BusinessWeek: Best of the Web 2008

BusinessWeek put us on their Best of the Web 2008 list!!

Wow!!! We’re humbled and SO happy!

Thank you to all our employees, customers, partners, friends and family. Can’t wait for an even better 2009!

KickApps Video Tutorial Widget

Want to know how to use KickApps? Here’s a video player widget that has our entire selection of video screencast tutorials explaining various aspects of using KickApps. From inserting video ads to an overview of the Widget Studio, we have you covered.

Since this was built in the KickApps Widget Studio, you can also grab it and embed it on any blog, website, Facebook, MySpace, iGoogle, Netvibes, etc., with just a few clicks. Also, using our Feed Builder, this widget will be dynamically updated when we add new tutorials. This will happen automatically on any widget, regardless of where it lives on the web.

Learn how to build your own widgets and video players by checking out the videos below.

New KickApps Carousel Widget

Check out the new carousel widget that’s available in the Widget Studio today.

As with all our widgets, the content comes from an RSS feed of content in your KickApps website or any external content that is available via RSS 2.0. In this case, I found some amazing photos of my favorite city in the world on Flickr by Henry Roxas.

The carousel rotation is defaulted to 2 seconds but you can customize it to suit your needs. Also, clicking on the image enlarges it, clicking again shrinks it back and the rotation continues. Features include:

- Displays images and plays videos and audio
- Set the carousel to auto-rotate
- Set the rotation interval
- Set the camera angle
- Set the width/height of the images
- Turn reflections on/off
- Set the corner radius on the images
- Text components can be bound to the carousel
- Custom buttons to move the carousel left and right using click actions

For more information about the KickApps Widget Studio and Feed Builder, have a look at this screencast.

PlanetOrange.net Wins an EMMY!

Who hasn’t wanted to say the words: I’d like to thank the Academy. While that day may never come for most of us, it happened for our client the Phoenix Suns. The Suns won an Emmy Award for their team’s social network, PlanetOrange.net last week (one of twelve that the organization won). Jeramie McPeek, vice president, interactive services at the Suns, and his team won the award in the Advanced Media category.

PlanetOrange.net has been a success from day one. In fact, it has attributes which any online community should aspire to. Its members are extremely active and engaged, not to mention, VERY passionate about the Suns (as a longtime Lakers fan, I do have to scratch my head on this one).

One of the things about PlanetOrange.net that stands out is the way leaders within the community have emerged and play a very important role in the community. LoriAnnSUPERFAN is a prime example of this. If you look at her profile and the way she interacts with others in the community, she’s very much the heart and soul of PlanetOrange.net. She’s even taken it on herself send welcome emails to new Citizens of Planet Orange.

Congrats to Jeramie and all the Citizens of PlanetOrange.net.

A very nice email we got from Jeramie about the win:

Wanted to let you know we won an Emmy Award in the southwest region for PlanetOrange.net. We won in the “Advanced Media: Interactivity” category, which is for web features that enhance live TV broadcasts. We showed the game-night message board threads, fan post-game blogs, and how we featured fans and the best videos during the Suns’ pre-game TV program. You guys obviously gave us the tools and support to make it happen, so thank you and congrats to you, as well!

In the News: Budget Travel

Like many of you, I love to travel. (Well, maybe not so much the process of dealing with airports these days, but there are few things better than experiencing different cultures and seeing the world.) When KickApps started working with Budget Travel magazine, I was ecstatic!

Last week, USA Today included Budget Travel in a list of travel resources for bargain hunters:

BudgetTravel.com

The online incarnation of Arthur Frommer’s Budget Travel magazine mixes authoritative, expert-driven information with a growing social media component that includes reader tips and travel journals. Particularly noteworthy: Real Deals and This Just In, a daily blog.

In my first conversation with Stephen Merrill, general manager of BudgetTravel.com, we talked about why social media is such a great fit for Budget Travel. Part of the magazine’s mission is to build a community of readers that come together around their passion for travel. That passion and the community permeates every aspect of the magazine. In fact, Budget Travel features reader provided content in several sections of every issue.

In its June 2008 issue, Budget Travel took this a step further. The entire issue, their 10th Anniversary issue, comprised entirely of reader submitted content. Every story and photo was submitted by readers. Together with this, myBudgetTravel launched as a destination for travel enthusiasts to gather and share their stories, photos and videos.

Having a ‘presence’ in the multilogue is one thing, baking it into your business, product and culture is the so-called Holy Grail. The path that Budget Travel has forged is a terrific example of how this is happening.

For more from Stephen Merrill, check out our webinar which he co-presented: A Blueprint for a Successful Social Media Website, and our recap of FOLIO Magazine’s roundtable on social media.