Social Media Portal interview with Lukas Pfeiffer at swabr

Profiled - Lukas Pfeiffer, Head of Marketing at swabr

Social Media Portal (SMP): What is your role at swabr?

Lukas Pfeiffer (LP): Lukas Pfeiffer, Head of Marketing, taking care of marketing and PR at swabr.

SMP: Briefly, tell us about swabr (for those that don?t know), what is it and what does the organization do?

LP: swabr is the successful symbiosis between a network like Facebook and short messages as used in Twitter. swabr is internal real-time communication and helps companies and organizations to work together faster and more effectively.

SMP: As a microblogging service, how does swabr differ from Twitter?

LP: Real-time communication is the future of internal enterprise collaboration. Facebook and Twitter offer the possibility of real-time communication; however they do not provide functionality for companies. swabr?s solution is a "Facebook for companies".

SMP: Why is real-time communication in this sense so important?

LP: Every 20 years, a new, wide-spread form of cooperation is adopted by the enterprise world. After Facebook and Twitter having established a new type of communication for consumers, swabr now offers the advantages of real-time communication for companies and organizations.

SMP: Why are business professional sending less emails?

LP: ?How can I communicate simultaneously with several colleagues from different locations in real time, without having to send out a great number of email CC's? And how can we keep working efficiently at the same time?? swabr is the answer to these questions.

Nevertheless, on swabr each company has its own, closed and private network for employees with a verified email address. Distractions by games or apps like on Facebook are non-existent. Because all the communication happens on one place, professionals are sending fewer emails.

SMP: When you envisage the end of email? If so, when?

LP: We think, that emails still have eligibility for private users, but with swabr you don´t need to send any internal emails between colleagues anymore.

SMP: What was the most challenging part of building on the brands presence in digital environments (including social media)?

LP: Our challenge is to make clear that swabr provides a new way of internal communication. So we´re up for evangelize enterprise microblogging. Besides that, about swabr may be found at the swabr (blog), Twitter, Facebook, and Google+.

SMP: Who are your target audience and why?

LP: swabr is free, simple and intuitive to use. We target SME as well as schools and organizations. We help people from various institutions to work together faster and more effectively. Wasting work time for Spam ? 3 out of 4 emails ? is still a big issue. In addition, the way people communicate is changing, since Facebook and Twitter become popular. We aim to make collaboration and internal communication as easy and intuitive as possible.

SMP: How did you initially attract users to your site and services, and how do you do it now?

LP: We´re running different campaigns and activities, including advertisement, social media, email marketing and PR.

SMP: What are the low moments of what you have been doing so far?

LP: Like other most other startups at their very first beginning: Bootstrapping.

SMP: What are the high moments of what you have been doing so far?

LP: The moment when swabr reached over 1,000 registered companies. We´re proud of this first milestone, but we know there is still a way ahead. That´s why we will continue working hard on making swabr better and better.

SMP: What do you see as your biggest challenges and opportunities?

LP: We want to make internal communication easier. The majority of office workers still stick to email. More and more coworkers should understand the current paradigm changes of the communication in the world. One of the biggest challenges will be the shift from ?Facebook? to a ?Facebook for Companies?.

SMP: What are the next moves for swabr in terms of social media?

LP: We´re always looking for both, bloggers and writers who try swabr on their own. swabr should be easy and intuitive to use, and we love to be checked by our users so we´re cheered up to make swabr even better.

SMP: What?s the next big step for social media and networks?

LP: I believe that networks will soon replace internal emails.

SMP: What?s going to be the most interesting aspect regarding social media / technology throughout 2012?

LP: Besides social shopping and the war of the titans, we think that business will become social. More and more coworker spent time online using web 2.0 services. Enterprise social software, including microblogging, could become familiar for the majority of users.

SMP: What are your top five predictions for social media throughout 2012?

LP responds with:

1. Paradigm shift from push to pull (enterprise 2.0 / social software)
2. Mobile usage will overtake desktop usage (e.g. NFC payments)
3. Twitter´s advertising breakthrough (with brand pages)
4. Web-based work stations (like ChromeOS)
5. Social TV (like AppleTV and beyond)

SMP: What are your top five social media tips?

LP responds with:

1. Know what you´re talking about.
2. Post frequently relevant content and add value.
3. Listen to what others have to say.
4. Always be transparent.
5. Have fun what you´re doing!

SMP: Best way to contact you and swabr (e.g. Facebook, LinkedIn Twitter, YouTube etc)?

LP: Please find me on Linkedin, Xing, Twitter, Facebook and Google+.


SMP: What did you have for breakfast / lunch?

LP: A great coffee is all I need to start a good day.

SMP: What?s the last good thing that you did for someone?

LP: We shared our office with some other great teams for some time right now.

SMP: How many hours to you work a week?

LP: Founding a successful business is a full-time job.

SMP: If you weren?t running swabr what would you be doing?

LP: I guess something within the music branch, due to my passion for good tunes.

SMP: When and where did you go on your last holiday?

LP: I used to visit my family for holiday, because we´re all wide spread over Europe.

SMP: What?s the first thing you do when you get into the office of a morning?

LP: Checking updates from my team on swabr.

SMP: If you had a superpower what would it be and why?

LP: For sure, I´d do something for those who need our help (i.e. people from the s.c. third world).