New Improved Referron - now with the power of messaging

You know about Referron, the mobile app that allows you to easily Connect, Reward and Measure effective referrals. 

Now you can use "Referron Messaging"  to send messages direct to the mobile phones of your connections or group you select - instant, direct and in their hand at the click of a button.

Start using the power of "Referron Messaging"  by updating your Referron mobile app on the App Store or Google Play, or via  www.referron.com

Enjoy the benefits today! 

Rgds Ivan

Steps to Signing up to referron

Register for referron  (either on the phone by downloading the referron app on the "app store" or "google play" or on www.referron.com

Updating information on the phone:-

Register from the Phone App

1.       Download the App

2.       Sign up with your email (if you have not signed in before or login with your email if you already have registered with Referron)

3.       Register with your email and tel #

• Be sure to click "yes" to caching your contacts, as this will enable you to refer people within your contacts to each other. (By doing this, your contacts are cached in your phone - not on our systeem!) 

4.       Go to menu on top right hand side of the app

• Complete Profile… click picture and take picture of yourself,
• 
  

5.       In the settings menu –

a.      Under social connections – connect with facebook and linked in

b.       Update your rewards that you want to give your advocates and your leads (by going to "menu" / "settings" / "rewards" 

YOU ARE READY TO REFER AND GET REFERRED

• Connections - Invite people to connect or check your connections – by clicking “Connections” (under the menus section (top right hand side of the page) 
• Refer people by following the prompts. (3 taps of the phone)
• Manage - The  activities button enables you to identify all activities that has occurred on your Referron account (under menu) . 

Go to Activities - to enable you to manage your referrals (which will update your referral CRM) , and redeem your rewards from your phone.

Groups

You are able to see what groups you are in by going to connections (menu/conection and on 2nd tab on top of app press groups) . You will be able to see the members in that group.

Send a V Card

• On the top Right hand side of the screen - you can send a vcard in seconds (online business card - with your Profile updated on Referron) . Fill in the persons name and where you met him, and you have a record of who you sent the card to! 

Messaging

The messaging function allows group administrators that you are a part of  to communicate with you. .  

• Click the messaging function to see who has sent you a message.
• click reply to message the sender back (Button on RHS)
• click R to refer the sender to someone that you know (Button in Middle)
• Call to action on the right (button on LHS)
• The LHS putton has an option to login to your portal

From the Website Portal 

Steps
Go to your web portal (Login at www.referron.com)
Once you have registered (or register directly from the portal)

Go to Profile

•          Fill out your profile on your portal 
•           Connect to Linked and Facebook contacts
•           Download your logos and public profiles 
• ·        You have the ability to change your profiles,logos,emails and passwords

Go to Public Profile

·         Create or change your public url (this is your link that will enable your connections to connect with you on Referron) 

·         Create a story (a few sentences about you, who you are and what you are about)

Go to Rewards

·         Create rewards for your champions and leads

·         Manage your rewards online

Go to Build your Network

·         Send Invitations via email or sms

·         Use the website buttons to promote your Referron portal on your websites, blogs and email signatures

·         Import Contacts – You have the ability to import contacts from your lists

Go to Referral Activity

This is your Referron CRM , that you can measure, track and comment on your referrals received and sent . All info can be exported via APIs or CSV files to your files

Go to Dashboard

This gives you analytics of your referral activity

Managing Referrals of a group or Company

For those of you who wish to manage referrals of a specific group, and enable members of a group to be connected with each other. Referron has the capability to manage and measure referrals on a company and group level.

For those of you who wish to create specific groups for your connections to have access to, this can be done (create your own "reach local" for your community

Messaging

Send messages direct to the mobile phones of your connections or group you select - instant, direct and in their hand at the click of a button.  

• Create messages and call to actions from the Message tab in your members portal.
• These messages can be sent to all your connections or specific groups that you choose.
• You are able to create normal text messaging, html messaging or emails direct from websites
• You can create your own call to action buttons. 
• Review your messages received, sent and archived

For more information about referron and how to use it, these links may be useful...

     http://www.referron.com
http://www.referron.com/blog/
http://bsiconnect.blogspot.com.au/ 

Happy referring!

Referrals are the best source of Hire

According to The Undercover Recruiter, employee referrals are the best source of hire. Nowadays it’s still about whom you know, and your current employees may already hold the key to the perfect candidate. It is becoming more common for recruiters and companies to hire the best qualified candidates through employee referrals. 

