One of my favorite purchases last year was the iPhone. I use the iPhone as a mini-Internet device and to me the applications are what make it what it is–my favorite apps enable me connect with content and people. (I have to admit though that while I love many aspects of it, as a business user, the poor email, lack of search and ability to invite people to events, and the keyboard can be quite frustrating. But, I feel REALLY cool with it…)
KickApps has always been a big fan of the iPhone and early on we developed ways in which our site owners could customize their KickApps powered sites for the iPhone (including transcoding video so that it can be viewed on the iPhone). Lately we’ve been designing iPhone apps for our clients and doing a lot of thinking about what features their site members would want.
Here are some basic things that we think go into a successful iPhone app for online communities:
A view of community activity and your friends’ activities, including interactions with each other and content
People section where you can view your friends or other community members’ profiles and communicate with them by leaving comments for them or sending messages
Media section where you can view, comment on and upload photos, videos, audio or blogs
Tracking and participating in discussions on message boards
All of these things enable a member to stay connected with your site, it’s content and the people that matter to them. What would you like in a iPhone app for an online community?
Contact the KickApps Client Solutions team if you’re interested in adding an iPhone app to your KickApps mix. Our team is able to help you design and build one.
I wanted to share some work we’re doing around Facebook Connect. After a few weeks of tinkering and testing, we now support Facebook Connect on the KickApps platform. At the moment, what this means is that anyone using KickApps can allow their members to let their Facebook friends know when they’ve left a comment on a video, photo, blog or audio post on a KickApps powered website.
For your members, this is a very cool way to share their interests with their Facebook friends. For site owners, this becomes a very powerful feature that can drive traffic from your members’ Facebook social graph.
Here’s what it looks like. This is a member uploaded photo on I AM A RANGER, the New York Rangers’ fan site. Once a member logs in, they can choose to let their Facebook friends know that they’ve commented on the photo by checking the box. Once they do, they’re asked to log into their Facebook account and the box shown below appears.
A note then appears on the member’s Facebook wall and newsfeed. All their friends can see that they’ve left a comment and have an option to ‘Check it out!’ thus driving traffic back to the site.
We’re a few short weeks away from having a complete, self service approach to enabling this across the platform where it’ll be extremely easy for anyone to do this. I’ll update you shortly about when this is ready to go from the Affiliate Center, in the meantime, contact us if you have an urgent need for this and our Client Solutions group can work with you on implementing a solution.
Last weekend Shaquille O’Neal attempted to break a world record at the NBA All Star Game’s Jam Session in Phoenix–the Most Blindfolded Free Throws in One Minute record. For those of you that are NBA fans you’ll recognize the irony in that. Stuart Claxton of Guinness World Recordsblogged about it on the GWR community website (disclosure: powered by KickApps).
Here’s a behind the scenes look at the Jam Session from Planet Orange, the Phoenix Suns’ online comunity (disclosure: powered by KickApps). Looks like it was a good time had by all. Now…if we can get Shaq back to LA and the Lakers win the championship this year, all would be right in the world.
Courtside view of Nate Robinson of the NY Knicks (check out KnicksNet.com, the Knicks’ KickApps website) jumping over Dwight Howard to win the NBA All Star Game’s slam dunk contest. Video from Planet Orange, the Phoenix Suns’ EMMY Award winning KickApps powered site, uploaded by @PhoenixSunsGirl.
The New York Times published an article on February 14, 2009, about the Mayor of Philadelphia’s public discussions in an effort to get input on the city’s 2009 budget. “The sessions are part of a multiweek public process intended to give Philadelphians, for the first time, a chance to present their ideas for the budget before it is drawn up and presented to the City Council on March 19.”
Following the 2008 US Presidential elections and prior to the inauguration, the Obama transition team created the Citizen’s Briefing Book—“a project that has enabled everyday Americans to share their expertise and insight with President Obama.” The concept of the briefing book was to allow US citizens (or anyone around the world, really) to ushare their ideas about what’s most important to them and to provide suggestions.
A cynic might say that both of these initiatives are publicity stunts, however, I believe that they are great examples of the new age of transparency and participation that those of us that work and live in today’s digital age know all too well. People that participate and engaged (online and offline) develop a vested interest in the success of, in this case, an administration (that could also mean a politician, a cause, a non-profit organization, etc.).
This same concept applies in the private sector. Engage with your customers and partners in a way that allows them to participate will result in a customer and partner base that is vested in the success of your business. Call it brand affinity if you will.
It might be as simple as creating a message board and inviting your customers and partners to have discussions with you about topics and issues facing the market, problems they’re facing, solutions, your business or produce development. Or, you could invite your customers and partners to leave comments on your blogs, or have them contribute their own.
Begin by asking yourself (and your team) how you can create conversations with your customers and partners. Message boards, blogs, video, podcasts and commenting are all great vehicles for this. If provided with the right platform and catalyst for conversations (your job), your customers and partners will likely have a lot to say and chances are you’ll learn a lot.
With that said, what are good conversation starters that you’ve used to get your customers talking to you?
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