Software product extends use of Follr Digital Identity Websites to corporations.

Emeryville, CA (January 24th, 2012) Follr, Inc., today announced the release of “Follr Business”, a Web based SaaS (Software as a Service) product aimed at helping corporations leverage employees and staff to protect their brand. The software simultaneously drives online traffic to official marketing channels like Facebook business pages and Twitter, addresses human resource and compliance issues and becomes Follr’s second product alongside their initial consumer platform.

Follr’s digital identity Websites organize and aggregate an individual’s online information making it accessible via one memorable Website address. Initially created for the consumer market the release of Follr Business provides a way for companies to benefit from the service.

A rise in the creation of unofficial Facebook business pages and Twitter accounts by people not officially representing a company or brand has resulted in confusion among many consumers. Follr Business helps reduce this problem by ensuring employees identify official marketing channels. By taking advantage of the inherently viral benefits of modern day social communication, a business also get’s exposure to the extended network of those same staff resources.

As a result of a recently announced partnership with WiseStamp, Follr Business also helps brands participate in social conversation by extending and syndicating blog content, tweets and marketing messages through email signatures.

With employees increasingly discussing work related activity online and via the social Web, litigation is on the increase. In a bid to address this problem human resource departments are increasingly creating social media policies but Follr expects them to additionally leverage labor specific benefits available as part of the Follr Business platform.

Stephen Fells

Using a Web-based administration system, businesses can mandate the inclusion of specific Website addresses, video, social identities and social marketing content like blog posts and tweets on all employee personal identity Websites. Sometimes referred to as an online or ‘social business card’, the Websites display full contact information via a unique, company or brand specific domain name. Follr Business is a subscription based service with costs based on employee count.

The Follr products are used in multiple industry segments but have seen significant growth in the real estate market as a result of Follr’s exclusive relationship with single property Website and social marketing company AgencyLogic.com. REALTOR’s can detail and market properties they represent and can add real estate specific social identities including ActiveRain, Inman News, Realtor.com and State specific MLS. Additionally, Follr has been included in the National Association of REALTORS e-PRO Technology Certification Program.

Mark Wayman

Of particular interest to HR, legal and compliance departments are Follr Business social media usage reports. The reports include data on employee social media and Internet use while also addressing concerns of privacy advocates; information provided is supplied by employees and highlights online activity that is already freely available on the Internet, just not through a single reporting hub. Reports aggregate and present data graphically and in a table format with service specific breakdowns. The reports can be used to establish social media policy or to police staff activity online.

About Follr, Inc.:

Follr, Inc. (http://www.follr.com) is a software company founded in 2011. With offices in California and New York Follr provides Digital Identity Websites to individuals and corporations. A Digital Identity Website provides a list of profiles (Facebook, LinkedIn, Google+, Twitter, Foursquare etc.), contact information, Twitter and blog content, resume and networking to connect Follr users.

It is a personally branded Website used as an initial point of contact representing an aggregation of all personal information and is a natural extension of a physical business card. It is accessed by an enduring, easy to remember URL and represents a more complete picture of individuals and organizations.

Deal increases exposure of Follr Digital Identity Websites through seamless and automated email signature integration.

Emeryville, CA (January 18th, 2012) Follr, Inc., today announced a partnership with WiseStamp, creator of the leading social email signature builder. The partnership allows Follr users to share their Digital Identity Website link through WiseStamp Email Apps transforming every email into a powerful self expression and promotional tool.

Follr’s Digital Identity Websites organize and aggregate an individual’s online information making it accessible via one memorable Website address and are increasingly being used by corporations to extend and protect their brand. Users will now be able to easily generate an e-mail signature which will include a Follr icon and a direct link to their Follr Website.

With email still dominating online communication, Follr’s software platform provides any brand with an opportunity to take advantage of the inherently viral ‘social Web’. E-mail signatures are an important, unobtrusive and currently underused marketing tool that every Follr user can now implement to automatically and effortlessly share all of their contact information.

WiseStamp Email Apps enable individuals to customize email signatures with social profiles ensuring each outgoing email includes dynamic content like blog content, their latest tweet or the promotion of a cause. Email recipients see the updated content and can interact with it directly from the email by, for example, re-tweeting content or following the sender.