It is important to acknowledge that your employees can be a key resource for hiring potential candidates. Through their social networks they have access to friends and connections that could be a suitable fit for your new position. Just think about it, 10 employees with 150 friends or followers gives you access to 1500 contacts. 

Employee referrals can also save your business money on recruitment and staff turnover costs. Career sites and job boards have the highest number of applications compared to referrals and other sources. However, studies from online recruiting agency Jobvite shows that referrals have the highest conversion-to-hire rate. 

When it comes to hiring a new employee, timing is everything. Employees hired through a referral are hired 55% quicker than those who come through a career site. Additionally, these employees are likely to stay longer as they already feel a sense of connection and satisfaction to their new position. 

‘While career sites and job boards still collect the highest quantity of applications, employee referrals garner, by far, the highest number of qualified hires. Employers and recruiters should recognize the value of these applicants and consider expanding their referral programs. By utilizing social networks and tapping into current employees’ networks, recruiters can increase referral rates and, thereby, the number of highly qualified applicants within their talent pools’

   – Jobvite.com

Networking , Referring and Social Media Event in Sydney

CLICK HERE to join us  for networking and drinks on October 16th, 2013 and hear how Social Media and Referrals can help you grow your business.

Our guest speakers are:

Lee Ussher, Social Media Strategist, Speaker and Writer Social Media Babe

Lee Ussher is one of Australia’s leading experts in helping businesses achieve growth through dynamic and innovative social media marketing strategies. Her social media knowledge is greatly valued and publicly sought after. She regularly features on the radio and web TV and has featured in Australian and U.S magazines. Lee has been twice nominated for an Australian Telstra Woman’s Award. Her agency Buzz Web Media is cutting edge in the social media field, specialising in SEO integrated marketing and brand reputation management. Her blog Social Media Babe is a popular resource for business owners seeking to enhance their brand and generate new leads through social media marketing. 

  

Tony Dowling, Membership Director, The CEO Institute 

   

 The CEO Institute was founded in 1992 as a peer to peer membership organisation for Chief Executives and in 2011 became the worlds first global certification body for CEOs. The CEO Institute was established to help business leaders connect with their peers and learn from them. It is Australia's leading networking group for senior executives who want to be better informed and more effective business leaders.

Tony will be sharing his personal experience of using Referron as a tool to help grow his business and the power of referrals.

Todd Heslin, Co-founder of Referron 

   

Todd Heslin is a serial entrepreneur, blogger and podcast host. With several successful startups in the Clean Tech and Software sectors, Todd is co-founder of Referron and heads up Product Development and Strategy. 

When he is not working on dreaming up the next innovation for Referron, 

Todd enjoys motorcycle riding and writing on his blog at BeingRemarkable.me

Todd will be facilitating a "speed referral networking session" 

CLICK HERE to Register.

Date: Wednesday 16 October, 2013

Time: 6.00-8.00pm, registration opens at 5.30pm

Place:   Level 7, 14 Martin Place Sydney 2000

Cost: $20 for a booked ticket or $30 at the door, includes nibbles and drinks.

Seats are limited to 50 people.

As part of our referral networking exercise, we will be utilising Referron which enables you to refer someone to a business that you know, like and trust within 3 taps of your phone.

Referron is free to download and available on both Android and Apple.

Looking forward to seeing you there.

5 things you need to be referrable

People should  only give referrals (referron) to people they know, like and trust.

To get a referral , you must be referrable - 

An absolute prerequisite is that you need to have a great product or service - you need to go beyond 

- provide a wow service-

- helping the customer profit more or produce more 

- provide a value to the customer 

Giving a Referral (making a referron) is a risk - the person is risking his reputation that the business will provide a great product or service to the referred person . They need to have trust and faith in you that you will provide an exemplary service 

5  Gems to be referrable

1. Be likeable 

2. Be reliable - be there when the customer needs you - be the best - 

3. Be the expert in your field that breeds customer confidence - have a track record 

4. Be trustworthy - you will act in the customers best interest 

5. Be a resource in your field 

six tips for turning happy customers into an army of advocates

Ekaterina Walter - entrepreneur magazine 

What's better than happy customers? Happy customers who tell all their friends about your brand. If your end goal was customer satisfaction, take a step back and try to imagine the next level: activating those customers to spread the word about your products and services.

