webinars and focus groups. If you’re not a Fan of us yet, I invite you to become a fan today.
At Infusionsoft — or shall I say in Tweet-speak– @Infusionsoft, we have a loyal Twitter following and I frequently monitor what the buzz is about Infusionsoft out there. I’m often caught pacing frantically if Twitter is down (seriously, ask my marketing team); it’s all for the good cause of helping people who engage with us on Twitter. I’ve found we have been able to attract thousands of followers by simply providing helpful content and having conversations with customers. Some might ask if there’s ROI on Twitter — and I can confidently say “yes.” It pays the bills, but that’s not why we do it. We do it because that’s where customers are and there’s a need for us to be present in conversations surrounding CRM, Email Marketing and eCommerce. These days, consumers expect it from brands they interact with and I believe in it.
Recently, we have our system status messages being posted to @InfusionStatus, so follow that to be advised of important system updates/status on our systems. Not many Tweets are posted to that, but I highly recommend you follow that account if you’re an Infusionsoft customer.
You never know when I get access to our American Express card. Sometimes, I buy laptops and give them away; sometimes I offer comp’d Infusionsoft accounts. Other times, employees might put up cold hard cash for trivia or scavenger hunts on our Website. The only way you’ll be privileged to get these goodies is if you follow us and it costs you nothing but your time. I’m making reference to our recent Twitter contest, but we are likely to have more giveaways to our loyal followers. If you haven’t followed us on Twitter yet, you should.
Flickr (Photos)
Whenever we’re doing something interesting or cool, I’ll probably be there snapping photos. We plan on chronicling these events and sharing a bit of secret sauce (employees) with the world in the form of pictures within the office. Expect funny photos and plenty of football fields in these photos. Some photos are candid, as I feel it’s important to showcase the authentic nature of how we operate and sometimes catch us off-guard. Check out our photos anytime on our Flickr Photostream.
Comments on the Web
Entrepreneurs are creators and we constantly look for what people have to say about our brand. We use a variety of tools to monitor what the Web has to say about us and we comment on their blogs and forums wherever they might be. We also accept feedback openly and love it when people write about us — even if we screw up – because it allows us to improve. Soon, we’ll be implementing a premium solution to enable us to measure the activity found on the Web. If you want to monitor your brand, check out this post I did on StartUpNation, 3 Powerful Free Apps to Monitor Your Small Business in Social Media.
Being Accessible
Not everyone is comfortable making comments or asking questions on the Web. Virtually anyone in the company is accessible by email or phone. Our format for sending emails to staff is a standard “firstname.lastname@infusionsoft.com.” If you want to send me an e-mail, send it joseph.manna at infusionsoft.com. Many employees are found on Twitter, Facebook or LinkedIn; your thoughts are always safe with us as we continue to please customers and help people. Some have wondered if they can email our CEO, Clate, and yes you can. He replies back to customers, so if you have a concern or suggestion — let him know by writing to clate.mask at infusionsoft.com. As expected, his demanding schedule might cause a delay, but he intends to reach everyone who writes to him.
Community Forum(s)
We have two forums available for customers to access and connect with fellow entrepreneurs. First of which is a support forum known as the Fusebox. On there you can ask question and share answers with customers who want to learn how to take their Infusionsoft knowledge to the next level. We have employees who monitor and jump into discussions as well. We plan on engaging our partners more on there and allowing users in similar industries to trade tips and tricks soon.
The other forum is our classic forum. On there you can talk with other users and post questions, strategies and general thoughts on extending your Infusionsoft experience. So far, it’s grown a lot and many new enhancements are planned down the road. Stay tuned to the blog and the Forum to learn more.
Infusionsoft Ideas
Many of you know we improved our process of accepting new ideas for our product through Infusionsoft Ideas. It’s clear we’ve grown alot, but our entrepreneurs continue to push us (thank you) to become bigger, better, faster and stronger. We democratized the process for an idea to rise to the top and get the attention it deserves. On the roadmap, we have a substantial PayPal integration, International character sets, Split Testing Emails, Mobile-Friendly Access and much more. We’ve already delivered on revamping our Opportunities feature and the User Home page among many others.
Just a response to a few folks who have claimed this is merely a front to abstain from accepting new ideas. It isn’t. I stand behind that. We have a finite number of resources (hungry coders), and we give them all sorts of crazy, challenging requests such as bug fixes, internal refinements, system architecture changes and of course, working on fine-tuning how our software runs. We’re very lucky to have great developers making great things and helping over 15,000 small business users enjoy doing business everyday. We’ve recently switched to a weekly release process, so this will definitely speed up the delivery on these new ideas. (Soon, I’ll interview a developer about it and post it for you here.) But your feedback has been heard, we’re working on dedicating more focus on these ideas than we have before.