“This relationship is one of several we will be announcing in the coming months as we focus on growth via new markets,“ stated Follr Co-Founder, Mark Wayman adding “This feature enhancement is one of many we are adding as we work on significantly extending Follr’s functionality.”

While Follr currently helps people organize their overwhelming online information into one Website it is increasingly being used as a networking tool creating an environment where consumers, professionals and brands can be found more easily.

“We are excited to add support for Follr to the WiseStamp platform.” says Tom Piamenta, VP of Partnerships at WiseStamp. WiseStamp’s partners play a key role in the experience WiseStamp users enjoy and help to provide new ways to accomplish the company’s vision.

The integration of the Follr platform with the WiseStamp Email Apps increases the power of both tools through engagement and user retention. Simultaneously publishers can leverage an effective distribution channel to extend brand and content beyond the boundaries of their traditional Websites.

About Follr, Inc.:

Follr, Inc. (http://www.follr.com) is a software company founded in 2011. With offices in California and New York Follr provides Digital Identity Websites to individuals and corporations. A Digital Identity Website provides a list of profiles (Facebook, LinkedIn, Google+, Twitter, Foursquare etc.), contact information, Twitter and blog content, resume and networking to connect Follr users.

It is a personally branded Website used as an initial point of contact representing an aggregation of all personal information and is a natural extension of a physical business card. It is accessed by an enduring, easy to remember URL and represents a more complete picture of individuals and organizations.

About WiseStamp:

WiseStamp Email Apps (http://www.wisestamp.com) enable users to transform their emails into a powerful self-expression and promotional tool. Users can choose from a variety of productive and social Email Apps that enable them to easily add dynamic content to each outgoing email such as their latest eBay item, latest Twitter tweet, recent blog post or a cause to promote.
WiseStamp, declared best Social Media Gadget 2009 in Mashable’s Open Web Awards, integrates with all major Webmail services including Gmail, Yahoo!, Hotmail, AOL and supports all major browsers. Since its launch over a quarter of a billion emails have been sent using WiseStamp.

“We are excited to add support for Follr to the WiseStamp platform.” says Tom Piamenta, VP of Partnerships at WiseStamp. WiseStamp’s partners play a key role in the experience WiseStamp users enjoy and help to provide new ways to accomplish the company’s vision.

You can now link your BranchOut profile to Follr. Follr’s Digital Identity Websites organize all your online information into one memorable address. Use your Follr address as THE place for people to find your profiles, links, content and contact information.

BranchOut is the largest professional network on Facebook with millions of users in 60 countries and 15 languages.

On BranchOut, users leverage their Facebook friend network to find jobs, source sales leads, recruit talent, and foster relationships with professional contacts.

BranchOut also operates the largest job board on Facebook with over 3 million jobs and over 20,000 internships.

Do you have a FREE Digital Identity Website? Visit Follr.com today!

So, following on from yesterday’s post (See: ‘Social Media Data – LOADS of Social Media Data!’) here is infographic # 3 and # 4 which leads to a question: is social media any clearer now?

It seems hard to believe but we formed a social application development company more than four years ago and still (dare I say the majority of?) people have a huge problem trying to come to terms with how to use social media, social networks and social marketing (yes, they are three distinct and separate things).

So as we start 2012 here’s some data that might help, brought to you from AdAge. But there’s a problem: there’s so much data I’m going to spread this over two posts. Here’s infographic’s # 1 and # 2. Enjoy

Come back tomorrow for # 3 and # 4.

We now support profiles for Amplify.com! Follr.com Social Business Cards solve the problem of the inability to easily and accurately communicate ever changing social identities, content and contact information. Users can add links to all social profiles onto their social business card in order for contacts to easily find all social identities, including those on Amplify.com.