It's important to remember that most people will only go so far to promote your company, so you've got to make it easy for them to go that extra mile for you.

1. Turn receipts into customer feedback questionnaires. 
Your in-store purchase receipts are a guaranteed point-of-contact with most satisfied customers. Think about it: they've liked your products enough to buy them. Businesses around the world are getting wise to the opportunity to ask for customer feedback by printing details of their online surveys at the bottom, along with information about prize-draw giveaways for entering. UK's upmarket supermarket Waitrose, chocolatier Hotel Chocolat, and kitchenware store, Lakeland all give you the opportunity to enter fantastic prize draws for submitting feedback. 

But the experience can go further than this: Make the survey social with links to Facebook, Twitter, Google+ and other social media sites so that customers can spread the word about entering your promotions. 

2. Get geo-social with Foursquare. 
Make it fun for your customers to share their shopping location with their friends by joining geo-social networks like Foursquare. Your customers are happy to be in your store, so give them the opportunity to check in and share their location with their networks. Starbucks has 1.5 million Likes on Foursquare, and check-ins can earn you badges and special promotions. The app is linked to other social networks, so when customers check in, it will show up to all their friends. 

With over 30 million people using Foursquare, it's a great way of helping happy customers tell all their friends where they are. Not only that, using Foursquare helps facilitate togetherness and a sense of community by showing who else is around to enjoy a cup of coffee in the neighborhood, which is an underlying mission of the company.

Related: Want Loyal Customers? Do This.

3. Create a feedback cycle. 
These days, online reviews are more powerful that advertising for persuading potential customers to purchase your products and services. In fact, according to Nielsen, 92 percent of consumers around the world say they trust earned media, such as recommendations from friends and family, above all other forms of advertising.

If your end goal was selling your product to a customer, think about adding an extra step and contacting customers for reviews. Often when people are buying online, whether it is for physical goods, virtual goods, hotels or flights, they will provide their email address. An email list is a powerful marketing tool, so be sure to send a follow-up email asking for feedback and linking to sites like Amazon or Trip Advisor to make it easy for customers to post reviews. The simpler you can make this process, the more likely it is that customers will review your company online.

4. Go mobile with a socially-activated app. 
Customers can be hugely creative with apps like Instagram, so why not encourage and reward their creativity? Clothing companyFree People is leading the way when it comes to community-building. They encourage their fans to upload their Instagram photos of how they style their favorite Free People items, and upload it to the "Add a style pic" button against the item on their website. This gives customers a great idea of how the item looks in real life, as well as building a whole community around style and fashion, with "likes" shown as hearts. Fans can build and share their own collections with the community, thus becoming an organic marketing army for the business.

Related: 15 Tips for Improving Customer Loyalty

5. Automate the sharing process. 
Has anyone not heard of Amazon? We know they are the global leader in e-commerce, but that doesn't stop them from socializing their online ordering process to let customers tell their networks about their purchases. They make it simple for customers to share their purchase information with their networks on Facebook and Twitter, or by email, effectively recommending it to their friends.

If Amazon isn't complacent about asking their customers to tell their friends about their shopping experience, can you afford to be?

6. Display your business's social properties with pride. 
One of the best ways to ensure your current customers become a part of your communities and engage with you is to make it super easy for them to find your social properties online.

Remember, the more members you have in your current communities, the more chances you have to convert potential customers into real customers. To make that information readily available for them, feature the links to your Facebook page, Twitter handle, Pinterest page and other social communities on:

* In-store receipts 
* Storefronts and walls inside your business location 
* Menus and napkins * Vehicles  * Websites  * Email communications * Any marketing assets, such as images and videos * Local advertising, such as local newspapers 

Customer satisfaction should be the number one priority for your brand, so encourage feedback and be prepared to act on that feedback, whether it is positive or negative.

Empowering your customers with the ability to share their opinions on your brand requires a leap of faith. But if you trust in your brand, helping customers spread the word about your products can be the most powerful marketing tool you ever use.

Related: Connecting With Customers: How to Market to Their Emotions  
 

Connect with me on referron

Have a look at our new venture www.referron.com

connect with me on referron . I have had 114 referrals since its launch 6 weeks ago!

http://members.referron.com/bsivc

Referron enables you to refer to and get referred by someone you know like and trust within 3 taps of your phone.

