Conan Talks KickApps on the Tonight Show

Conan GETS it. He REALLY gets it.

Complete Control for All Publishers, Large and Small

KickApps is known for powering rich social media experiences for some of the world’s most recognizable brands, tier-one web publishers, and Fortune 1,000 enterprises. Over the last few years the market has shown that the social media experiences we provide are becoming baseline for any website in the world and it’s our commitment to service all publishers and businesses no matter how large or small.

Based on feedback from our growing network of customers, we’ve made a few changes to our service that I’d like to bring to your attention. From today onward, we will be offering a Free 30 day trial for all new KickApps accounts. You’ll be able to design, build, integrate and test your KickApps website during this time and will have complete access to the entire KickApps platform.

As part of this change, we will be replacing the KickApps ad network advertising offering with a new series of subscription offers that provides the publisher with complete control of all ad slots (including video advertising slots). Current KickApps ad network accounts can choose to stay ad supported and receive advertisements from the KickApps ad network or switch over to one of our subscription packages that provides the publisher complete control of all ad slots.

We started testing three new self-service monthly subscription packages that provide complete control six months ago resulting in the following offers:

Basic = $39.95/mo.
Small Business = $99.95/mo.
Small Business Plus = $299.95/mo.

The response has been very positive which is encouraging because it signifies the maturing of the industry as a whole. The Basic to Small Business Plus packages are available on a self-service basis in the Affiliate Center where you’ll find all the details necessary to pick the offering that meets your needs.  Payment for the new subscription offers can be made via PayPal account or major credit card.

For publishers that expect traffic to exceed 30,000 page or video (outside of a KickApps hosted page) views per month, please contact our sales team and we’ll walk you through an enterprise licensing package tailored specifically to your needs.

With today’s KickApps, that includes; Widget & Video Player Studio, a robust API Developer Kit, complete content, media & member management, community and customer insight solutions and so much more, nothing stands in the way of any publisher from taking advantage of how social media can transform your web site.

Thank you for your support of KickApps over the last four years. We’re very excited about continuing to deliver the best social media solutions to you.

Celebrating Arnold Palmer’s 80th with Social Media

Arnold Palmer. Need I say more?

The USGA created an online Memory Book to celebrate Arnold Palmer’s 80th birthday celebrations this year.

The website invites fans to share their memories of Arnold by blogging or uploading photos and videos. Golfing legend, Tiger Woods, is joined by Rocco Mediate, Cal Ripken, retired Supreme Court Justice Sandra Day O’Connor, and even Mashable’s Adam Ostrow (his post here), in sharing their Arnold memories. The Memory Book will be presented to Arnold on his 80th birthday.

What a great concept!

The site is powered and developed by KickApps based on designs from the USGA. There’s a social network behind it but the primary applications on the website are the Memories (powered by our blogging and photo & video sharing UGC applications).

In his post, Adam from Mashable writes, “the sports world is clearly starting to recognize the power of bringing their supporters together online.” He’s right, social media and sports are a natural pairing. Fan communities exist in the offline world and social media brings people together and enables sharing and discovery in some very powerful ways.

Check out some of our other sports related websites: Planet Orange, the Phoenix Suns’ EMMY Award winning website, I am a Ranger (New York Rangers), 49ers Faithful (San Francisco 49ers), Knicks Net (New York Knicks), Spirit of 12 (Seattle Seahawks) and Swarm City (New Orleans Hornets).

Budget Travel Goes ‘Ga Ga’ with Photos, Videos & Comments

Budget Travel just published a new feature called Zoo Babies 2009.

“Meet Miles, a giraffe who wants to be like his big sis; a grouchy little porcupine named Oscar; and three mischievous Sumatran tiger cubs—a few of the aww-inspiring newcomers starring in our cutest Zoo Babies installment yet. Browse the babies, cast your votes, and add photos and videos of your own from zoos nationwide.”

Check out the site and vote for your favorite baby animal. (My votes goes to Xi Lan the Panda and Oscar the Porcupine–what’s not to like about a grouchy, prickly baby?!)

The website utilizes social media & KickApps in a number of really interesting ways to drive audience engagement.

1. The photos in the baby animal module are hosted by KickApps. The Budget Travel team built the module and voting application using KickApps as their media hosting and management (think image CMS).

2. The Reader Media module features photos and videos uploaded by Budget Travel readers to their KickApps powered community. What I like about what Budget Travel does here is that their editors have curated the content for the ‘best’ and most relevant. They simply apply tags in the KickApps backend and program the modules according to the editorial content. By integrating this community generated content into the overall experience, it extends the experience for the reader and also drives a deeper affinity with the Budget Travel brands–I go there because I know they have content that I’ll like and be interested in. You can either curate this editorially like Budget Travel has or you can choose to program this with basic filters like, Most Recent, Most Viewed, Highest Rated, etc.

3. KickApps also powers the commenting application at the bottom of the page. By enabling comments, Budget Travel is driving even deeper engagement with their audience. Coupled with editorial programming, i.e. calls to action, they’re able to stimulate conversations amongst their readers.

Now, go vote!

GigaOM Pro’s Report on Social Media in the Enterprise

The social web has created new expectations from people and new channels for audience growth, marketing and communications. We saw this wave hit the first beachhead a few years ago with media & entertainment, and are starting to see that wave break in the enterprise in a big way this year.

GigaOM Pro published a very thorough report written by Rachel Happe (someone I’ve come to respect a great deal in this industry) of The Community Roundtable entitled, Social Media in the Enterprise. The report takes a deep dive into how the enterprise is utilizing social software and its impact on “content authoring, content management, communications and CRM.” The report explores the way different functional groups within the enterprise would benefit from social software, including HR, marketing, support, sales and engineering.

Our belief is that enterprises, regardless of their size and reach, will see this transform their businesses dramatically over the next few years. Today, that’s starting with online marketing and communications where the multilogue is becoming the norm and customer engagement is the most effective and efficient weapon in a marketer’s arsenal. We’ll see this extend into real-time, one-to-many, feed-oriented communications that will power internal and external communication and collaboration.

Using KickApps, brands and marketers in the enterprise can now easily create and manage engaging social, interactive, dynamic and distributed web experiences that change B2B and B2C marketing from a monologue to conversations. These same experiences are being created to provide customer support and also enable product teams to communicate with, listen to and learn more effectively from their customers in a collaborative environment.

If you’re in the enterprise and are developing your company’s social software strategy, I’d recommend subscribing to GigaOM Pro and downloading a copy of the report (it’s 65 pages of goodness for just $79!). If you’re in the San Francisco Bay Area, you should join us at our June 17th seminar on Social Media in the Enterprise at The Palace Hotel in San Francisco. We’ll have presentations and discussions led by people like Jeremiah Owyang of Forrester and Sandy Carter of IBM who will share the lessons they’ve learned. You can register for the seminar here.

Finally, if you’ll indulge me for another minute, I’d like to gloat a little bit about KickApps being ranked 2nd, next to Lotus Connections (the Big Daddy of enterprise collaboration software), as having the most Strategic Potential for Enterprise Social Software Leaders. This validation of our vision and approach—putting the power of engagement in the hands of our clients and innovating around the breadth of our offering—makes us very excited about the enterprise market in the years to come.