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BatchBlue Software Rides Perfect Storm

Michelle Riggen-Ransom is co-founder and Director of Communications at BatchBlue Software, a Providence, Rhode Island software company focused on small business owners. BatchBlue’s first product is called BatchBook. It is a web based social CRM tool. It allows small business people to manage their contact network while also tracking conversations with them on the social web including blogs, Twitter, Facebook, Flickr, etc. This allows a small business to keep a more complete picture of what’s important to their contacts. BatchBlue Software is almost three years old at the time of this podcast interview.

I have written a story in Marketing 2.0 about BatchBlue Software. During a recent interview with Susan Bratton of DishyMix I shared that story, and I learned that Susan has become a big fan of BatchBook.

Starting a Software Company in a Weak Economy and in a Crowded (CRM) Market

Michelle gets an “A” in humility. She actually says they’ve been very lucky these past three years. As if luck allows a start-up to thrive in a weak economy. But, the timing of the start of the company has coincided with the wide adoption of business blogging and Twitter and Facebook and the whole social media world becoming more popular. Michelle and her co-founder Pamela O’Hara were very quick to embrace the tools of the social web to do two things which are at the center of my book. They use the social web to produce content, as well as share content. And, they build relationships. Everything they do is focused on their customer…Everything. The social web has matured before their eyes as they launched their company. It has been a perfect storm for BatchBlue Software.

A Product Centric Blog Strategy

The BatchBlue Software folks were bloggers before they started the company. So, it was natural for the team to write blog articles about their respective area of expertise and interest. While Michelle blogs about community events, Adam blogs about technical issues and Pamela blogs about product features and benefits. People who subscribe to the BatchBlue blog can find out about the company, the products, the people. BatchBlue treats the blog as a human way of communicating.  It’s not a promotional strategy. It’s a communication strategy focused on the customer.

A Twitter Strategy that Rocks

At first Michelle didn’t see much marketing value in Twitter when she first started using it (didn’t we all start out as skeptics?)  It occurred to Michelle that making connections with people is very powerful no matter what the platform is.

Today, they have two Twitter accounts plus each person at BatchBlue has a personal Twitter account. The branded BatchBlue Twitter account has become a great communication channel for customer service. Customers often communicate to BatchBlue through Twitter about product related topics.  Michelle makes sure to respond very quickly (she calls it real time).

Michelle often re-Tweets customer’s comments as a way of sharing their feedback or compliments. Michelle likes to show her gratitude this way.  Michelle admits that her personal Twitter account sometimes blurs with her BatchBlue life. But, that’s ok. Most of us do that.

Small Business BUZZ

What I find most interesting about BatchBlue’s Twitter strategy is an initiative called SBBUZZ. This is a Twitter stream which occurs on Tuesday nights. SBBUZZ is a community of small business owners who come together on Tuesday nights on Twitter to discuss topics of interest.  SBBUZZ already has over 10,000 followers on Twitter. The only rule for SBBUZZ is you must be respectful and you can’t pitch your company until the very end of the event when people are given the opportunity to do so. There is no phone conference. #SBBUZZ is purely a Twitter stream event. All the credit to the value of this community goes to BatchBlue as the host of this community. This a great example of content marketing on the social web. Other aspects of BatchBlue’s content marketing strategy include regularly scheduled webinars, Blue Papers (as opposed to white papers) on popular topics, newsletters and links to presentations.

Consider how you can create a community where the community gets great value and you get the leadership credit for it?

Small Business Web Initiative

This initiative was born at SXSW. Michelle and Pamela partnered with Freshbooks, Mail Chimp, Shoebox and Outright to integrate their software products. Each of these software companies serves the small business customer market with non competing products. They’ve come together as a suite of products in the Small Business Web.  Any software company can join the Small Business Web as long as they have an API and a shared passion for customer service.

Measuring Success

BatchBlue admits they are doing well and they are looking forward to launching a second product in 2010. Michelle admits that using the social web is working effectively, but it is work. Michelle admits they are still learning and experimenting but they are hitting their stride. Michelle’s advice is “be thoughtful and put in the time that is required, because it is work.”

Michelle welcomes your connection and input on their strategy, their products and even their karaoke parties. You can reach Michelle by email at mriggen at batchblue dot com, and you can connect with her on Twitter.

I look forward to watching BatchBlue Software continue to experiment and learn and grow.

Bernie Borges
@berniebay

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