Social Driver

BACKGROUND

Introduce your business and what you do there.

I’m the chief marketing and communications officer at a nonprofit organization. We are the consumer reports of K-12 instructional materials and provide free educator-led reviews of nearly 100% of the instructional material market in English, arts, math, and science.

OPPORTUNITY / CHALLENGE

What challenge were you trying to address with Social Driver?

We hired them to redesign our website, which is our primary product, where we offer free reviews. The website is bespoke because there is no other organization like us. We had many challenges around UI/UX design because of the amount of data we provided to educators. Therefore, we wanted to make the site more user-friendly. 

SOLUTION

What was the scope of their involvement?

Social Driver has redesigned our website and developed a UX strategy for us. We already have our user personas and have provided them with existing brand guidelines. Social Driver has helped us make the site's data more bite-sized and digestible for our end users, focusing on tuning our design to modernize it. They've also worked around UI design and suggested buttons, colors, and placements. 

They've delivered around 12–14 different designs for our website using InVision, and we've implemented most of them and reengaged with Social Driver numerous times. Social Driver has also helped us apply a filter function in our report center, helping us think through the language on the filters to make them understandable for our users. 

Although we couldn't implement all of their ideas in the first round due to timing, we plan to implement a data display that guides the user to what they're looking for in our next design round. 

Our organization started in 2015, and we're in the scaling phase of our work, so we're currently working with Social Driver to refresh another section of our website. We're also considering the possibility of them supporting us with our email strategy. 

What is the team composition?

We have a project manager, a UX designer, a graphic designer, and a content strategist from Social Driver. 

How did you come to work with Social Driver?

We found them through Clutch and selected them after doing a rigorous RFP. Social Driver provided the best strategy and examples of work with other nonprofit education clients. Therefore, we believed they saw our vision to make our website more user-friendly. 

Moreover, Social Driver demonstrated they could guide a user through a large amount of data through a medical site they had designed. They introduced innovative ideas that we really appreciated. 

How much have you invested with them?

We've spent around $200,000. 

What is the status of this engagement?

We started working with them in November 2020. Our first engagement was completed in 2021, but we renewed our contract with them in 2022 and 2023, so our collaboration is ongoing. 

RESULTS & FEEDBACK

What evidence can you share that demonstrates the impact of the engagement? 

The quality of Social Driver's work is incredible. The most relevant KPI is session duration, which we've seen double since we launched Social Driver's design. Meanwhile, page views have lessened because the new design has reduced users' clicks to get the right information. The user interaction is now streamlined. 

Everything Social Driver presents to us is really well thought-through and organized. They always have good reasoning behind their choices and are prepared to explain that. Moreover, the team professionally pushes back on us when we want something they believe isn't best practice. Overall, they've been wonderful partners and taught us a lot. 

How did Social Driver perform from a project management standpoint?

They're clear about the timelines and scope and are very cognizant of our budget since we're a nonprofit. If we're nearing our maximum budget, they give us choices. Social Driver is very collaborative in offering all the options and tailoring the scope of work to meet our needs while staying within a very defined budget. 

As for communication, all our meetings are strategic and organized. They use InVision to show us design mock-ups and get our feedback, and they're wonderful at taking that feedback and being responsive to it. We use Asana for project management and Google Meet for our meetings. 

What did you find most impressive about them?

The team Social Driver has brought together is fantastic; it's clear how experienced and knowledgeable they are. We've been really pleased with how they listen to us and push us on our thinking about the overall website strategy. The little details they've suggested for the site's UI design have made a big difference. 

We've been beyond satisfied with Social Driver's customer service — the whole team is lovely. We've recommended them to other organizations already. 

Are there any areas they could improve?

We've developed a camaraderie and are really friendly with them. Because of that, they may not be pushing us as hard as they could. After launch, we conducted focus groups on the primary section of our website, and the site still has some UX design issues. 

While Social Driver isn't to blame, I believe they may have ceded some ground on things that weren't the best decisions by us while trying to please us as a customer. However, I would like them to push us harder in the future. 

Do you have any advice for potential customers?

Let your service provider lean in with their expertise, whether it's Social Driver or someone else. If you hire someone, it's for their expertise. Although you may have specific needs, you're going to experts to guide you; letting them do that is money well spent.

BACKGROUND

Please describe your company and position.

I am the Deputy Director of Community Word Project

Describe what your company does in a single sentence.