Amplify provides users the opportunity to engage in conversation using more than 140 characters. It can be difficult to communicate with restrictions on length and content. Amplify solves communication problems by allowing users to share clips from articles, post URLs and much more. Conversations that take place can be shared on a variety of other social networks including Twitter, Facebook, Buzz, Posterous, Tumblr, Friendfeed and more. Amplify can also be used to clip and share information from iPhones, iPads and Android phones. Amplify has the unique quality of providing users with the opportunity to share in meaningful, flowing conversation with one another. Creating an account is free so, check out Amplify.com!

Do you have a free social business card? Visit Follr.com!

Source: Great White Snark

You can now add Pinterest.com as a social profile! Follr.com personal profile Websites solve the problem of the inability to easily and accurately communicate ever changing social identities, content and contact information. Users can add links to all social profiles onto profile Website in order for contacts to easily find all social identities, including those on Pinterest.com.

Pinterest lets you organize and share all the beautiful things you find on the web. People use pinboards to plan their weddings, decorate their homes, and organize their favorite recipes.

Best of all, you can browse pinboards created by other people. Browsing pinboards is a fun way to discover new things and get inspiration from people who share your interests.

Do you have a FREE personal profile website? Visit Follr.com today!

Our Follr social business card product is changing traditional business cards (see: “Social Business Cards in Action“). My own simply lists my name and Follr link: follr.me/steve. It’s not what’s on my business card, it’s about what’s not on it. No title, telephone number or email address.

Follr allows people I connect with to get a far better picture of who I am but there are other ways to achieve that. We’ve highlighted creative and unusual business cards before (see: 10 Unusual Business Cards) and here are some more courtesy of Oddee. Enjoy:

This restaurant business card is all Greek to me!

Furniture company Tok&Stok have a business card that turns into a chair:

This makeup company uses an ink stamp to leave their mark on paper, napkins and cards:

A telecoms engineer uses a circuit board that includes a letter and his resume/CV when plugged into a computer:

Dog trainer Sergio Freitas uses actual dog biscuits as a business card

And security consultant Kevin Mitnick includes a lock picking kit:

This Divorce Mediator includes a condom in her business card. I’m scratching my head on this one…

Brazilian cargo company Tam Cargo have a business card that transforms in a box:

And Dr. Hajnal Kiprov provides breast enhancement services:

And finally…perhaps lady Gaga will like this meat business card

You can now add BNI.com as a social profile! Follr.com personal profile Websites solve the problem of the inability to easily and accurately communicate ever changing social identities, content and contact information. Users can add links to all social profiles onto profile Website in order for contacts to easily find all social identities, including those on BNI.com.

BNI.com is the world’s largest business networking, referrals, and word of mouth marketing organization. Business networking has been noted by some of nation’s most popular organizations, such as The New York Times, Los Angeles Times, and The Wall Street Journal, as a growing necessity due to our struggling economy. BNI.com features greater access to networking professionals, helping job seekers be more advantageous at discovering job opportunities through business networking.

BNI’s primary objective is to assist its members in ways to improve their business and to educate them concerning how they can effectively network. Business people get business when their expertise is known and others reach a comfort level with them. BNI provides a forum that allows members to meet other business peers who need to know effective and efficient business people.To join a chapter near you, or even start your own, visit BNI.com!

Do you have a FREE personal profile website? Visit Follr.com today!

We now support profiles for Klout.com! Follr.com personal profile Websites solve the problem of the inability to easily and accurately communicate ever changing social identities, content and contact information. Users can add links to all social profiles onto profile Website in order for contacts to easily find all social identities, including those on Klout.com.

Justin Bieber was just named ‘Most Influential Twitter Celebrity’ by a Forbes.com study. How did this pop sensation win his title? The study used the analytics of Klout.com. Klout.com is a social media analytics provider that was launched in 2008. Klout.com tracks the influence of a user’s opinions, links, and recommendations and analyzes and interprets the data to produce a Klout score. The score is based on 25+ variables that are broken down into three categories: True Reach, Amplification Score, and Network Score. The score, which ranges from 0 to 100, measures a user’s overall influence and the power that influence has to drive people to action. The Klout score provides a meausurement of how successful the individual of business is at engaging their audience and the impact that their messages have. To find out how your score measures up to Justin Bieber, Kanye West, the Dalai Lama and more, visit Klout.com!

