Working with Vistaprint to create online communities
Creating community online is a challenge. You must have a platform that is so compelling and so easy to use that it becomes a habit you seamlessly incorporate into your existing work flow. Some perspective:
- As of March 2017, there are over 2.2 million apps available in iTunes, and 2.8 million Android apps [1]
- Research shows that one in four users abandon apps after the first use. [2]
- There are over 60 social networking sites online
When Vistaprint approached NK&A to help them design a new platform that creates a community with solopreneurs, we knew there was a big challenge ahead. Adoption is no easy task. But Vistaprint’s concept made sense. Venn (Vistaprint’s online community) offers solopreneurs the opportunity to connect, get help, and barter with other solopreneurs. The trick was to create a platform that spoke to solopreneurs, offer them something they couldn’t find elsewhere, and was easy and logical to use.
On Venn, members set up profiles for free and can promote their services and connect with other local business owners. Venn brings together small business owners so they can lean on each other for help with projects big or small, find new customers and grow their businesses and networks. Venn is part LinkedIn (expanding your network), part bulletin board at your local coffee house (promoting your business) and part Chamber group (supporting your local business community).
NK&A helped Vistaprint think through how to best gain insight from prospective members. We suggested an advisory board that we consulted to help design and evolve the concept, then helped seed that board. The advisory board helped influence the design, features, and functions of the platform and was so vested in the concept they helped seed it with members.
Want to be an early adopter? Visit Venn! The site is in Beta form and you can pre-register. The full site experience will launch soon!