Provide multi-disciplinary, arts education programming to under-resourced public schools in New York City.

OPPORTUNITY / CHALLENGE

What specific goals or objectives did you hire Social Driver to accomplish?

• Refresh brand with website redesign
• Integrate two websites under the brand umbrella

SOLUTION

How did you find Social Driver?

Online Search

Why did you select Social Driver over others?

• Great culture fit
• Company values aligned
• Accessibility Assurance

How many teammates from Social Driver were assigned to this project?

2-5 Employees

Describe the scope of work in detail. Please include a summary of key deliverables.

Social Driver recommended a four-phase approach to the website development project:

1. Strategy & Requirements:
   • Project Kick-off
   • Strategic Discovery
   • Research & Analytics
   • Technology Discovery
   • Workflow Audits
2. UX & Design:
   • Creative Intake
   • Creative Concepts
   • Element Design
   • CMS Platform Selection & Setup
   • User Experience (UX)
   • Analytics & Interfaces
3. Development: 
   • Front-End HTML/CSS
   • Custom Dev Services & API Dev
   • Content Migration
   • Content Production
   • Feedback & Refinements
4. Launch:
   • Quality Assurance (QA)
   • Documentation & Training
   • Go-Live Checklist
   • Launch & DNS Propagation
   • Go-Live Support

Deliverables in each of the four phases:

1.  
   • Content Audit
   • Sitemap + Wireframes
   • Content Migration Plan
   • Project Roadmap
2.  
   • Logo designs: Primary and Secondary and SM Profile
   • Brand Style Guide
   • Element Collage
   • Page Designs
3.  
   • Content Migration
   • Beta Website Delivery
4.  
   • Launch Plan
   • Post-Launch Support
   • Recommendations

RESULTS & FEEDBACK

What were the measurable outcomes from the project that demonstrate progress or success?

Areas where we see progress is

1. our ability to have control of website updates in WordPress (former website used a language no staff was trained in).
2. increase in the accessibility rating of overall design.
3. increase in unique visitors to website one year since launching.
4. website design helps inform all other branded designs, from brochures to marketing eBlasts.

Describe their project management. Did they deliver items on time? How did they respond to your needs?

Project Management was effective. There were times that delays originated on our end, but their ability to adjust schedules was essential to the project. We saw timely delivery on key items throughout the project. Social Driver was patient with our needs.

One of our value statements is Intentional Collaboration. So, in our efforts to build a small team of stakeholders to help make decision, the process may have been burdened. They were able to support through flexibility in scheduling and patience while our team worked through the decision making process.

What was your primary form of communication with Social Driver?

• Virtual Meeting
• Email or Messaging App

What did you find most impressive or unique about this company?

Social Driver's team, not unlike ours, is composed of a talented, passionate, and diverse group of people who bring their expertise, personalities, and sense of humor to the process.

Are there any areas for improvement or something Social Driver could have done differently?

In the course of the project, under the constrains of the pandemic and our unintended inability to make agile, quick decisions, we requested that the Social Driver team be more direct about deadlines and extra costs associated with missed deadlines, so that we could stay on track and on budget.

BACKGROUND

Introduce your business and what you do there.

I’m a former director of a social impact consultancy company.

OPPORTUNITY / CHALLENGE

What challenge were you trying to address with Social Driver?

We supported large federal and private nonprofit grants for an end client's project. We needed assistance with the project's marketing strategy.

SOLUTION

What was the scope of their involvement?

Social Driver helped us create our marketing and communications strategy. 

What is the team composition?

I worked with one teammate from Social Driver.

What is the status of this engagement?

We started working together in January 2022. Although I left the company before our engagement was concluded, our project was scheduled to end in April 2023.

RESULTS & FEEDBACK

What evidence can you share that demonstrates the impact of the engagement? 

Social Driver’s team was a wonderful contributor to our project and met our end client’s expectations. 

How did Social Driver perform from a project management standpoint?

Social Driver stayed on budget. All the requested work was delivered on time, and we had good communication. 

Are there any areas they could improve?

I can’t think of anything for Social Driver to improve.

Do you have any advice for potential customers?

I recommend pursuing an engagement with Social Driver — they’re a wonderful company to work with.

BACKGROUND

Please describe your company and your position there.

Technical Assistance Collaborative (TAC) is a nonprofit consultancy that provides policy leadership on affordable housing and human services systems at the federal, state, and local levels.

