Invision Plus Blog

23% of IP users do not use Facebook. Of Facebook users, 10% login 2 times a week, and 10% login over 3 times a day, with almost everyone else logging in daily.  When it comes to Myspace, 40% of IP user’s are not members, and 21% of you say that they have an account, but never login.  Only 9% say “I love Myspace,” and of the entire group of respondents only 3% of people login more than once a day.

Its clear our users are more inclined to use Facebook than Myspace , so we have started our Invision Plus Facebook page.  I encourage all of you to check it out and become fans.  It will be a great place for us to share ideas, discuss upcoming problems and give useful tips.

Many of my friends assume that because of the growing popularity of social media, the time tested, old-school forums like Invision Plus will fade.  Realistically though, forums offer an entirely different experience than social media, and because of this they will both continue to exist, and grow.  We all know the benefits of the connectivity that are realized with social media.  But, intrinsic in that connectivity is a focus on one’s self, one’s brand or one’s company.  Forums, on the other hand, allow users to focus on the content, discussion and dialogue that is developed.  The utility of this becomes obvious when you search for a topic in Google and your results are peppered with forums discussing the topic.  Social media groups and pages are, again, great for connecting, but they weight their focus on the participant, more than facilitating the dialogue itself.

So the site creator is up and functioning great. I decided to download an iPhone App to play with while I checked up on the first signs of creator action—see how you all feel about it. For the last few weeks I’ve been reading all about the ridiculous success of the T-Pain App, and how its already been downloaded over 300,000 times, so I finally decided now was the time, and dl’ed it myself. 45 minutes and 15 recordings later, here I am suggesting that instead of downloading it and spending your entire afternoon playing with it, just watch Charlie and his brother—a classic.

The good news: When I finally snapped out of my T-Pain trance 15 new sites had been created! Looks like the IP site creator is working smoothly. Please let me know about any issues/bugs you find. Thanks.

The Site Creation Tool is live!  It is  simple to make an account, and you can start a new site in just a couple minutes.

Also, we are proud to introduce a brand new tool we have in our pipeline: Invision Plus Profiles.

IP Profiles allow you to share specific info by filling out focused profiles (it is optional so you only share the info that you want to).  For example, I could fill out an “academic” profile and a “current project I’m working on” profile, while choosing to keep all my personal interest info private.  What you share is all up to you.  The goal here is to help enable people to share, improving their experience while using InvisionPlus.  We believe increasing content (of users) and connectivity (between users) are two steps we can take to help achieve this.

We are just starting on this so any feedback you have will definitely be taken into consideration.

We are announcing our new twitter feed. It will be a place to find fun and interesting updates, as well as useful tips and suggestions for IP use. On top of this, if the servers ever do go down (knock on wood), Twitter is a great place to communicate quickly and easily. We hope this isn’t needed, but regardless Twitter is definitely worth leveraging for efficient communication… as long as you don’t go too far. A good example of too far? Poor LJ of the KC Chiefs—not only did he get that enormous fine, earlier this week he was let go entirely.

Again, taking a look at the survey info that you provided its clear that many of you only manage one website, and it is the site you operate through us. So, what type of websites are being operated through IP? Yes, we do have the occasional spammer, but with the new server improvements those (idiots) are popping up less and less frequently, and only 4% of people said that their IP site has anything to do with work. Two thirds of respondents said that they used their IP site for either a personal hobby (Green Section below), or to help with communication in an organization or group they are part of (Blue Section below). So, what does this mean? People are using IP for something they enjoy.

Obviously this info is positive, and suggests to us that when people log into IP they are dealing with info/topics they enjoy. I believe this is one of the reasons why so many of you have continued to use IP for so long… Thoughts?