Surveys, Webinars, Live Video Streams and Chats
While not as frequently used as others, we’ve had a lot of success when interacting with customers via our surveys (it has a comments section, too), Webinars where I moderate the chat and offer a helping hand to those who need it, and Live video streams. These also take significantly more work to put into them so it’s a pleasant experience for everyone, but we love doing it. If you recall, a couple months ago, Tyler Garns did 24-hours of small business consulting in the Fixing Follow-up Fiesta and it had a huge hit, attracting over 2600 people who watched and learned a lot of small business strategies. Thanks everyone who attended!
We’d like to put on more of these, but we need your help. If you have a suggestion for us or want us to do a Webinar on a particular subject, let us know! It’s important for us to be sure we’re providing value to our audience of small businesses owners as both of our time is valuable, but we’ll do it if you care about the topic.
Having all that said, I’m very satisfied with how we’re doing in social media and I think it’s catching on with our users. In the past year alone, we grew our Twitter followers to over 5500 followers, Facebook fans to nearly 800, and there are about 760 of you who subscribe to this blog. If you want, read this press release for more details.
We have more plans to continually break barriers and crush it in the eyes of our customers. But this is a two-way street — we need your help, thoughts, opinions and engagements to help us grow. If you have any suggestions at all, please do not hestitate to let us know. We really do care and will make sure your voice is heard at all levels.
A big thank you to everyone who is a follower, fan, subscriber and visitor of us. Seriously, from my heart, I appreciate helping to connect with you through our blog and social media. Let’s connect and tell me what you think in the comments.
[Photo credit, mfinleydesigns on Flickr]
–Joe
Killer post. The multiple customer touchpoints aren't just covering the bases for the sake of covering them, they are HELPFUL – each in their own way. Bravo. Enjoyed, bookmarked, tweeted.
Thanks, Jason. I'm quite flattered you found it helpful. As someone who works with a lot of companies, having your support and blessing is a nice thing to have in social media. I admit, as a one-man army that I am, I can't be everywhere at once, but with a few of your tips you help shape my social media strategy and become helpful wherever I am.
Thanks for sharing this with your followers!
~Joe
Joe this is a good post. I particularly like your “read this press release <link> for more info if you want” phrasing and may steal it. But what about this part: “We have more plans to continually break barriers and crush it in the eyes of our customers.” Ouch! JK.
RT @Infusionsoft: 'How We Use Social Media' ► http://bit.ly/t0UCc ◄ #infusionsoft #blog #socialmedia #crm #smallbiz
Rebekah,
Thanks for the comment. We did a press release a while back, and it wasn't particularly pertinent. It also saved me from writing more than I had to. I figured, following the basic fundamentals of inbound marketing, if someone wants more info, they will click it.
My metaphor in crushing it in the eyes of customers could probably misread. I was up late when I wrote this… lol. It's supposed to be read as we're going to do more stuff in social media with our customers.
Thanks for the comments and the Twitter love.
~Joe
Great post Joe. One of the social networks we use that you left off is YouTube (http://www.youtube.com/infusionsoft) – another great way to connect with customers & get feedback. As a marketing exec, social media is a tough one to measure. Sometimes, you just have to risk it, let it ride, then try to figure out how to measure. One figure I'm confident of is Infusionsoft's use of social media has increased customer satisfaction. The traditional call-in model for support doesn't satisfy today's web-savvy entrepreneur. They expect, and should receive, help and support through various channels… be it a post to a Facebook page, a tweet, or a comment on our blog. I look forward to the evolution of social media tracking & monitoring tools so I can continue to justify our investment in social media for customer loyalty, brand awareness, demand generation, etc.
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Joe,
You cover a lot of great info on your blog. Do you, or, do you plan to use professional bloggers or marketers to manage and follow-up on your social chatter? The “monster ball” of a successful social marketing campaign can quickly get out of control. Thanks for your insight.
Great post. What do you think of Veimo?
Travis,
Thanks for the comments. At this time, I don't plan to enlist pro-bloggers or social marketers to the cause. I'm working on building out more redundancies and cross-training staff in the company to carry out the work that I do. I equate my 'social chatter' as more than chatter so I frequent and follow-up on all conversations on a regular and expected basis.
Yes, it can quickly get out of control, but that's kind of what I like about it. It's thrilling, you might say.
~Joseph
Marshall,
I think you mean Vimeo, right? I think it's a great video platform. HD videos there look very sharp and I like their video player. Among other things, good simple format pays its dividend in SEO as well.
~Joseph
Travis,
Thanks for the comments. At this time, I don't plan to enlist pro-bloggers or social marketers to the cause. I'm working on building out more redundancies and cross-training staff in the company to carry out the work that I do. I equate my 'social chatter' as more than chatter so I frequent and follow-up on all conversations on a regular and expected basis.
Yes, it can quickly get out of control, but that's kind of what I like about it. It's thrilling, you might say.
~Joseph
Marshall,
I think you mean Vimeo, right? I think it's a great video platform. HD videos there look very sharp and I like their video player. Among other things, good simple format pays its dividend in SEO as well.
~Joseph
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