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FirstDIBZ Lets You Tap into the Power of “First!”September 9th, 2008 at 5:37 pmSource:Mashable! Webjam, a platform that allows users to build customizable services on the Web, including publications, social networks, and various flavors in between, has unveiled a new layer directed at brand managers, called Branded Services. The company intends for this launch to enable organizations to “initiate a faster interactive discussion about their products or services amongst their audience.” WebJam explains that “by aggregating user-generated content and providing discovery tools, they can engage and empower their audience, thus spreading awareness and bringing a sense of purpose and community.” Suppose those words might be translated into a “brand you can befriend” sort of scenario. Albeit one quite a bit more full-featured and adaptable than a social profile on Facebook. Webjam presented Mashable with a number of examples of the Branded Services effort, of which two stood out particularly strongly: The Other Side and Cosmo Wedding Communities. These showcase how the social components offered through Webjam enable those brands, both of which involve themselves in the publishing industry, to become more involved with readers and for those readers to familiarize themselves with one another, as Branded Services promise to do. The implementation of Webjam services with The Other Side, a free paper circulated via London’s Tube, and Cosmo Wedding Communities, is well done, visually as well as structurally. Juxtaposed against one another, they show some similarities, of course, but remain very much their own domains. And the fact that users can involve themselves so thoroughly that they in turn establish sort of sub-communities, or “micro-communities,” as Webjam describes, is interesting indeed. It is without question that many brands will have no need to tap the powers that be at Webjam, despite the platform’s projection that “businesses can no longer ignore social media and Web 2.0 trends.” That is a basic reality. It’s really entirely dependent on the purpose of an enterprise to its clients or customers, and whether such a connection could do with that added closeness of a so-called community. Nevertheless, the supply of organizations big and small that might perhaps benefit from such engagement is large. Very large, in fact. So it is really to Webjam’s advantage to pitch the Branded Services option to prospective companies in need of or in search of an adaptive solution. —Related Articles at Mashable - All That’s New on the Web:Webjam Launches - MySpace Plus Netvibes on SteroidsThe Social Networking Awards 2006 - Call for Sponsors and SuggestionsMySpace Launches Free, Ad-Supported Cellphone ServiceTokyo MX Launches Branded YouTube ChannelTakkle Launches America’s Best Branded GroupPredictify Platform Launches with FreakonomicsStumbleUpon-eBay “Integration” Begins (Screenshots)
What if a company could take something as simple as “calling shotgun,” claiming “dibs” on something, being an early adopter or just that reader in blog comments who always types “First!” and turn it into a marketable idea? FirstDIBZ has done just that by creating a Web site where people can “call dibs” on everything from season tickets to networking events. Up until recently, FirstDIBZ has concentrated on the sports sector, giving people a way to unload their season tickets or generate buzz about ticket pre-sales for teams. I’d seen the company logo around the Web on sites like the New Orleans Hornets, for example, and thought it was a neat idea. I didn’t really get interested until the recent announcement of other ways to use the service. If you are a company like Mashable that frequently hosts networking events, you work with a finite budget. This means you need to ensure that each event gives attendees the most bang for their buck. This includes choosing the right date and the right location. If you hold your event in the wrong place, you might miss the chance to offer networking opportunities to the most people possible. FirstDIBZ, by expanding their scope to include events other than sports, provides a unique opportunity to test the waters before you finalize plans for an event. By giving you a place to post a selection of possible cities and have potential attendees vote for their favorites, you can quickly narrow down the options to the one that will give everyone the most benefit. You can also get an idea of how many people might attend, and what the interest level is. The other nice thing about FirstDibz is that it would also allow you to acknowledge people who voted for the cities not chosen by giving them a discount on the event city closest to them, or on a future event in their city. There are a few things that might make some customers shy away from FirstDIBZ, not the least of which is the concept of placing a monetary value on anticipation. Perception is everything, and one of the hurdles FirstDIBZ faces if they move outside the sports sphere is making sure they control their brand image. I’d recommend that they use social networks and microsharing to stay personal and make sure that customers looking to place dibs on events feel like part of a process and not just a source of cash. For the event planner, FirstDIBZ measures how serious people are about attending by placing cash value on interest, but that’s a fine line to walk with today’s consumer.
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