{"id":9127,"date":"2012-08-28T09:43:31","date_gmt":"2012-08-28T13:43:31","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/blog.shareaholic.com\/?p=9127"},"modified":"2014-05-13T11:16:06","modified_gmt":"2014-05-13T15:16:06","slug":"community-management-vsnap","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.shareaholic.com\/blog\/community-management-vsnap\/","title":{"rendered":"How to Manage a Community Using Video: Interview with Trish Fontanilla of Vsnap"},"content":{"rendered":"

Managing a community is no small feat. You\u2019re\u00a0consistently blogging<\/a>\u00a0and\u00a0engaging with readers<\/a>\u00a0in the comments while\u00a0juggling conversations<\/a>\u00a0on Facebook, Twitter, LinkedIn, Pinterest, YouTube or any combination of the above. But there\u2019s one way of managing a community that intertwines some of the best aspects of social networking\u2013using\u00a0Vsnap<\/a>.<\/p>\n

A fellow Boston startup that is a\u00a0MassChallenge<\/a>\u00a0finalist and nominee for the\u00a0MassTLC Award as Startup to Watch<\/a>,\u00a0Vsnap is doing big things in the social media world through their product and community management. I got a chance to catch up with\u00a0Trish Fontanilla<\/a>, the community manager at Vsnap, to chat about how they engage with their community.<\/p>\n

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1. Tell us a little about Vsnap. What makes it different from posting a video on YouTube?<\/h3>\n

With Vsnap, we want to help businesses connect with their customers and prospects in a way that feels more human.\u00a0On\u00a0vsnap.com<\/a>\u00a0or on any of our\u00a0iOS<\/a>\/Android<\/a>\u00a0apps, you can record and send video messages up to 60 seconds in length.\u00a0(Click the screenshot above to see how it works.)<\/strong><\/a>\u00a0Our unique feature is the ability to attach things to that video. So a recruiter can send a vsnap to a prospective candidate and attach a job opportunity, a retailer can send a thank you vsnap and attach a coupon, or a customer service rep can send a demo video with a FAQ.<\/p>\n

Vsnaps are inherently private, so if I vsnap you, it\u2019s a lot like email where no one else will see it unless you forward it. We\u2019re currently integrated with Twitter (LinkedIn soon), so if you tweet out a vsnap or post it anywhere public for that matter, it\u2019ll get indexed by Google. Unlike YouTube, we really focus on people sending vsnaps one to one recipient or to a segmented group, \u00a0and a lot of our site reflects that. For example, instead of getting a total view count like other broadcast video platforms, we show you whether or not a specific recipient has viewed your vsnap or downloaded any of the attachments, not how many times it\u2019s been watched. When it comes down to it, what makes us different is the intent of a vsnap and the feeling that people get when they receive one. Our CEO Dave McLaughlin always says we\u2019re like the video version of a handwritten note.<\/p>\n

2. What are some of your favorite tools for interacting with your community?<\/h3>\n

My mainstays for interacting with the community are really Twitter and Vsnap. Because we\u2019re integrated with Twitter, that\u2019s where I see most of our activity. I\u2019m also a big fan of picking up the phone (or Skyping) if someone\u2019s having an issue or even meeting up with someone one on one. Man, I suddenly feel very uncool that I can\u2019t name any sexy tools for interacting with the community, but I like to stick with what our vsnappers respond to and what makes them comfortable.<\/p>\n

I am starting to experiment with\u00a0Springpad<\/a>\u00a0to get our team out there a little more and have folks in the community get to know them better, to share common interests, and insights with blogs, tools we use, etc.<\/p>\n

3. What\u2019s an average day like interacting with your community?<\/h3>\n

I\u00a0handle pretty much every email, tweet, Facebook message, and support question that comes in right now. We don\u2019t have a marketing team or a customer service team or a company phone for that matter, so the idea of an \u201caverage day\u201d is a little foreign to me. I do spend a lot of time vsnapping our community, but also live within email as well. As a side note, I don\u2019t think Vsnap will ever replace email, and that\u2019s not at all our intention. They\u2019re both awesome for different reasons.<\/p>\n

I do, however, consistently\u00a0vsnap everyone that follows us on Twitter. I think it\u2019s a great way to thank them for their support and to let them know if they need anything, I\u2019m pretty much the Vsnap concierge. I like to check out where they\u2019re from, what they do, and what they\u2019ve tweeted to see if I can help them out. The practice all started when I checked out a new follower\u2019s profile and she mentioned she was new to Boston. I sent her a vsnap welcome and attached a doc of newsletters I love and live by. We think it\u2019s especially important for web-based companies, where the customer has never walked into your shop and chatted with you over the counter, to find a way to create that personal connection and feeling that this is a company with real human beings working at it.<\/p>\n

4. What are some tips for creating video messages people love watching?<\/h3>\n

I feel like my biggest tip, and this might sound cheesy, is really speaking from the heart. There are just some moments that can\u2019t be text if you really want them to be understood. Or if you really want to rise above the noise and show you care about a customer or a client. If you make the message genuine, it really outweighs what you\u2019re wearing, where you are, etc.<\/p>\n

Otherwise it\u2019s:<\/p>\n