- enables you to refer on he fly

- enables you to track and reward your referrals from your own referron portal.

- enables you to mobilise your social network to take action

- allows you to engage with your social network

- enables you to encourage people to connect with you on your blogs, web pages, social networks and emails

- enables you to identify who your advocates are and nurture them

- keeps you top of mind with people who know like and trust you

- free to download and refer, and your first 3 referrals a moth are free, thereafter, a nominal fee per month

The more you refer to people who know, like and trust you, the more referrals you will get.(the law of reciprocation)

There is an affiliate model, where you can get up to  40% commission on people you refer.

It's free to download and refer, but once you get 3 referrals per month, you pay 20 per month or 200 per year.

For more details of how referron can work see http://bsiconnect.blogspot.com.au 

Let me know if you have any questions.

How to get referrals - by Seth Godin

Posted by Seth Godinon November 27, 2006

There's been thousands of pages written about this topic, but still, no luck. It's too hard.

Yes, we know that referrals are the very best way to grow your business.

And we know that asking for a referral is both scary but apparently the most effective technique.

And we know that excellent service is a great place to start.

But still, not enough referrals. How come?

First, marketers often forget to look at this from the consumer's point of view. Why on earth should I give you a referral? Yes, I know it's important to you, but why is it important to me?

And second, I have a lot to lose if I refer a friend to you. You might screw up, in which case she'll hate me. Or you might somehow do something that, through no fault of your own, disappoints. If I recommend a greek restaurant and my friend goes and they don't have skordalia, and she loves skordalia... oops. 

And third, the act of recommending you isn't easy. It's not easy to recommend a tailor to make your co-worker look a little less shabby. It's not easy to bring up the fact that you have a great psychiatrist or even a particularly wonderful (but very expensive) shoe store.

Given the no-win nature of most referrals, you need to reset your expectations and consider a few ideas:

• Make it easy for someone to bring up what you do (by changing the nature of the service or product).
• Give your best customers something of real value to offer to their friends (a secret menu, a significant gift certificate). Once you do that, not giving that gift to a friend feels selfish.
• Paying me to refer you rarely works, because you're not just asking for a minute of my time, you're asking me to put my credibility on the line.
• Understand that low-risk referrals happen more often than high-risk ones, and either figure out how to become a low-risk referral or embrace the fact that you have to be truly amazing in order to earn one.

and

• Be worthy. Not just in the work you do, but in your status in the marketplace. I'm far more likely to refer someone with a back story, someone who's an underdog, or relatively unknown. That's why saying "thank you" in deeds (not so much in words) goes such a long way.

Referron to your social network contacts soon! Exciting stuff

In the next version of the app we will have integration with LinkedIn so that you could refer:

- LinkedIn to LinkedIn

- LinkedIn to another contact in your address book (or typed in manually)

- An address book contact to someone connected to you on LinkedIn

We're moving away from having another list of connections in Referron and instead helping to make it easy for you to refer people from your address book, Facebook (which I see you don't use for business) and LinkedIn. We see that you have the names of these people already and shouldn't need to add them all to Referron. Our app works out whether they are a Referron user or not and sends the referral and invitation at the same time.

Just a note that LinkedIn doesn't give us access to someone's email address. Therefore when you refer two of your LinkedIn contacts to each other, if they have not yet joined Referron, then only their Name and LinkedIn profile will be sent to each other. If they both later join, then their other details will be made available.

Tony Dowling of the CEO Institute on referron

Steps to Signing up to referron

Register for referron  (either on the phone by downloading the referron app on the "app store" or "google play" or on www.referron.com)

Updating information on the phone:-

Register from the Phone App

• 1.      Download the App
• 2.      Sign up with your email (if you have not signed in before or login with your email if you already have registered with Referron)
• 3.      Register with your email and tel #, and create a password. 
• 4.     Allow Referron to Cache your contacts on your phone, so that you are able to refer people from your contact list... making it easy to refer people in your contacts to people that you know like and trust. 
•         Complete Profile… click picture and take picture of yourself,

You should now be ready to refer

• YOU ARE READY TO REFER AND GET REFERRED AND SEND YOUR VCARD TO PEOPLE YOU MEET OR WANT TO GET IN TOUCH WITH 
•   If you want to send a VCard to somebody - press "send vcard" on Left Hand Side of Page. This will send an sms of your vcard that will enable your contact to update your details on their phone. It will also invite them to connect with you on referon! 
•    Under menu, you can review all the vcards that you have sent - keeping track of the people you send cards to!
•     Press "Service Seeker" (who do you want to refer) - this will take you to your contact list, groups, linked in or add a new user to find your service seeker and choose that person (its generally best to type in name and press the blue search button)
•     Press ""Service Provider (who do you want to refer this person to?) - this will take you to your contact list, groups, linked in or add a new user to find your service seeker and choose that person (its generally best to type in name and press the blue search button)
•     Type in a message
•     Press send referral

  
    RESULTS OF THE REFERRRAL
   Each party will get an email, and that referral will be tracked by all parties in their respective referron portals on the referron website! 

   TO GET MORE OUT OF YOUR REFERRON 

•    GO TO MENU ON TOP right hand side of page
•    My Profile - update your profile at any time 
•    Connections - review profiles of your connections
•    Activities -
•    Review all your activities on referron
•    Redeem rewards that have been issued 
•    Update the status of the referrals 
•    Messages - review and respond to your referron messsages
•    Add a new Contact
•    Invite a person on referron via SMS
•    Review your sent VCARD List
•    Settings - 
•    Social connections – connect with facebook and linked in
•    Update your rewards that you want to give your champion and your leads
•    Default messages - to make your message faster - you can create default messages
•    Accesibility - Adjust font size of the app
•    Send feedback to our developers so we can improve the app. Also see frequently asked questions to help you with your user experience
•    Cache settings - sync your groups - if you have updated your contact list and want to update your referron list on your phone. 

• In suummary

• Connections - Invite people to connect or check your connections – by clicking going to the menu button on the top right hand side of the page and click “Connections” or sending them a VCard
• Refer people from  linkedin contacts, phone contacts or new contacts, your favourites, your existing Referron connections or groups that you belong to.
• Manage - The activities button enables you to identify all activities that has occurred on your Referron account. You are able to manage your referrals (which will update your referral CRM) , and redeem your rewards from your phone

Messaging
The messaging function allows organisations that are connected to you, to send you offers.  

• Click the messaging function to see who has sent you a message.
• click reply to message the sender back (Button on RHS)
• click R to refer the sender to someone that you know (Button in Middle)
• Call to action on the right (button on LHS)
• The LHS putton has an option to login to your portal

From the Website Portal 

Steps
Go to your web portal (Login at www.referron.com)
Once you have registered (or register directly from the portal)

Go to Profile

•          Fill out your profile on your portal 
•           Connect to Linked and Facebook contacts
•           Download your logos and public profiles 
• ·        You have the ability to change your profiles,logos,emails and passwords

Go to Public Profile

·         Create or change your public url (this is your link that will enable your connections to connect with you on Referron) 

·         Create a story (a few sentences about you, who you are and what you are about)

Go to Rewards

·         Create rewards for your champions and leads

·         Manage your rewards online

Go to Build your Network

·         Send Invitations via email or sms

·         Use the website buttons to promote your Referron portal on your websites, blogs and email signatures

·         Import Contacts – You have the ability to import contacts from your lists

Go to Referral Activity

This is your Referron CRM , that you can measure, track and comment on your referrals received and sent . All info can be exported via APIs or CSV files to your servers or CRMs 

Go to Dashboard

This gives you analytics of your referral activity

Managing Referrals of a group or Company

For those of you who wish to create and manage referrals of a specific group, and enable members of a group to be connected with each other. 
Referron has the capability to manage and measure referrals of a company or network group 

For those of you who wish to create specific groups for your connections to have access to each other, this can be done (create your own "inner circle" or "referral network" )

Messaging

Send messages direct to the mobile phones of your connections or group you select - instant, direct and in their hand at the click of a button.  

• Create messages and call to actions from the Message tab in your members portal.
• These messages can be sent to all your connections or specific groups that you choose.
• You are able to create normal text messaging, html messaging or emails direct from websites
• You can create your own call to action buttons. 
• Review your messages received, sent and archived

For more information about referron and how to use it, these links may be useful...

     http://www.referron.com
http://www.referron.com/blog/
http://bsiconnect.blogspot.com.au/ 

Happy referring!