As Communications Designer, I manage design, production, and Section 508 accessibility remediation of all outgoing products and client deliverables for print/digital contexts.

I also support our Communications Director with brand upkeep and assets for internal and external communications, email and social media campaigns, and co-manage the website.

I joined TAC in Fall of 2019, just as the company was migrating to a new ESP and gearing up for a major website redesign to replace the last iteration of the site in 2012.

OPPORTUNITY / CHALLENGE

For what projects/services did your company hire Social Driver?

The previous iteration of TAC's website was optimized for desktop performance and predated the era of mobile-responsive design. Because we did not have the technical capacity to do the redesign ourselves to standard, my supervisor and I led our organization's procurement process for a full-service digital design agency.

In addition to site migration, we needed help customizing a CMS to our needs and setting up an app that would allow us to update large quantities of searchable housing and voucher data.

We also wanted help restructuring the site to minimize visible redundancy of links on the old site and improve user experience navigating towards our focus areas, project work, and resource areas. Although we were sold on the digital and marketing strategy, this was not our primary concern given our budget.

SOLUTION

How did you select this vendor and what were the deciding factors?

Our list of possible procurement candidates comprised recommendations from TAC's partners in the affordable housing and services sectors. After submitting a proposal and entertaining bids from three firms in Summer 2020, we chose Social Driver.

Although Social Driver offered the highest bid, we felt they had the most well-rounded team for our needs, particularly when it came to updating data and making it available and searchable to our users who come to our website for resources and state-specific information regarding qualifications for housing vouchers and supplemental security income.

We also felt that their portfolio of client work demonstrated the greatest variety of design solutions for companies big and small and felt reassured that our brief wouldn't be shoe-boxed into a one-size fits all solution.

Describe the project in detail and walk through the stages of the project.

I would describe 5 major phases

1. Intake and Mockups
2. Map New Site Structure
3. Migrate Content,
4. Handle Data and Forms
5. Final Touches, Debugging, and CMS Training.

Following several intake meetings to discuss our goals, we received three initial mockups of design directions for the website including theme palette, typography, and icons.

Once we committed to a basic direction, SD's team built out assets to support that vision and mockup various "master pages"/wireframes showing those assets in context (these assets were later adapted into modular components for Elementor that we could recycle in building pages ourselves).

These designs were communicated to us through InVision interface, which gave us a good idea of how a prototypical web page would look and which allowed us to provide feedback.

In the mapping phase, we brainstormed with their UX-specialist what the new site structure should look like and used a mapping tool to help us determine how content on the old site was to be propagated under which headings and sections in the new site.

At later phases in the process, we discussed how to migrate tabular data through a third-party app, curated marquee images/ icons for key landing pages, and worked out kinks in mobile responsive breakpoints, content rescaling, and some bugs in the calculation and presentation of our data tables.

How many resources from the vendor's team worked with you, and what were their positions?

Our Communications Director and I worked with a team of about 6 people including a project manager, a UX strategist, two graphic designers, and a database/data visualization specialist.

RESULTS & FEEDBACK

Can you share any outcomes from the project that demonstrate progress or success?

The B2B nature of our nonprofit organization and abstract concept of our work in systems alignment requires that we keep a lower profile than ground agencies who can use images of the communities they work with to promote their organization.There were many stakeholder-defined limitations on what kind of TAC work we could promote on our website, when, and how often.

Social Driver helped us navigate our thorny self-promotion issues and accessibility concerns while creating interface solutions that empowered us to do certain in things in-house like updating tabular data (rather than keep in the possession of someone more technical than us). Social Driver brought our antiquated 2012 website us up to speed in the mobile responsive era and helped us hit our target launch date in six months.

They made our site easier to navigate for potential clients, integrate our website/request forms with Mailchimp to automatically enter newsletter subscribers into our mailing list. And stakeholders have responded favorably to the visual renovation of the site and the relative ease of finding information through the untangled maze of links.

Although we are still working on bringing up our metrics, we have seen marginal uptick in visits to our site that have resulted in several new federal grants and attracted the business of larger clients to work with TAC’s consultants in ensuring better affordable housing and health outcomes through a racial equity lens.

How effective was the workflow between your team and theirs?

I would describe the workflow as efficient yet flexible. We had an excellent and spirited project manager who delegated responsibilities through Asana and made sure everyone stayed on topic and deadline and had their opinions heard.

