#Exceptions 5: Moving From Traffic to Audience to Community: Why Buffer Treats Their Customers Like Humans

Seeking Wisdom with David Cancel

Molly Sloan

Business, Entrepreneurship

5 • 610 Ratings

🗓️ 3 October 2018

⏱️ 40 minutes

🔗️ Recording | iTunes | RSS

🧾️ Download transcript

Summary

On this episode of #Exceptions, we’re going inside Buffer. Buffer sells social media management tools for marketers, allowing you to schedule and analyze everything. It’s used by companies like Shopify, HelpScout, the Denver Broncos, and thousands more. The entire company is run on a platform of radical transparency. They’ve been publishing their revenues, metrics, and even employee salaries for years now. They’re truly walking the walk. Buffer doesn't just pay lip service to transparency. Buffer takes action. Buffer is creating something deeper than traffic. They’re starting conversations and then following through with their community. Through their public slack channel of over 5,000 members, they’re moving customers from traffic to audience to community. Think about your own company. Do you treat your customers as humans? Or merely as transactions? If the answer is the latter, that’s okay. These are changes that any company can make.

Transcript

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0:00.0	Everywhere on the internet, there seems to be another marketer who cares about traffic.
0:14.0	More visitors to the website, more views for the videos, more downloads, more clicks, more impressions, more followers, more, more,
0:20.0	faster, faster, faster, now, now, more, more, more, faster, faster,
0:21.8	now, now, now, now, now, now, no, now, now, now, no, no, now.
0:24.7	And it all comes back to this idea of traffic.
0:29.1	But some marketers know the truth.
0:31.9	This work is not about how many people arrive, it's about how many people stay.
0:46.3	This is Exceptions, the show about why brand matters more than ever in B2B today.
0:52.8	I'm your host, Jay Akunzo, author of the book, Break
0:55.9	the Wheel, and I'm partnering with Drift to bring you this 10-part documentary series because
1:01.4	Drift is all about putting the human element back into B2B sales and marketing. They and I believe
1:07.6	that brand is the opportunity to grow your business.
1:13.6	It's the differentiator in a crowded market.
1:18.4	The lone competitive advantage is your emotional experience with a customer in this world of infinite choice and product feature parity.
1:22.3	So, we're going inside some of the world's best at crafting their brand in B2B.
1:28.5	These are the exceptions.
1:34.4	Today we go inside Buffer.
1:37.5	Buffer provides social media tools for marketers.
1:40.4	They help you schedule posts, analyze their performance, and manage all your accounts in one place.
1:45.9	And I should disclose that I've been a user of their free product for a while now.
1:50.2	But later, we're going to talk to somebody who decided to upgrade and pay actual money for this freemium product.
1:55.8	And we're going to learn why she did so.
	...

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