Kyle
A Vancouver startup called CrowdFanatic has just recently launched, what they are calling a “game changing” group connectivity layer on Facbeook. It’s actually a pretty innovative idea, and now with the Facebook App store, more people will be able to find it and connect their groups.
Facebook does a great job of one to one connections. What they’ve been missing through the years is the chance for groups to connect with groups. For instance a Harry Potter fan group could challenge a Hunger Games group. Or a Kyle Bush fan group could connect with a Dale Earnhardt fan group and challenge each other.
What’s even better is other ideas that can spark on CrowdFanatic’s layer. For instance, a cheerleading group in California could collaborate, and or challenge a cheer leading group from Connecticut. The possibilities are endless, and after talking with the founders of CrowdFanatic, the biggest question is why hasn’t Facebook or someone else stepped up to do this until now? Well it’s here thanks to CrowdFanatic.
Check out our interview below the break
CrowdFanatic is a social media venture with a unique vision – to create the ultimate ‘Groups Direct-Engagement Platform’ – an online arena for groups to directly engage with rivals, create a dialog, promote their cause and win the social media battlefield. We have launch a destination site (www.crowdfanatic.com) a few months ago.A few days ago we have announced the release of a game changing environment on Facebook, CrowdFanatic App, https://apps.facebook.com/crowdfanaticapp (make sure to login to Facebook first).The revolutionary environment directly engages groups and pages on Facebook with each other and forms, what we call, the ‘Groups-Connectivity Layer’ on Facebook.Using the app, The Hunger Games fans can challenge Twilight fans, Apple aficionados can engage hard core Androiders and Romney supporters can try to convert Obama’s voters to win the election…We believe that the groups’ connectivity layer is a big revolution because at Facebook today groups and pages act as isolated islands with no bridges to other groups and limited ways to promote their causes or challenge rivals. Facebook connects individuals with individuals, but misses a layer to connect groups with each other to reflect real world interactions. How and where New York Yankees fans engage with the Boston Red Sox fans?
No more… the gamified app enables Facebook users to engage directly any two Facebook groups or pages with each other in a competitive, gamified Arena.
In that A vs B arena, supporters of two rival groups engage directly to promote their cause, initiate a democratic dialog or challenge opponents. They vote for their group, debate over relevant topics, recruit more supporters and send viral messages to promote their group – all in order to win public debates and sway public opinion to their side.
Yaron Bazaz – Founder and CEO: Yaron is an energetic, creative and multidisciplinary entrepreneur with extensive experience in web-oriented start-ups (Weekend, eMap, VIO, BIS, ContinYou!), corporate financing (Western Headquarters), management, international sales and business development. Yaron is an evangelist in the areas of web as neuronal network and web as an artificial intelligence (AI) platform. Yaron holds an MBA with distinction from the Edinburgh Business School, Heriot Watt University and a Bachelor’s degree with honors in Psychology from the Ben-Gurion University in Israel. Full Bio
1. Krys Wallbank – CTO: Krys is a technology leader offering fresh insight and a passion for innovation; with a proven track record in planning, designing, building and launching successful, high-profile corporate and consumer based online and mobile platforms and games. Among other entrepreneurial ventures, Krys founded Groovy Web Services and Neurofluid Interactive – a casual gaming and software development for facebook, iPhone and Android platforms. Previously Krys served as the IT Director of Cackleberries Entertainment and leading developer at Compass Engine and East Side Games, where he was in charge of developing and managing the group’s infrastructure software, back-end system and server environment used by millions every day. Full Bio
Ido Sarig – Marketing and Business Dev: Ido currently serves as VP Product Marketing at Wind River. He spent much of his professional career with Mercury Interactive, where he was one of the first employees. As Mercury’s Vice President of Technology Strategy he was responsible for the company’s technology roadmap, and for evaluating new technologies and business opportunities for Mercury. Ido was also Venture Partner with Thomas Weisel Venture Partners, where he focused on enterprise software. Ido holds an MBA, Magna Cum Laude, from Tel Aviv University. He earned his BS, Cum Laude, in Computer Engineering from the Technion-Israel Institute of Technology. more: http://www.linkedin.com/pub/ido-sarig/0/17/618
I have noticed that social media platforms today aren’t modelling the world accurately. Linkedin, Meetup, Twitter and Facebook enable users and brands to form groups or pages and to broadcast their massages to the world. But they broadcast their messages to the group’s members or followers only. They can’t reach out and directly engage the other side. No platform enables rival groups to meet online, exchange messages, develop a dialog or challenge rivals to win a public debate. I have realized that I identified a gap in the social media offering and moved on to build a team, raised financing and build the groups engagement arena.
For the facebook application we are targeting young enthusiast fans in several different areas of interest. Mainly in the areas of Sports, Entertainment, Technology, Gaming, Politics, NPOs , consumer products…. It is very wide. We are experimenting by shooting in all directions to see which categoty is more responsive.From the groups perspective we are starting to touch base with sports teams and leagues, political movements and parties, fan groups, game studios and other brands that have interest to promote their cause and recruit more supporters.
As a user this is your place to fight for your group, vote, express your opinion, convince your rivals (or just hammer them down…) and recruit more supporters to win the match. This is the social media battlefield and if you want to fight for your group, this is the place.for a group, Our thesis is that the current situation in which brands’ pages on facebook are isolated islands, crippled their efforts to promote their agenda and engage users. since they are acting as walled gardens and heavily moderated, today they are serving as a top down channel for brand marketing, not for true user- brand engagement. therefore after the fist ‘like’, most of the supporter will never return to the brand page.By engaging brands’ funs directly with each other we eco the real world and provide a competitive arena in which supporters are emotionally involved and have strong motivation to fight for the group, oppose rivals, cary the message and promote the brand’s cause. The app poised to improve traffic to the brand fb page, attract more supporters, ignite interest, increase level of engagement and to raise public awareness to the brand campaigns.
CrowdFanatic is a gamified environment. It offer an entertaining way for users to express their group identity, fight for their group and win online debates.
Launching the fb app a few days ago ….is too soon to tell… but from the release of the destination site several months ago i can say that the management team must be flexible and resilient at the same time. To be able to accept the market feedback quick enough and modify the platform, positiongng and core technology as needed. And resilient not to melt down at the process…
We are now developing a ‘Brand Plugin – an ad-on to the fb app to enable facebook pages and groups to better engage their supporters using crowdfanatic and gain several added value services.
