Building your community (social) by Vero Pepperrell

1. Building your
community
Vero Pepperrell
February 2011

2. Hi, I’m Véro!
Alfred

3. I’ve been a
Mac user
since the
late 80’s...

4. Andrew wanted a new OS X dev project

5. And so, Alfred was born...

6. Alfred App is a...

7. We launched on 28th Feb, expecting
to bribe a few friends into trying it...
+35,000 people checked it out in 2 weeks

8. Nearly a year on...

10. • Nearly 200,000 active users
• +3 weeks featured on Mac App Store home
• In the Top Free apps since MAS launch
• +9,400 Twitter followers
• One buzzing, happy community!

11. Here’s what we’ve
learned about
community building...

12. 1. It ain’t about you

13. Give users the tools

14. We’ve added stats, which people love to share,
and will add more fun usage information.

16. Alfred’s Twitter favourites page is filled with
happy users’ comments. It keeps us cheerful :)

17. 2. Put strategy first
• Who do you need to reach?
• What are your objectives?
• Then work out the appropriate tools
• Too many start with tools first

19. 3. Honesty & ethics
• To successfully build a
community, you must
first build trust
• Web users have a very
advanced sense of
bullshit detection

20. Users love regular updates
• Tell them what you’re working on
• Share sneak peek screenshots
• Ask them for their preferences

21. Users love regular updates
When we asked users whether they
preferred the light or dark theme for
Alfred, we received hundreds of tweets.
1. It helped us set the default
2. Users were excited to be involved
3. It kept Alfred front of mind b/w releases

22. Downside of regular updates
Because the UI is complete enough for a
screenshot, users assume the functionality
is done too.
Like Veruca Salt,
they want it NOW!

23. 4. Have fun, be human!
• Don’t take things too seriously
• Speak with personality
• Take time to be cheeky

24. Rapportive.com
• See your users as you
respond to them
• It helps you understand
who they are
• Feel a human connection

26. In a very early version, we
added a special button.
Users still tweet, blog &
wonder about it every day.
No, I won’t tell you what it does ;-)

28. Marketing doesn’t have
to cost a fortune
• Twitter has been our primary means of
promotion
• Make friends with the bloggers in your
field (for real, not just for convenience)
• Collaborative promos w apps we’ve
integrated (eg. Postbox) have been very
successful

29. In summary:
• It’s about the users, not about you
• Work out your strategy first
• Be honest & ethical
• Have fun & be human

30. Where to find us
alfredapp.com @alfredapp
info@pepsmedia.com