The UX specialist on our team was also very affable and reassuring when it came to mapping out the migration process from the old and getting us set up with Google Analytics. We are also grateful to Social Driver’s design team for entertain several iterations of a design concept to better hit the brief.

What did you find most impressive or unique about this company?

We think that the women-led team made the Communications Director and I feel welcome at the table. Who would have imagined, programmers and designers with people skills makes a huge difference. They could have laughed us out of the room at several points, but they were very accommodating. They worked effectively as a team, kept the mood upbeat, participatory, and always demonstrated that they had listened to or incorporated our feedback even as they nudged us towards better alternatives.

Are there any areas for improvement or something they could have done differently?

The one area where internal stakeholders expressed some disappointment was the loss of more granular tracking for Google Analytics. We had ways of tracking downloads at a more granular level on the old site and engagement and queries from specific states, which must have got sacrificed in providing a Google Sheets workflow that let us perform the data updates in house.

Second, after the initial contract period expires, the quality of customer service during the infinitely long and expensive maintenance period drops slightly because you are entrusted to the care of someone who was not there during the initial process and may not feel as emotionally invested or attentive as those on the original agency team who are with you from the start of the project.

It would be nice if Social Driver delegated one person from the original team to hang on during the maintenance period rather than disappear cold turkey, but since we are in the midst of talks for a new project with Social Driver, our opinion may change.

BACKGROUND

Introduce your business and what you do there.

I work as an impact manager for a housing equity fund.

OPPORTUNITY / CHALLENGE

What challenge were you trying to address with Social Driver?

Our first business challenge was to create a whole new website. Our original website was tied to a series of blog posts and wasn’t very cohesive, so it didn’t have great functionality to meet our needs.

SOLUTION

What was the scope of their involvement?

The website was built from scratch using Webflow, and Social Driver also assisted us with design work. We provided them with branding guidelines from our parent company, like fonts, sizing, and colors, but other than that, we gave them creative freedom to design options for us to pick from. We ended up combining a few options they presented to us, and Figma was used for the designs. Social Driver is offering website maintenance. 

Social Driver helped create our individual brand from scratch because we didn’t have anything for them. When we brought in another company to really hone in on the branding, that vendor used a lot of the ideas that Social Driver had initially come up with while they were creating the website. 

What is the team composition?

We worked with a project manager, a few developers, a designer, and an account manager. 

How did you come to work with Social Driver?

Social Driver was working with my team before I started, but I know that other teams at the company used Social Driver to develop their own websites, and that's most likely how we found them.  

How much have you invested with them?

We invested around $93,000. 

What is the status of this engagement?

I started at the company in June 2022, but the project ran from May–September 2022.

RESULTS & FEEDBACK

What evidence can you share that demonstrates the impact of the engagement? 

We’ve had a lot of positive feedback, and they blew us away with the final product. Social Driver methodically went through our wish list to explain what was feasible within our time limit and got everything done for us. They were always able to meet our expectations, and we trusted their work and judgment fully.

How did Social Driver perform from a project management standpoint?

We had biweekly meetings to get everything out on time. They were very clear about limitations and laying out expectations, so we were never surprised by anything. We got out of meetings with them and were always impressed with everything they brought to the table. They understood our limitations because we have a small team, and they were accommodating. 

Social Driver was responsive and worked outside of normal working hours to get things done for us. We had a lot of roadblocks throughout the process, and they were able to get through them seamlessly. We communicated via Google Meet and used Google Workplace for a lot of project management tasks. 

What did you find most impressive about them?

We have nothing but praise for the Social Driver team because they did an incredible job and kept us on track as well. We didn’t have any design or development background, and they held our hand throughout the process. They were patient and helped us to make decisions from a functionality standpoint. 

Social Driver took the time to explain the process and go through it step by step. They acted as a partner throughout the entire engagement in a way that we haven’t experienced with a lot of other providers They drove the process for us, made everything easy, and we trusted them fully because it felt like they understood what we were looking for. There’s no reason for us to go anywhere else in the future because they went above and beyond for us. 

We walked away from the entire experience incredibly impressed; they were worth every penny we spent. 

Are there any areas they could improve?

We were in a time of transition when I first started, so it might have been nice to have a clearer explanation in those beginning phases, but that isn’t their fault by any means. Sometimes we struggled a little with scheduling as well. 

Do you have any advice for potential customers?

If it’s in your budget, you should absolutely work with them. Without them, our entire process could have been a disaster, but it all worked out because of Social Driver. 