Over the last few weeks hundreds of IP users have filled out the survey we put together and we are ready to post some initial results. The survey covered a number of topics, and instead of just posting the results we would like to offer some analysis. It was interesting to find out that while most IP users manage/use only one IP site, they have been utilizing that site for at least two years. Only 25% of users created their site in the last 12 months. One reason for this is that the site creator was down for a while (we were making some improvements to our servers), but its back up so please feel free to start creating new sites. Regardless, over 50% of you who took this said that you had been using IP since 2006. As a company it’s very exciting to see such a high level of resonance from so many users. Our goal is to keep you happy and coming back.

Although this is great to hear, we are continuing to take steps to increase our relevancy to all of you. We believe that the introduction of new tools (such as the Task Manager Tool), and the continued improvement of our servers, can help cultivate our tight nit relationship with IP users. If you have any ideas about other tools you’d like us to develop, we would love to hear them. We always have something in the pipeline, and if we know what you’re looking for we will definitely put that on our list (which we manage very effectively using our Task Manger :)).

Last March Mark Cuban was fined $25,000 for complaining about NBA referees on the social media website, Twitter. It was a risk Cuban was happy to take, and when he was interviewed afterward he said that he was, “fine with it.” With the sites exponential growth it was inevitable that this was just the start of sports related Tweet-fines.

During training camp Antonio Cromartie of the NFL’s San Diego Chargers was fined $2500 for complaining about his team’s unsatisfactory food.  In the tweet Cromartie wrote, “Man we have 2 have the most nasty food of any team. Damn can we upgrade 4 str8 years the same ish maybe that’s y we can’t we the SB we need.”  NFL commissioner Roger Goodell came down hard, and early in the season, making his message clear.  Goodell did not want players in his league using Twitter to discuss anything NFL related, even if it was just training camp food.

Earlier this week it was Kansas City Chief’s Pro Bowl running back, Larry Johnson, who was made the ultimate example of. He was fined $600,000 and could possibly lose his contract for a tweet that included gay slurs. Some NFL stars, like Ustream sensation Chad Johnson, seem to have effectively embraced the technology, capitalizing on its reach.  Other players, like Larry Johnson, are obviously finding the reach and visibility (that are the products of these types of social media) of Twitter hard to cope with.  Because of this tweet Johnson is in jeopardy of losing his $19 million guaranteed contract, and it is very clear that, for better or worse, we now accept a tweet as seriously as if it had been said at an official news conference.

If you are interested in social media management to ensure you are not the result of a Larry Johnson type slip up you should look into the training and management services offered by Meritocracy Consulting.  It’s a steep learning curve and everyone is watching…

With thousands of applications and millions of users every company should be utilizing social networks like Facebook and Myspace.  Applications are great because they allow a company/brand to extend its influence over their customers in a more dynamic way than  by simply filling out a profile.  Creating a profile is the first step to enable customers to connect, but creating an application is where you really have the freedom to dynamically connect with potential clients.

Many of the clients Meritocracy builds Apps for are first time Facebook users, and are often skeptical about paying to create an application that they believe has no “direct effect” on business.  Doctors’ offices, mixed martial arts promoters, and even local mechanic shops can leverage Apps on Facebook to help improve their business.  For example, a doctor office can use a Facebook App to remind clients of upcoming appointments, and help fill vacant spots and cancellations.  Much of this can be automated to help cut down on overhead costs. The mixed martial arts promoters can use the Apps to create buzz for an upcoming fight, sell tickets, and help catalyze betting within their communities.  One of the most significant benefits that almost every company we build an App for realizes, is that by developing a connection with such a large community of interested, resonant customers, they are able to get timely, accurate feedback that is extremely useful for future promotions.

Meritocracy can develop a custom  online community that is located at, and operated by your current website.  Everyone acknowledges the utility of websites like Facebook and Myspace, so why not create your own completely customized social network? 

Meritocracy worked with author Bill George on promoting the release of his new leadership book, True North.  Meritocracy built a custom social network that interfaced directly with the website he was already using.  The development that Meritocracy did enabled users to get an anonymous 360 degree assessment of their leadership capabilities, helping to promote George’s book.  Tens of thousands of people have used it, virally making its way through most of the major investment banks and fortune 500 companies.