Do you have a FREE personal profile Website? Visit Follr.com today!

Provides 1.2 million members of America’s largest trade association with access to AgencyLogic single property Websites.

Wappingers Falls, NY (October 24, 2011) AgencyLogic today announced the inclusion of PowerSites, the company’s core single property Website product, in the National Association of REALTORS® e-PRO® technology certification program, the only technology certification recognized by the association.

The National Association of REALTORS® (NAR) is America’s largest trade association, representing 1.2 million members, including institutes, societies and councils, involved in all aspects of the residential and commercial real estate industries. Membership is composed of residential and commercial REALTORS®, who are brokers, salespeople, property managers, appraisers, counselors and others engaged in all aspects of the real estate industry. Members belong to one or more of some 1,400 local associations/boards and 54 state and territory associations of REALTORS®.

Ten years ago NAR developed the e-PRO® certification program to teach members how to effectively use technology to grow their business. As technology changed technology training also changed resulting in the developing of an entirely new e-PRO® program released this year.

The new e-PRO® curriculum includes content on how to use the latest social media technologies, such as Facebook and Twitter, and demonstrates how to create an online presence so vital to reaching today’s hyper-connected consumers. e-PRO® also teaches how to take advantage of rich media and e-office strategies to run a business more efficiently.

REALTORS® who become e-PRO® certified not only prove to consumers that they know how to use the most advanced technology to provide exceptional service but also gain new networking opportunities with other tech-savvy REALTORS®. Single property Websites, Websites created to market one home, are increasingly being used by those REALTORS® as a standard marketing method.

Stephen M. Fells

AgencyLogic single property Websites are part of a suite of online products and work seamlessly with Facebook business pages, another service the company provides. Using a free Facebook application, REALTORS® benefit from not having to update listing data in multiple places. Any edits or changes to their single property Websites automatically updates their Facebook business page ensuring accurate, realtime data while simultaneously complying with Facebook terms of service about business content.

This functionality extends to Follr personal profile Websites, another product used extensively throughout the real estate industry and also included in the latest e-PRO® technology certification.

Mark Wayman

Nashville, TN REALTOR Laurie Scheinkopf (ABR, CRS, GRI, e-pro, ISS, CSP), who uses all of AgencyLogic’s products, commented:

“Periodically a product comes along that will revolutionize an industry. AgencyLogic has created that product for real estate with PowerSites. It makes sellers feel special and not just another listing on my agent site. Now just one click and the buyer is viewing the potential home of their dreams. It makes the listing easier to sell and close because all the documents needed are available on the site! These sites provide a one stop shop for all parties involved in the process.”

Laurie creates a single property Website for every listing and they appear on her Facebook business page and Follr personal profile Website.

Follr users have access to real estate industry specific URL’s, an alternative to the standard follr.me or follr.us domains. rlty.me (pronounced ‘realty dot me’) and rlty.us domains are commonly used by REALTORS®, an example can be seen at rlty.me/HeidiGolff.

This latest news in one of several announcements the company will be making during the remainder of 2011.

About AgencyLogic:

AgencyLogic (www.agencylogic.com) is a division of Network Earth, Inc. (www.netearth.com), a technology company founded in 1995 with a history in developing complex Web-based software for financial institutes and startups. Located in California and New York AgencyLogic has provided Web-based marketing services to the real estate industry since 2004. Products include single property Websites, Facebook business pages, Facebook applications and Follr personal profile Websites. The products, working seamlessly together, provide an impactful social marketing platform for REALTORS® and the property they market. AgencyLogic’s marketing focus is on growth through white label and affiliate relationships. The company has acquired single property Website companies 123MainSt.com, SmartStreets.net and Realasites.com and continues to lead Web-based marketing software innovation.

About the National Association of REALTORS®:

The National Association of REALTORS®, “The Voice for Real Estate,” is America’s largest trade association, representing 1.2 million members, including NAR’s institutes, societies and councils, involved in all aspects of the residential and commercial real estate industries.

NAR’s membership is composed of residential and commercial REALTORS®, who are brokers, salespeople, property managers, appraisers, counselors and others engaged in all aspects of the real estate industry. Members belong to one or more of some 1,400 local associations/boards and 54 state and territory associations of REALTORS®. They are pledged to a strict Code of Ethics and Standards of Practice.