BACKGROUND

Please describe your company and your position there.

The Education Trust is a national education advocacy nonprofit seeking to increase educational opportunities and improve outcomes for students of color and students from low-income backgrounds. I am the Associate Director for Digital Communications overseeing all our online work from website to social media to email marketing.

OPPORTUNITY / CHALLENGE

For what projects/services did your company hire Social Driver, and what were your goals?

We've partners with Social Driver since 2014 and a number of projects. This project specifically was to re-envision our State of Education Funding Equity data tool that we have been producing in various forms for over 20 years. The specific challenge here was two parts: 1. Updating the tool to current best practices for accessibility and web technology, and 2. Redesign it to handle an exponential increase in data, specifically newly available individual school level data

SOLUTION

How did you select this vendor and what were the deciding factors?

We chose Social Driver based on both the proposed approach to designing the tool, budget and timeline considerations, and long standing partnership or excellence.

Describe the scope of work in detail, including the project steps, key deliverables, and technologies used.

The scope of work was building a brand new data visualization tool from the ground up that incorporate pieces of previous versions that were popular, and building new functionality for new data sets available.

How many people from the vendor's team worked with you, and what were their positions?

The Social Driver comprised a team of at least 7.

• In the initial phases we worked with Ryan K., vice president for accounts(?) on scoping out the project, building the timeline and budget.
• In the wire-framing and design phase we worked with Creative Team led by Casey D. This is the third data visualization tool that Casey and his team have designed for us, and each time we've always be really happy and impressed with what they are able to pull together from a spreadsheet of text :-).
• During the build phase we interacted mostly with Development team led by Dylan F. Dylan has been working on the development side of EdTrust.org since 2014 when we was the lead on our website redesign. He is top of his field for Word Press development and hosting, and his institutional knowledge of the site means we don't have to worry about unforeseen bugs or conflicts with the base code.

And then throughout the project our Account Manager, Alexander K. was just fantastic controlling the updates and timeline in Asana, following up on deadlines and questions (from both sides) and making sure that all the little details weren't missed. The Social Driver project approach is another of it's great strengths, and something they are constantly investing time into improving.

RESULTS & FEEDBACK

Can you share any measurable outcomes of the project or general feedback about the deliverables?

The project was a wonderful success. It's garnered over 3,000 unique visitors in the first 30 days and profuse praise from our network of state and local advocates for it's usefulness and easy of use.

Describe their project management style, including communication tools and timeliness.

Social Driver and The Education Trust both use Asana for project management, so that was a seamless interface with clear tasks, timelines, and full conversation history. The Social Driver team consistently meets set out timelines or communicates as soon as possible when a deadline is shifting and why.

What did you find most impressive or unique about this company?

Their quality of work has always been the biggest selling point. From the first project in 2014 through numerous microsites and data tools, the Social Driver team has upheld the highest standards or professionalism and technical expertise.

Are there any areas for improvement or something they could have done differently?

There was a little breakdown in communication around the data mid-project that led to some confusion. A call should have been setup earlier than it was to get clarity and move forward.

BACKGROUND

Introduce your business and what you do there.

I’m the head of digital at an international administrative agency.

OPPORTUNITY / CHALLENGE

What challenge were you trying to address with Social Driver?

We hired Social Driver to lead digital marketing training sessions. 

SOLUTION

What was the scope of their involvement?

Social Driver led two virtual training sessions through Microsoft Teams for the US network of our agency. The first training focused on three dimensions of people-centered brand strategy. Social Driver showed us previous clients who had yielded great engagement results from their storytelling techniques. The second was about mastering LinkedIn. Social Driver’s team taught us how to use our existing network to build out our messaging and how to use various LinkedIn features. 

We worked directly with Anthony (Co-Founder & Chief Strategy Officer), who led our training after evaluating our priorities and what we wanted to convey to our network. We went back and forth on presentation drafts before he began each training. 

What is the team composition?

I worked with Anthony, two teammates from Social Driver's finance team, and an administrative assistant. 

How did you come to work with Social Driver?

We met Anthony at a previous engagement, and he told me about his interest in international affairs and his experience working with international communities. 

How much have you invested with them?

We spent $10,000.

What is the status of this engagement?

Our engagement lasted from February–March 2022.

RESULTS & FEEDBACK

What evidence can you share that demonstrates the impact of the engagement? 

