In Happy Holidays, KickApps
By Michael Chin
December 21, 2007
Wishing everyone a happy and safe holiday season!
Thank you to all our affiliates and partners for a great year. The entire team is extremely excited about what we”ve been able to accomplish in 2007 and you are all a big part of our success. We”ve got some big things planned for 2008 and are looking forward to making all your social media dreams come true.
p.s. I hope you”re doing something more exciting during the holidays than reading this blog.
p.p.s. Keep reading this blog when you get back from doing some fun and exciting during the holidays.
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In Advertising, KickApps, Research
By Michael Chin
December 14, 2007
Market research firm eMarketer released a report on Worldwide Online Social Networking Ad Spending today. In the report, Debra Aho Williamson, writes that “Worldwide, online social network ad spending is expected to grow by 81%, to $2.2 billion in 2008 from $1.2 billion this year.”
Williamson’s research also finds that “70% of all US teens visit social network sites on a monthly basis.” As we all know, it’s not just teens either. Many KickApps powered communities are flourishing with adult members (check out the Phoenix Suns’ Planet Orange and DIY Network). Social networks and social media applications have clearly become a big part of people’s lives.
The value in social media isn’t just that people are gathering on a website, it’s about engagement (someone said to me yesterday that “engagement is the new page view.” Discuss…). On top of this, what we’ve always believed and are seeing from our publishing partners is that because of the ‘niche’ nature of their KickApps powered communities, they’re able to offer high value audiences to advertisers in a very targeted manner. This in turn leads to higher CPMs and greater opportunities for publishers to monetize their social media communities.
It’s nice to see it all come together. Sounds like 2008 is going to be an exciting year for us all.
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In Single Sign-On, Skiing, Sports
By David Hertog
December 10, 2007
Liftopia.com, the national discount lift ticket marketplace for skiers and snowboarders, has officially launched their KickApps-powered community, The Lodge.
In the words of Ron Schneidermann, co-founder of Liftopia: “In keeping with our company’s motto of Ski More, Pay Less, the idea was to create a space where skiers and snowboarders of all skill levels could come together to share videos, photos, and their opinions on ski resorts, find ride shares up to the slopes, and generally use the community to get even more enjoyment out of the season.”
“Not only was KickApps a fast and economical way to get up and running quickly for this ski season, their single sign on feature allowed us to integrate seamlessly with our custom lift ticket application. The KickApps engineering team has been incredibly supportive, and our KickApps developer Haylie McCort at DotcomCowgirl customized our site and showed us how to use the KickApps widgets for viral marketing. We are really excited about growing The Lodge and taking advantage of all the new KickApps features going forward in 2008.”
The site looks great, guys. Congrats on the launch!
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In KickApps, Microsoft Silverlight, UGC, Video
By Michael Chin
December 7, 2007
As you know, The Phoenix Suns launched Planet Orange, the team’s KickApps powered community, in November. The site uses Microsoft Silverlight technology to power both editorial and user-generated video. Silverlight is a cross-browser, cross-platform plug-in for delivering the next generation of Microsoft .NET–based media experiences and rich interactive applications for the Web.
Video is a core component of social media and a very effective means of driving audience engagement–we call it one of the four building blocks of social media. Many affiliates are successfully combining professionally produced editorial video content with UGC. This integrated experience encourages participation and engagement by an otherwise ’static’ audience. The next step for publishers is to deliver videos using high quality HD, often requiring a DRM solution.
Microsoft’s entry into this space gives publishers another option to consider. In our efforts to continually lower the barriers to entry for publishers to be successful with social media, we’ve joined the Silverlight Partner Initiative (look for KickApps under Solution Providers) to explore deeper levels of integration for clients who choose to adopt Silverlight.
So, if you’ve decided to deploy Silverlight on your site, it’s easier than ever to integrate it into your KickApps powered community!
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