1.
Advanced Social Media
Professor Andrew Seel
Date: 28.05.2011
Student: Olli Lainto
Id Number: L113020
Individual exercise: Assessing social media best practice
Intuit inc. is an American software company that develops financial and tax
preparation software and related services for small businesses, accountants
and individuals. The company is a great example of how any company (not
just the obvious, fun ones, like Skittles or Ben & Jerry’s) can utilize social
medias and communities in their business models.
The online presence of the company is quite impressive, especially
considering the field of work Intuit’s in. Their online activities cover everything
form blogging, crowdsourcing, YouTube channels, social networks to
aTaxAlmanac, which is a free tax research resource modeled after Wikipedia.
Intuit’s online presence covers the following:
Blogging
- TurboTax team blog (General topics about to taxation and
accounting)
- Bob Meighan’s blog (Vice President of Intuit, company and industry
topics)
Crowdsourcing
- Intuit Labs (Site for product testing and customer feedback)
Twitter
- @Intuitinc
- @intuitcommunity
- @IntuitUK
- @IntuitPayroll
- @turbotax
- @IntuitHealth
- @TeamTurboTax
- @IntuitCareers
- @IntuitAR
- @Intuit
- @Intuitlabs
- @Quickbooks
- @IntuitDeals

2.
- @IntuitTownHall
- Numerous employee accounts to answer product questions
YouTube
- Intuit QuickBooks – channel (Guides about the product)
- TurboTax – channel (General news and help for individuals)
Ratings and Reviews
- TurboTax reviews (reviews of their personal and business software’s)
Social Networks
- Facebook
- LinkedIn
- TurboTax Support Community (targeted for individuals)
- QuickBooks Community (targeted for businesses)
- JumpUp Community (targeted for small businesses and start-ups)
Wiki
- TaxAlmanac (“Wikipedia” of taxation and accounting)
SWOT analysis of Intuit’s use of social medias
Strengths
Intuit’s greatest strength is in its massive number of communities. Just one of
their communities has more to offer than many other companies’ entire online
presence.
Besides the official company blog (TurboTax team blog), which covers topics
from industry specific topics to topics relevant to individuals, and the blog
written by the Vice President Bob Meighan’s blog, each community has a blog
of their own. Each community also has an expert locator map, calendar of
upcoming Intuit and other relevant events, forums, podcasts, videocasts,
webinars, whitepapers and user generated content. The communities are built
around the different Intuit products, which have their own specific user
segments. Having all this information and content made available for each
product makes sense, since there is little risk of cannibalizing their own
communities.
Example of just one of Intuit’s communities is JumpUp, which is a free social
networking and resource site for small businesses and start-ups. The site
offers numerous free tools and services, like an interactive business planner,
different cost and profit calculators, free templates and sample business
plans.
Intuit is also involving their customers into the development of new software
and applications. On Intuit Labs.com Intuit’s development teams share their
ideas and products with users to have them tested and to get feedback from

3.
them. All this is freely available for customers and the featured applications
cover everything from small businesses apps, to apps related to personal
finance and various mobile devices.
Finally, as a testament to their commitment to providing people with all the
possible information they might need related to finance and taxation, in 2005
intuit launched the TaxAlmanac. The site is modeled after Wikipedia and is
written by US tax professionals and combines legislative information with
practical examples and case studies.
Weaknesses and threats
Intuit’s massive online presence can also be seen as a weakness. The
massive amount of personnel and operating costs required to maintain this
kind of system can easily cripple a company if circumstances were to change.
Because Intuit has established itself as the number one software company for
personal finance, accounting and tax return software in the US and has
created these huge communities around each of its products, consumers will
expect the same for every new product they will launch. Every product will
have to have its own site, with its own designated experts and content, which
means ever-higher operating expenses.
Even if Intuit eventually does discontinue old products, people will still be
using them and will not take it lightly if Intuit will also close the communities of
these products. So the choice is between saving operating costs or pissing of
and possibly alienating their customers.
Intuit’s inability to expand to other geographical markets is also a weakness.
In most of Europe and around the world, taxation is far more simple and
automated than in the US. Average citizens in these countries don’t need the
type of software Intuit offers and that means that the market the company is
competing in is limited mostly to the US. Spending in online marketing is the
highest in the US market and if Intuit wishes to stay as the market leader in
their field, they need to invest significantly time, resources and money to
marketing and research.
Opportunities
Even though the company is somewhat limited to the US market for now, they
could still expand to other geographical markets with their small business and
start-up software’s. Providing European markets for example with information
on the international legislation related to finance and taxation, with software
optimized for the European and UK accounting standards could be a way to
enter the market.
Conclusion
Intuit’s online presence is a combination of high-level professionalism, mixed
with a dash of fun and lightheartedness, which can be seen on their Facebook
page and on their TurboTax – channel. Intuit has invested heavily on building

4.
communities around each of their products. Each of these niche communities
has a very active level of engagement by the company’s specialists and the
users. The company has understood that just by providing people and
companies with software to help with their taxation and accounting problems
isn’t enough, the support by Intuit has to be top quality and can’t be limited to
just product support but has to encompass the entire process of accounting
and taxation. By making all this information and content free, re-enforces the
company’s image as a reliable source of information, and the customer
engagement through the several communities, social networks and
crowdsourcing guarantees high-level of customer satisfaction.