The social driver team was really flexible to our needs — we weren’t able to do in-person meetings, so everything was done virtually. Anthony was really good at finding ways to get everyone engaged with the materials, even though we were in a virtual setting. Many teammates returned for the second training session, which is a testament to Social Driver’s work. I’ve also seen individuals from the training be more creative in their digital content and share more on LinkedIn. I’m 100% satisfied with Social Driver’s work; they did a great job. 

How did Social Driver perform from a project management standpoint?

I provided Social Driver with our budget parameters, and they were able to give us everything we needed within it. Typically we communicate through email, phone calls, and Google Meet calls. 

What did you find most impressive about them?

Social Driver’s ability to connect with the attendees really stood out to me. Often during training, instructors will talk off a sheet, but Social Driver did an excellent job tailoring the training to an international audience to ensure everyone was engaged.  

Are there any areas they could improve?

I wish we could’ve had the training in-person, but Social Driver worked within the limits of a virtual training as best they could. 

Do you have any advice for potential customers?

I’d advise customers to speak to Social Driver early and be clear about their goals for the training — customers should provide Social Driver with a list of desired outcomes.

BACKGROUND

Introduce your business and what you do there.

I’m the executive director of a nonprofit organization that provides affordable housing.

OPPORTUNITY / CHALLENGE

What challenge were you trying to address with Social Driver?

They provided video production services.

SOLUTION

What was the scope of their involvement?

They provide two animated videos and an infographic. The videos were 90-seconds each. All of them were developed for internal and marketing purposes.

Social Driver handled every aspect of the videos: scriptwriting, audio, editing, mixing, voiceovers, and more.

What is the team composition?

There were at least 3–4 people involved, maybe up to half a dozen, including a project manager, a voiceover actor, and a scriptwriter. There was also someone doing the storyboarding and laying out the titles and the look of the video. Our final assigned resource was an account manager.

How did you come to work with Social Driver?

They’d done our website, but we hadn’t worked with them to upgrade it because their proposal wasn’t the most compelling one. They did have more bandwidth and video expertise, however, so we went with them again.

How much have you invested with them?

We’ve spent a bit over $100,000 with them.

What is the status of this engagement?

We worked together from October 2021–April 2022.

RESULTS & FEEDBACK

What evidence can you share that demonstrates the impact of the engagement? 

We’re pleased with all the feedback on the video, as well as with the quality of the production. Social Driver did a very good job taking complicated subject matter and turning it into visuals. The videos will certainly help us in terms of explaining who we are.

How did Social Driver perform from a project management standpoint?

They did very well with the project management and used Asana. They didn’t allow for an alternate platform, so I trained one of my staff on it. We also had periodic meetings to go over product deliverables.

What did you find most impressive about them?

They were very good at communicating their process and laying out how they work. This allowed us to fully understand how we would move from concept to final product. Their discovery process was also very good, leading them to have a clear understanding of what we do. They really demystified the process.

Are there any areas they could improve?

I think that they were really good. There were a lot of touch points, and I can’t think of anything off the top of my head in terms of what they could do better. They were able to take and incorporate our feedback. I give them high marks for listening and understanding what we were trying to produce.

Do you have any advice for potential customers?

They were good and clear and understood what they were doing. They did very well in terms of the videos.

BACKGROUND

Introduce your business and what you do there.

I’m the chief communications officer at Zero to Three, a leading nonprofit organization focused on the health and well-being of babies and toddlers.

OPPORTUNITY / CHALLENGE

What challenge were you trying to address with Social Driver?

We’ve worked with Social Driver on several projects, including developing two websites for two of our programs.

SOLUTION

What was the scope of their involvement?

Social Driver has helped us redesign the website of our program HealthySteps, a program that supports our work in pediatric settings across the country. This redesign's primary goal is to better showcase the breadth and depth of what our program offers to families and the impact it has on babies.

Social Driver has also been helping us build a website for our professional development programs, where we provide training to professionals in the early childhood field across many different disciplines.

Additionally, we’ve worked with them to build a very dynamic website for a policy report that we put out annually called State of Babies Yearbook. Given that the report is issued annually, they’ve helped us put out every edition since 2019. We’re currently working with Social Driver to launch the 2022 edition, which will be published in about a week.

This website is filled with data on how babies are faring in every state within the US, and it includes all types of well-being indicators.

In addition to the website design and development, they work on our social media, helping us drive engagement to our site through social media videos and ads to support the yearbook launch. They provide us with the creative assets (the videos and interactive ads), and our internal team places those across our different social media platforms, including Instagram, Facebook, Twitter, and Linkedin.

Social Driver has developed the HealthySteps and the State of Babies Yearbook sites from scratch, whereas the professional development site has been a unique project. They haven’t developed it from scratch, but they’ve taken over the project after a different vendor wasn’t able to create a backend integration of that site with our e-commerce software. We haven’t launched this site yet, but we’re very close to doing it.

What is the team composition?

We’ve worked with various people from Social Driver across our different projects. We regularly work with 6–7 core team members, but other developers and designers have worked in the background as needed.

How did you come to work with Social Driver?

I’ve worked with Social Driver for several years across different organizations. Thus, I was already familiar with their work when I joined my current team, and we had had very successful collaborations. This time, I was very excited to bring them again for these larger projects.

How much have you invested with them?

We’ve invested over $500,000.

What is the status of this engagement?

I’ve worked with Social Driver since 2016 on other projects for other organizations, and our engagement is ongoing.

RESULTS & FEEDBACK

What evidence can you share that demonstrates the impact of the engagement? 

The State of Babies Yearbook site is very dynamic, allowing users to really engage with the data. Additionally, Social Driver has brought their excellent technical development expertise to bring the professional development site where it needed to be.

How did Social Driver perform from a project management standpoint?

Social Driver does a great job at providing a project roadmap from the beginning, and they also provide us with tools to monitor and be aware of timelines and deadlines. They have very clear communication around timelines and deadlines.

Additionally, they’re extremely responsive to questions and concerns. I can always be heard and get my questions answered by anyone from their team, from the project manager and the account manager, all the way up to the company's president.

We normally communicate in three ways. When we’re actively working on a project, we have recurring check-in meetings. The second way we communicate is via Asana, where I can see the project timelines and any notes associated with the progress. Finally, the third way we communicate is via email, through which we send longer-form notes or urgent requests.

What did you find most impressive about them?

What makes Social Driver stand out from their competitors is that they focus upfront on understanding the project’s goals. They’re hyper-client-centric, so they always try to do what’s best for us. They’re also very flexible in their approach, which ultimately serves the client and helps achieve the set goals.

Are there any areas they could improve?

I don’t have any constructive feedback for Social Driver, but it would be good if they built more room for the unknown. Clients always have expectations, and those expectations can suddenly shift, particularly in the nonprofit sector.

Do you have any advice for potential customers?

Establish a thorough project scope upfront and keep track of timelines. Additionally, ensure that any critical milestones across the project timeline are also communicated upfront.

BACKGROUND

Introduce your business and what you do there.

I was the PR manager of NGLCC.

OPPORTUNITY / CHALLENGE

What challenge were you trying to address with Social Driver?

We needed someone to provide us with web development and design.

SOLUTION

What was the scope of their involvement?

The web development project started with a discovery period where we learned about our challenges and needs. We went through interviews not only with the leadership, but with the staff and various audiences that the chamber was attuned to.

We also interfaced with community partners in the diversity and inclusion space, the Women’s Business Chamber, and the National Supplier Diversity Minority Chamber.

The website came in two phases, one was the redesign phase where they provided us with graphic design, content creation, SEO, and the development of a CMS.

The entire website was then developed through Drupal.

What is the team composition?

We worked directly with Anthony (Chief Strategy Officer & Co-Founder) and Thomas (Co-Founder & CEO).

How did you come to work with Social Driver?

Social Driver responded to a proposal we put out in the market.

How much have you invested with them?

We invested around $50,000.

What is the status of this engagement?

We worked together from April 2011–February 2014.

RESULTS & FEEDBACK

What evidence can you share that demonstrates the impact of the engagement?

Since partnering with Social Driver, we’ve increased our website engagement and unique visitors by 300% from 2012–2013.

How did Social Driver perform from a project management standpoint?

Anthony and Thomas were incredibly intuitive and effective leaders. They listen to their clients and were able to circumnavigate and rework some of our challenges.

We typically communicated through text, call, and email.

What did you find most impressive about them?

We were impressed with their team’s singular vision and how they provided us with incredible value through their services — they understood our company’s position and gave us the best product we deserved.

Are there any areas they could improve?

I don’t have any constructive feedback as we thoroughly enjoyed working with them.

Do you have any advice for potential customers?

Social Driver is highly flexible and innovative, so I would highly recommend working with them because they’re the leading edge of digital marketing.