Working for America’s property owners, NAR provides a facility for professional development, research and exchange of information among its members and to the public and government for the purpose of preserving the free enterprise system and the right to own real property.

The term REALTOR® is a registered collective membership mark that identifies a real estate professional who is a member of the National Association of REALTORS® and subscribes to its strict Code of Ethics.

About Follr, Inc.:

Follr, Inc. (www.follr.com) is a software company founded in 2011. With offices in California and New York Follr provides Web-based personal profile Websites to individuals and corporations. A personal profile Website provides a list of profiles (Facebook, LinkedIn, Foursquare etc.), contact information, Twitter and blog content, resume and networking to connect Follr users. It is a personally branded Website used as an initial point of contact representing an aggregation of all personal information and is a natural extension of a physical business card. It is accessed by an enduring, easy to remember URL and represents a more complete picture of individuals and organizations.

Frank has done a great job of using every available Follr feature to organize all his online information. 27 links, integrated Twitter and Blog feeds as well as a full introduction to his various business endeavours. It is only with Follr that all these links can be organized into one memorable address – Follr.me/FrankDeRaffele.

Frank now has one link for all of his information. He replaced a number of links in his email with his one Follr address which now far more comprehensively represents all that he does.

Frank added a full business description and his latest promotional video as well as links to his Websites.

To organize all your online information into one memorable address then click here.

It’s conventional wisdom in start-up land to devise, build, test and launch your latest software venture in phases. It makes all the sense in the world to do so but it doesn’t mean that it’s something that is easy to do or that doesn’t come with many forms of pain. You are, by definition launching something that is far worse than you are able to create.

One of Reid Hoffman’s Ten Entrepreneurship Rules for Building Massive Companies states:

Rule #6: Launch early enough that you are embarrassed by your first product release.
With my first startup, Socialnet.com, it took us nine months to launch the first product. That was a disastrous mistake. We wanted to have all the detailed functionality right away, including social controls to people could decide to connect or not with the people in their networks. We wanted everyone to “Ooh” and “Aaah” about how terrific the product was. We wasted a bunch of time and it put us months behind on more important problems that needed to be solved, such as how to get our product in the hands of millions of people. From that I learned, if you are not embarrassed by your first release, you’ve launched too late!

Full Article »

The phrase “Minimal Viable Product” (MVP) is often used to describe the bare minimum amount of functionality, user-interface and support systems necessary to obtain a worthwhile amount of client feedback. It makes sense from a purely academic perspective but that doesn’t mean it’s easy from a human perspective. It’s even challenging to think in an MVP way as it’s natural to want to create your best effort at your latest passion-fueled venture.

Here’s some great examples courtesy of VentureHacks:

1. “If Apple can launch a smartphone without Find or Cut-and-Paste, what can you cut out of your product requirements?” – Sramana Mitra
2. USV-backed foursquare uses Google Docs to collect customer feedback. No code, no maintenance.
3. Fliggo sells it before they build it.
4. Grockit puts up a notify-me-when-you-release form on steroids.
5. Auto e-commerce site uses manualation and flintstoning for their backend.
6. Semiconductor company uses 5 people and FPGAs to build a $100M semiconductor product line.
7. Consumer company uses fake screenshots to sell their product.
8. Allicator uses Facebook ads: “Ditch Digger? Feeling spread thin? Click here to complete a survey and tell us about it.”
9. ManyWheels uses Microsoft Visio to build clickable web demos for prospective customers.
10. Cloudfire uses a classic customer development problem presentation.

Just because it makes sense doesn’t mean however that it’s easy to achieve. Passionate “ideas people” don’t typically start something unless they think it has legs and might get some traction and have a chance of turning into something worthwhile pursuing. The ideas phase is always the best one as anything is possible limited only by imagination. With all the possible features, which ones not only make sense as a collective effort but also are enough to gain truly revealing usage data?

