Using Social Media to Connect with your Audience: A True Story

Lindsey Robbins — Thu, 07 Aug 2008 18:23:00 GMT

I’m in shock right now. Something totally awesome and unexpected just happened. It was my lunch time, I was checking out Facebook, and this friend of a friend popped up online and had an off-topic question. We were chatting for a minute when he mentioned he was recently on Daniel Island for training at Blackbaud (he's from the upper east coast). He didn’t know where I worked (and I don't know anything about his background) and so what was a quick convo off-topic turned into an opportunity to talk one-on-one with someone who uses our software - technical writer to database coordinator. No crazy travel plans, no pre-arranged meetings, just a chat about how weird it was that he is an RE user and I’m a technical writer who writes for RE. Mind you, I’ve never met this user before. I barely have talked to him but for some reason through social media a connection was made.

Instead of taking up a bunch of his time, we chatted a bit on Facebook’s IM client and I had the chance to immediately ask him what his opinion was of our user guides and help files. Given the opportunity I didn’t want to pass it up. How often, in an informal way do you get to chat with your audience? How often do you take down the boundaries, the pressure, and expectations to just have an honest chat? Comcast and Whole Foods are a couple of recent examples of companies using Twitter to connect informally with their audience. I asked both what they hoped to get out of it.

Whole Foods responded: “We're still pretty early in our Twitter days, so consider more a communication and community building tool... 01:45 PM August 04, 2008”

Now I’m not necessarily looking to build a community but as a Documentation team we definitely are trying to develop more one-on-one connections so we can ask the important questions especially the ones about how to make help better. We really dig helping users and that means admitting that we need to keep talking to users, trying new user assistance communication methods and content, and never settling for the way it’s always been done.

So with that in mind, this opportunity to talk to Bruce*, a database coordinator for a healthcare organization, felt like the golden ticket. A real person to ask real questions and perhaps I could provide some answers along the way too. Here are some snippets from the chat:

12:47pmLindsey so do you ever read the docs or just figure it out on your own?
12:48pmBruce I use it ALLL the time
RE doesn’t speak my language....
12:49pmLindsey thanks for saying that ;-)
12:49pmBruce ALL the TIME!
I JUST printed Query and Export Guide
12:49pmLindsey really?
12:49pmBruce yeah
looking at it RIGHT now!
queries are my arch enemy
we don’t get along!
12:50pmLindsey so awesome people are using our stuff
they can be tough, lots of options
filters
12:50pmBruce yeah!
no kidding!
I rely on your guides!
at training I was bombarded with info
12:51pmLindsey well it does take a while to sink in
RE can do a lot
12:51pmBruce and THEN we went through things...hands on, but WAY fast and SO not my pace
so yeah
your guides are my bible!
12:51pmLindsey can I quote you, that's awesome
12:51pmBruce yeah!
its true
I wont run a query with out my query guide
cause for me a bad query could be really expensive!
12:52pmLindsey totally
12:52pmBruce yeah! so yes...THANK you!
I know LOTS of folks who use RE and we have had chats about the guides
like....
12:53pmLindsey really?
12:53pmBruce we like that they are available on line
12:53pmLindsey cause we are always looking for ways to improve
12:53pmBruce I know that’s a blackbaud tradition
12:55pmLindsey so what do you say about our guides?
and you can say bad stuff too
12:55pmBruce well....the first thing I REALLY like
of course
are the screen shots
for me, I am a visual learner
12:55pmLindsey we're just starting to do short video tutorials too!
12:56pmBruce WHAT!!!!
I want that!
12:56pmLindsey we're starting small but we'll get there
12:56pmBruce 2- the guides don’t read like the old VCR manuals
they are easy to understand, and there is no pre-req to understand it
12:57pmBruce I think anyone that has never seen a query could run one without issues using the guide
right!
your guides are different
12:57pmLindsey yeah, some people though do end up calling support because their queries can get really, really complex
12:57pmBruce YES,....BUT I have instand CHAT!
instant*
12:58pmBruce ANOTHER gig about blackbaud
I just downloaded Live Chat
like last week....and LOVE it!
12:58pmLindsey awesome, i'm glad we're doing that
I'll mention that to my support friends
12:58pmBruce I find that if I have support do it for me, I have learned nothing
yeah it SUCKED waiting on hold for 45 minutes
now I have someone with in seconds
1:01pmBruce I think there is SO much that RE can do that me and my team have yet to discover

I learned a valuable lesson today. Social media can be fun on some levels when you use it as a networking tool but then learn how to take it to the next level. Facebook gave me a chance to practice my listening skills in a new medium. I get goose bumps over how excited I am right now. I can’t wait to chat with Bruce again. I would love the opportunity to talk to other users as well. Y’all make my days totally worth it when I can hear how our help impact your days – good and bad. Grow from the bad, build on the good.

Chatterbox : IM

Using Social Media to Connect with your Audience: A True Story