I wanted to share why I decided to pay for a subscription from a company we can learn a lot from.
For a couple of days, Buffer has a new subscriber in its “awesome” plan. It’s nothing extraordinary that a user pays for some services with which he is happy, but I want to share how I have reached the point of becoming a payment user.
When I started thinking about loadfront a few years ago, I wanted our users and potential ones to feel confident about us. I wanted to be as transparent as possible and create a culture that makes trust based on its philosophy and way of doing things.
Seeking inspiration for this, I came to Buffer. I do not know how, possibly through the early SlideShare versions of their “Buffer culture”.
I began to follow them, without registering, by reading about their employee benefits, the transparency portal, the income panel or its blog. I have the same vision of what I want loadfront to be.
Then I started to follow its CEO and co-founder, Joel Gascoigne, on Twitter (@joelgascoigne), and shortly after I started to follow Buffer too (@buffer), where they publish a lot of content-oriented to social media and to get more reach and visibility.
After some time, I finally signed up for it around a year ago, and there I left it. I did not use it until a few months ago when I wanted to see how it worked. I tried it with an account for each social network, as the free plan only lets you have one active at a time.
I did not like that limitation, although understanding the business model, it’s normal. I did not know what I could get by writing a “tweet” or publication there and immediately sending it to my profiles since, from the applications, I could do the same. I used it a bit and forgot it.
Recently, I logged in to update my password and saw an option to try the “awesome plan.” I activated it and liked it a lot.
I did not use the schedule feature “tweets”, but it was beneficial with this blog to publish on multiple social networks simultaneously with the first technical articles I wrote. Facebook, LinkedIn as a profile and in several groups and Twitter simultaneously; very comfortable. Also, I started to see my reach with my blog and how many people were interested in such content by the clicks and links (it’s also in the free plan!).
Months passed, and I stopped using it again, and now I am a subscriber to the awesome plan.
Why? It is not only the value that it gives but also how it is given: A transparent company with good service and a great culture behind it is what really convinced me to become a paid user.
I’ll try a few months before jumping into an annual subscription. During this time, I want to see if my publications get more reach using their analytics tools and even develop my personal brand thanks to it. This time, I’m sure I’ll be using the scheduled posts feature.