To be frank it’s also challenging to put something out there with your name on it that most early adopters, friends, colleagues, and family will think is missing most of the usual or desired functionality. Comments like “YOU did this? Really?” are hard to swallow.

So back to Reid Hoffman’s statement — “Launch early enough that you are embarrassed by your first product release.”

I took this approach with my latest venture, Follr.com. It’s important to note that MVP doesn’t necessarily mean quick and dirty rather it means just enough to prove your concept which may actually still be a lot of work. So, I decided to create just enough functionality to find out if there was a need, if enough (you can’t, and shouldn’t aim to please everyone) people liked the offering and if some of those people would be willing to upgrade from the free version to the paid version.

I’m happy to say that this exercise was successful but it wasn’t easy. Comments like “This is like [product X] but not as slick” are tough to hear however true that might be when comparing our current release. My natural reaction is to respond with “Maybe – but wait ’til you see what’s coming next!” or “But you didn’t use this feature or that feature that they don’t have.” etc.

At the end of the day it doesn’t matter. The point isn’t about being better than a potential competitor now, rather it’s about validation of an idea before investing more time and money into those next steps.

Happily lot’s of great things are happening for Follr based on the current release so we got it right and we’re charging ahead planning future phases. This brings it’s own challenges as there are so many directions to explore but that’s another blog post entirely.

Is creating an Minimum Viable Product release easy to achieve? No.

Does every fiber in resist launching it until it’s “better” or something you’re proud of? Yes.

Do I think that’s the right mantra for iterative software development? Absolutely!

We all like surprises and the following video was a wonderful surprise for all of us at AgencyLogic and Follr! Ventura County Realtor Heidi Golff has made this amazing testimonial video which explains many of the benefits of a Follr personal profile Website and her single property Websites. Heidi’s Follr Website can be seen here:

http://rlty.me/HeidiGolff

Click on the ‘listings’ tab to see how Heidi’s single property Websites automatically display on her Follr Website. And of course they also appear on Heidi’s Facebook page (and AgencyLogic created that too!).

“Thank you!” for the endorsement Heidi!

Follr.com Personal Profile Websites solve the problem of the inability to easily and accurately communicate ever changing social identities, content and contact information. Users can add links to all social profiles onto their personal profile website in order for contacts to easily find all social identities, including those on Guru.

With over one million registered users, Guru is the world’s largest online marketplace for freelance talent. Guru helps both businesses and freelancers. It provides companies with a variety of freelance talent and utilizes a proprietary ranking system to make the selection process easy and reliable. The employer also has the ability to securely pay the freelancer through Guru’s SafePay system. Additionally, Guru allows freelancers to showcase their skills to a global audience using innovative features such as video profiles. They can use Guru’s Quality Score data to discover their strengths and weaknesses in order to become the most successful free agent. Using Guru enhances business performance and improves talent-to-project matching creating the most effective products.

If you’re interested, visit www.guru.com!

Do you have a FREE personal profile website? Visit Follr.com today!

Announced at yesterdays Facebook conference, f8, ‘Timeline’ is a collection of a persons top photos, posts and apps that help tell their story. The beta is now live; is it time to short genealogy.com?

Immediately off the back of changes related to the ‘home’ page and newsfeed mechanism this is the single biggest UI change Facebook has released. Although in beta (and requiring very specific, somewhat technical implementation) several people on my own friend list have updated their profile. RPR’s Reggie Nicolay is one and I have to say I love what he has done:

Yesterday we posted the f8 conference live video feed. You can still see it, obviously it’s now a recording, but there’s lot’s of info and background from Mark Zuckerberg. To see the conference just click here: f8 Conference.

You can learn more at www.facebook.com and below is the marketing video from the Facebook YouTube channel. I’ll put my neck out; I love the new changes. I’ve long said that an opportunity exists for recording our legacy and Facebook is the best place to do that.

Earlier this week we detailed “The Latest Facebook Changes Explained” and the post was viewed and shared heavily. Almost everyone complained about the changes and that was before yesterdays announcement. People don’t like change, especially with Facebook, so now they really have something to moan about

With all the focus on Facebook it’s only fair to give some exposure to the other corner

Google released a new video about Google+ this week. Enjoy: