In Summary: Firstly, “email a friend” is the elephant in the room, Secondly, Share+ doubles user interaction.

Read on…

Firstly, a national IT Publication, the date range was Q1 2009.

In Q1 there were 30,860 “email a friend” actions

There were 6172, social bookmarking actions, of those 1871, 30% were Share+ generated. i.e. Users saving the links into their Share+ account and/or being

referred back to the publisher from the most shared within the outgoing email.

Without Share+, Social Bookmarking(FB, Twitter, etc) accounted for 12% of all sharing, with Share+ Social Bookmarking accounted for 30% of all sharing.

Secondly, for a regional newspaper in Texas.

In Q1 there were 1520 “email a friend” actions and 376 social bookmarking actions.

Of those 376, 80% (302) were Share+ actions i.e. users clicking on the most shared within the outgoing email or using the GTVT save within the widget. Without GTVT, social bookmarking(FB, Twitter, etc) accounted for 5% of all sharing, with Share+ 20%.

So I thought I’d address this to clarify our position.

For Grouptivity the Share widget is a means to an end, it’s not an end in itself. Absolutely we allow users to share content to whatever service they want to as do other players in the space. For us this is where the fun starts not ends.

Firstly, the user can save all the interesting stuff they’ve emailed/bookmarked or posted.

Secondly, their friends can see what they’ve been sharing/saving, they might be interested in their friends stuff and vice versa.

Thirdly, the publisher extends their relationship with the user as they are interacting with their content. Bear in mind this interaction would normally would happen in email or a third party site.

Fourthly, google adsense is inserted in that environment we create. So more users interaction within grouptivity more money. 

Lastly, all the ad revenue goes to the Publisher.

What’s not to love?

2. Watermelon USB Flash Drive-There is a new kind of fruit in town. This may look familiar, but actually if you look closer you’ll see that this fun gadget stores memory. About 8GB to be exact. http://www.chinavasion.com/product_info.php/pName/watermelon-usb-flash-drive-8gb-food-shaped-usb-storage/

3. WMA + MP3 Player Sunglasses-Wow, you get two for one when you wear these sunglasses. Protect your eyes from the sun while listening to your favorite tunes.

http://www.chinavasion.com/product_info.php/pName/wma-mp3-player-sunglasses-2gb-stereo-sound-effect/

4. Led Motherboard Menorah-With this battery operated menorah, you never have to worry about the house burning down. It’s battery operated plus it’s, you know, cool

5. Giant Microbes Orthomyxovirus The flu-Cuddle up to a nice fuzzy comfortable pillow and if you ever wanted to call in sick when you weren’t now you can without the guilt. http://www.gifts.com/products/X-treme-Geek/Giant-Microbes-ORTHOMYXOVIRUS-The-Flu?p=5441:250+0900:49&kwd=x-treme+geek

6. Watch Spy Camera + Wireless Receiver-For all your covert operations this is the perfect tool. No one will ever no you are on a mission. Warning, this may not be suitable for all ages. http://www.chinavasion.com/product_info.php/pName/watch-spy-camera-wireless-receiver-ultimate-spy-kit/

7. Floating Picture Frame-Can’t go wrong with a picture frame. Your grandmother will be blown away by this cool advanced gadget. Something she never thought she would see. http://www.chinavasion.com/product_info.php/pName/floating-picture-frame-35-x-5-inch-pictures/

8. Robot USB Drive-Your robot might be the only person you can trust with your information. He’s not only a best friend, but a storage facility as well. Keep him close.

http://ageekspot.wordpress.com/2008/06/23/geek-gift-robot-usb-drive/

9. USB Flash Drive Lighter 8GB-Now you can carry your data in your pocket and be able to light a cigarette at the same time. Wow, technology is really advancing with this cool flash driver lighter. http://www.chinavasion.com/product_info.php/pName/usb-flash-drive-lighter-8gb/

10. Cell Phone Watch-Instead of telling the time from our cell phones we can now talk on our watches. That means you’ll never lose your cell phone cause it’s attached to you. Oh and it’s stainless steal, so you can wear in style. http://www.chinavasion.com/product_info.php/pName/mind-blowing-cell-phone-watch-in-stainless-steel/

If you are interested in offering your readers a means to save and share your content with their friends, you can go to www.grouptivity.com download a widget, enter your adsense account and you are ready to go.

As your users save and share you get loyal users more referral traffic and make some money. The more your usage by your readers the more benefit for you so we’ve outlined some benefits to educate your users on the service.

User Benefits

Why it’s Better -

Why it’s easier -

We created Grouptivity to make it easy to share with your network. Everything’s in one place - your favorite people and your favorite content. Everything you share is automatically saved - if it’s good enough to share, it’s good enough to save. And you can access it anywhere - just log-in.

Why it’s fun

When you send to a friend, you’ll know when they read it, and if they shared it too. Create a discussion around content - it stays private, is easy to view, and easy to find later.

Share, Save and be Social

The short answer is absolutely.

The reason is very simple. There is no formal business relationship between the publisher and widget provider. It’s simple to install and simple to remove.

Our widget is simple to install but it’s an entree into an environment where users can save, share and  discuss all content they find interesting. By inserting ads and sharing the revenue with the publisher this implies a much tighter relationship.

