A tweet by Scott Stratten (@unmarketing on Twitter) caught my attention yesterday, and I felt that it warranted a deeper look. I was pleasantly surprised by what I found as I looked into what Vistaprint was doing across the social web. I wanted to share my thoughts and findings with you here today. The tweet:
I’m a long-time fan of Vistaprint. I’ve used their services and recommended them for years. The company is probably best known for their “250 free business cards” offer, but that’s not what I wanted to talk about here. I want to direct your attention to their exemplary use of social media. Below is an overview in pictures – with a few thoughts.
On Twitter
Vistaprint has created a unique and seperate landing page for their Twitter followers. Vistaprint takes it one step further towards creating interest and loyalty by offering exclusive discounts on their landing page. Vistaprint tweets about this page often.
Vistaprint does an excellent job managing expectations on their Twitter page by clearly spelling out who is there to tweet and when they’ll be there. Twitter for Vistaprint looks to be more about communication, branding, and PR as opposed to customer service, though I’m sure that they would oblige. Having the number for customer service on a Twitter bio makes good sense here.
An active page with over 10,000 fans, Vistaprint’s Facebook page is fun and engaging. Again, Vistaprint clearly communicates what the page is for: “This page is for fan and company interaction, but is not an outlet to customer service. If you have a question or issue with an order, please call…”
VistaPrint has also utilized Facebook’s Static FBML application to create a very nice welcome page. The page currently has a special “Facebook only” offer, and also points to the many other places where fans may want to find and interact with Vistaprint.
YouTube
When you visit the nicely branded Vistaprint YouTube channel, what you’ll find are some very creative videos that were a part of the “Why I Love Vistaprint” Video Contest. Contests and/or a giveaway are a great way to crowd source great content for branded, company owned pages. This was nice to see from Vistaprint. Check out the winning entry:
Flickr
An open group serves as Vistaprint’s presence on Flickr. Crowdsourcing provides most of the content here. Judging by the entries, it would appear that Vistaprint’s clients appreciate the voice they’ve been given and the platform for showing off their designs and products from Vistaprint!
Blog
This one surprised me a little. It’s not that they have a blog, I expected as much, but the way that Vistaprint uses it’s blog as an outlet for advice, guidance, and information designed to help other businesses was like finding a treasure! Oftentimes I see companies facing only toward consumers and internal communications with their social media efforts and strategy. It’s rare to find a company wholly embracing the brotherhood that are the other businesses and peers that make a business what it is. Well done Vistaprint!
Vistaprint’s overall branding and “voice” is very professional and consistent in all of the places I ventured into. I really like that the example that they are setting can be followed by any size company and that they are extending a hand of friendship to other businesses. I’m glad I caught Scott’s tweet about them yesterday and had a chance to look into what this company is doing.
What are your thoughts today? Did you find some inspiration or maybe even an idea or two to try for yourself today? Drop me a comment; I’d like to hear your thoughts.
Disclosure: I have not received any compensation for writing this content and I have no material connection to the brands, topics and/or products that are mentioned herein.
Wow, this is great stuff. I somehow wasn't aware of what these guys were doing. Thanks for bringing it to our attention…
My pleasure! I wasn't aware either until yesterday, but what a great example Vistaprint is! In fact, the only thing I saw at all that I didn't understand was the fact that their social media presence is not pointed to on the web site homepage. Other than that, I found awesome everywhere. I appreciate the comment Todd!
I actually asked my followers who I should go with for business cards; the overwhelming response was Vistaprint. I completed my order but was dissapointed w/shipping options. I tweeted that I couldn’t get the cards fast enough. They jumped right in, asked me for my order number and I got the cards in 3-days, meeting my deadline. It was awesome. I wasn’t even looking for help and they solved my problem. I think you are right, I think they get it.
Thank you so much for bringing this story to the comments here Nick, I appreciate it. I think they get it too, and I think I'm going to have to dig a little deeper and find out more about the individuals involved who have set up such a great system. I'd love to know more about them and where they came from…all that.
James –
Thanks for this great post. Our team is constantly looking for new avenues to engage with our customers and we're glad you appreciate the efforts. We also use Twitter as a customer service avenue with @vistaprinthelp.
Thanks again for the great post.
Jeff Esposito
PR Manager
Vistaprint
Thank you for taking the time to comment here on behalf of Vistaprint Jeff. I appreciate you pointing out the customer service avenue on Twitter as well! It’s very nice to have a name to address here, and so to you Jeff, and to your team, thank you for providing an excellent example and such skilled leadership for others with your social media outreach. It’s been a pleasure to learn about Vistaprint!
Unfortunately, I have used Vistaprint twice in the past and had terrible experiences with them. They have lost me as a customer but I can't help but admire their efforts you mention in this post.
I'm glad that you stopped in today Mike, always a pleasure! I hate to hear that about your experience with this company…but so glad you found some value in hearing about their use of social media! I've enjoyed seeing all of the creative ways that you are using social media lately as well. I'd love to hear more about all of that when we can find some time to get together.
Mike is there anything that I can do to get you to give us another chance?