SpherePad – co-working in the age of social media

Title: SpherePad – co-working in the age of social media

Organisation name: SpherePad

Industry: Co-working services

Name of contact: Hasan Mirjan, Founder and CEO (LinkedIn, Twitter)

Web references: Facebook, Twitter, Google+, LinkedIn, Instagram

The business:

SpherePad is a coworking space spread out over several California locations that provides startup businesses with the connections and community they need. The company welcomes coworkers from a wide range of different professional backgrounds and provides a cost efficient work space. The goal is to ‘inspire innovation through collaboration.’ SpherePad coworking office spaces provide resources needed for businesses, such as meeting facilities, workstations, office supplies, etc.

There is also SphereMail, a virtual office service which allows coworkers to see and control their mail online.

Outlier Magazine’s 2015 interview with Hasan Mirjan:

The Next Web’s explanation of why coworking is important:

On social media

As Hasan said in an email interview, SpherePad depends largely on marketing itself through social media. An example is how the launch of new SpherePad locations is ‘heavily marketed via all the social media channels possible.’

Another way SpherePad takes advantage of social media is using the medium to announce events, discounts, deals and new offerings. Staff members are involved in ‘monitoring and sharing creative and fun news about the company’ online through social media, and a cursory search through various platforms proves that SpherePad employees are very accessible on social media.

Great having you guys! @DesksNearMe @NearMeCo @spheremail fun fun #bbq #coworking pic.twitter.com/DaUiAwNDRX

— SpherePad S. F. (@spherepad) April 11, 2014

Measuring social media impact

When asked about how he measures how social media is impacting his business, Hasan says he uses Google analytics as his analytical tool of choice. Beyond that, SpherePad sees organic growth via social media marketing. In the Outlier Magazine interview, Hasan was clear that the SpherePad business is not about ‘high revenue,’ but is meant to be complimentary to secondary companies.

As in any other business, keeping costs down are vital. Hasan then does not invest in any other marketing avenues, apart from what is readily available on social media. As he says, ‘at minimal cost, we are able to reach out to a global audience’ through social media.

Hasan says objective ‘measuring’ of social media’s impact on his business ‘is almost not necessary since we see the obvious value of these marketing channels.’ That said, he does have designated employees who keep a lookout and ensure ‘new and creative messaging continues to build relationships and alliances.’

Back to the issue of cost, Hasan says, ‘the bottom line is that social media heavily benefits our bottom line.’ As indicated already, with the need to keep costs down, the cost of marketing without a strong social media presence ‘would be very prohibitive.’

Lessons

-While the many options on how to perform social media metrics for one’s business are many, keeping costs down will always be an obstacle to overcome in applying many of them. With the likes of smaller businesses like SpherePad, keeping costs down is that much more important, thus the use of readily available tools such as Google Analytics to keep best analyze its social media presence success.

-That said, though costs must be kept down for SpherePad, having employees keep strong social media presence themselves, and active in furthering the success of the business through this medium is vital. Clearly, the team effort in this regard is working on also helping SpherePad’s bottom-line.

Submitted by: Waqar Rizvi (wrizvi@gmail.com, LinkedIn, Facebook, Twitter , Google+)

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