By Michael Torok, Director of Community at SolarWinds
@MickTorok
Community engagement is now fundamental to a company’s success. It encourages collaboration among stakeholders, builds loyalty and fosters creative problem-solving –all of which are particular vital to IT companies like SolarWinds. You see, SolarWinds is an IT generalist company, and that means we thrive at the epicenter of customer marketing, charged with engaging and retaining customer membership.
But how exactly do we do that? What’s our strategy for “engaging and retaining customer membership?”
At SolarWinds, we use a social community called “thwack,” a series of topical places for customers, resellers, employees and ‘visitors’ (read-only access) to connect, share and learn. Through thwack, we provide:
- educational content,
- direct access to the people who manage and develop our products, and
- a place where members can get support and answers on the fly without having to pick up the phone.
So far, more than 130,000 community members have contributed to thwack. They've helped SolarWinds make superior products, and in exchange, we’ve helped them do their jobs better. thwack generates creative synergy around content and helps us keep the customer at the center of everything we do.
As we all know, though, a social community can only be successful if members stay engaged. So, what keeps IT pros coming back to thwack again and again? Why does the thwack community continue to grow – and consistently reinforce its standing as a key business strategy for SolarWinds?
The answer is gamification.
Gamification drives results. Since gamifying thwack, we’ve seen:
- millions in support cost savings (For example, let’s say 5% of views in thwack’s product forums represent a deflected call. If in one forum alone we have 6M views, then that single forum has saved us $30M.)
- 150+ new customer-driven ideas
- 6x more ‘customer champions’ (MVPs)
- 100+ testimonials for SolarWinds
How does it work? Well, simply put, we use gamification to guide user behavior. We’ve developed missions, rewards and recognitions.
Naturally, thwack’s gamified environment has evolved over the years, changing to better meet the needs and preferences of members. We’ve learned plenty about what works – and what doesn’t! – and if you want to hear more about those details, please tune into our upcoming gamification webinar on Tuesday, Mar 11, 10:00am PST / 1:00pm EST, Driving Engagement & Loyalty with Social Communities.