To that end we have a big announcement next week.

Aliza’s full article is at

Grouptivity Takes on ShareThis and AddThis

Enter Grouptivity, an innovative web developer with a viral share to social network tool that Techweb’s InformationWeek.com is piloting.  With the new and improved “email a friend” and social bookmarking functions, users can instantly e-mail articles with their social networks, post content directly to popular social networks like Twitter and Facebook, and revisit content they’ve shared in their personal “MyShares”  box which automatically saves everything that’s sent.

Shared content that’s filtered by users is a win-win for readers and publishers - people get content delivered that’s specific to their needs and interests without having to use search engines or subscribe to RSS feeds, and publishers get valuable referral traffic as well as targeted advertising opportunities.

“Users may read or browse dozens of pages but they would share typically less than 10% of those pages.  This is very valuable data since at that point in time a user has identified one piece of content above others to share. This implies more engagement and value to that user and their friend(s). Grouptivity takes that engaged user and provides more functionality for the users. Which in turn provides targeted advertising opportunities for Publishers,” said Ankesh Kumar, CEO of Grouptivity.

Michael Grover, Director of SEO Strategy for TechWeb, concurs, “Media companies today must provide users with more and better ways to engage with their products.  Grouptivity enables us to add value to the user’s engagement with our sites.”

Key to the success of the tool is its integration into established user behavior.  “Grouptivity’s power lies in the fact that we do not change users behavior, we let them use the tools and services they currently use, email or their favorite social media sites,” said Kumar.

To test out the Grouptivity function on InformationWeek, go to an InformationWeek.com story and click on the “Email this Page”icon.

For further information please contact Nicole Beattie  marketing@grouptivity.com

About Grouptivity (www.grouptivity.com)

Grouptivity provides a social environment for Publishers’ online users to share, save and socialize the interesting web content they find. This provides targeted advertising opportunities for the publisher and a more engaged user. Grouptivity embeds their Share+ widget around the Publishers content which is a conduit to the social environment. Grouptivity has over 5,000 publishers using the service. Grouptivity is a privately held company based in Palo Alto CA.

About InformationWeek Business Technology Network (http://www.informationweek.com/)

The InformationWeek Business Technology Network is a powerful network of industry-leading  and trusted  brands that provide professional business technology buyers with the information, perspective and tools they need to make optimal technology decisions; and technology marketers with high impact programs that place their solutions into buyers’ workflow as decisions are being made.  The Network, which includes industry-leading sites such as informationweek.com, bMighty.com, byteandswitch.com, darkreading.com, networkcomputing.com, internetevolution.com, plugintothecloud.com, and intelligententerprise.com, provides business technology decision-makers the news, analysis and perspective they need to make informed decisions how and when they want it, 24/7.  More than 9.63 million business technology decision-makers world-wide* actively interact and engage with InformationWeek Business Technology Network’s brands, content and services monthly.

*based on monthly connections across IWBTN brands

Enter Grouptivity, an innovative web developer with a viral share to social network tool that Techweb’s InformationWeek.com is piloting.  With the new and improved “email a friend” and social bookmarking functions, users can instantly e-mail articles with their social networks, post content directly to popular social networks like Twitter and Facebook, and revisit content they’ve shared in their personal “MyShares” box which automatically saves everything that’s sent.

Michael Grover, Director of SEO Strategy for TechWeb, concurs, “Media companies today must provide users with more and better ways to engage with their products.  Grouptivity enables us to add value to the user’s engagement with our sites.”

Shared content that’s filtered by users is a win-win for readers and publishers - people get content delivered that’s specific to their needs and interests without having to use search engines or subscribe to RSS feeds, and publishers get valuable referral traffic as well as targeted advertising opportunities.

“Users may read or browse dozens of pages but they would share typically less than 10% of those pages.  This is very valuable data since at that point in time a user has identified one piece of content above others to share. This implies more engagement and value to that user and their friend(s). Grouptivity takes that engaged user and provides more functionality for the users. Which in turn provides targeted advertising opportunities for Publishers,” said Ankesh Kumar, CEO of Grouptivity.

Key to the success of the tool is its integration into established user behavior.  “Grouptivity’s power lies in the fact that we do not change users behavior, we let them use the tools and services they currently use, email or their favorite social media sites,” said Kumar.

To test out the Grouptivity function on InformationWeek, go to an InformationWeek.com story and click on the “Email this Page” icon.

For this release we built an OpenSocial widget and added a really cool feature, most shared from the site. I’ve attached an image to give you a preview of how it would look on a publisher’s site.

The basic premise of the article I found intriguing since it emphasis a theme we are very fond of. Leveraging your friends work to finding interesting content. In the article Chris talks how he’s doing this with Google reader, certainly very ingenious.

The larger issue here is time, and the amount of content on the web. How does one filter content to save time in finding the interesting stuff.

We agree, leverage your friends and vice versa.

Cheers

Vote for us, tell your friends to vote for us, tell people you barely know to vote for us - we’re not picky!  Our campaign platform is to create the best content sharing application on the web, so you can e-mail a friend, post to your social networks, and see what your friends are sharing direct from your browser.  Free!

And we promise - no robocalls.