Posts Tagged: reddit


19
Dec 09

Is Your Product Noteworthy?

Ok. So I’m taking this opportunity to write a blog post because I’m really impressed by a company I came across and it really started the gears going in my head ( surprising I know!). Anyways on to the company! I stumbled upon  IAmAStuffedAnimal.com casually through  Reddit and its such a cool product!  The premise is you send 1 or multiple pictures of yourself , your hobbies/interests and a few other personal details and they make a really cool stuffed animal of you!

Mike Bisogno and his Buddy C/O Iamastuffanimal.com

You now can never have to sleep or do anything else alone. You can do it with yourself!  ;) You could sort of say that its been done before with cheezy sites where you can send in a picture and you get a Barbie or porcelain doll that generically resembles yourself but I think this is much more cooler! These guys take into account your personality , facial features and even let you choose how your mini-me is dressed and recreate you (or your alter ego ) in this funny cartoon form. To make sure I’m not the only person who thought this was a cool product I checked out their Facebook Fan Page it seems I’m not alone! They have a decent sized community going.

So beyond me being a big geek about this product  why am I mentioning it? Why do I feel that a toy is worth a blog post outside of being cool? Well its a product that can be so easily talked about and I think thats such a great attribute for a startup or any other sort of company to keep in mind. So often companies just present a product without thought about how it can be more interesting and have more value than its obvious qualities. What Iamastuffedanimal.com does is takes a basic product of a toy and makes it a piece for discussion.  So in keeping this blog short and unrambly , products are much more interesting and easy to sell when they can be talked about. ( Or in true Reddit fashion TL;DR People talk about cool products. Find a way to make your product cool!)

Do you have feedback? Feel free to reach me at @kevrichard or kevin@kevrichard.com


25
Jan 09

I <3 Reddit!

So I’ve been reading Grown Up Digital by Don Tapscott ( amazing book!) and have just finished the chapter on “The Net Generation as Consumers”  where in one section he spoke about companies becoming essentially friends with their target consumers.  Reflecting back to companies I’ve dealt with the news aggregator site Reddit  comes to mind. I’m a big fan of this site and have often either forwarded links from this site or shared it with my friends and I do this not only because I enjoy the content on the site but because the site creators have essentially become my friend and have befriended the rest of the website members. Here are some of the simple yet significant ways that they manage to do this:

Interacting with members outside of the site: The creators of this site not only interact with members through social media sites such as Facebook and Twitter ( ex: @ kn0thing)  they have offline meetups!  I’ve met with them personally last year during their Drankkit World Tour where they went to major centers and sat down and had drinks with members ( a few pics of me at that event included)  but they even do it randomly including having dinner with a Reddit member who just asked if anyone were interested in going out for dinner.

They personalize: The Reddit alien is a big part of the personality of the website, almost every day  a new drawing of it is posted up depending on current events or project of the site. From time to time as a result of already mentioned meet ups or requests of members the Reddit Alien is redrawn or the Reddit logo even contains relevant pictures. As well the website is in a constant state of change( much like Gmail its in constant Beta)  if there are enough user requests certain aspects of the site are changed.

Not only are they creators, but they are also users: They don’t passively watch the site or attempt to moderate it , they are fully involved members. They aren’t afraid to get in there and post a comment or link and create discussions with other users. They also start side projects that encourage further member collaboration. Sometimes it can be silly such as Mr.Splashypants  but even in more serious matters such as Reddits Feed A Need campaign where users are encouraged to lend their skills and time in helping out a not for profit organization.

Overall I have a major heart on for this site and its creators. As a consumer I have a choice between Digg and Reddit  as they are essentially the same site and many times have the same links but  as Reddit has worked harder to befriend me my loyalty is pretty cemented in place . I’ve included a few pictures from Drankkit Toronto 07 , some with me included. Enjoy!  

 

drankkit1

Steve Huffman and Alexis Ohanian

The 2 Reddit Creators , Steve Huffman and Alexis Ohanian with Jenna Landry from Wired Magazine

groups3

kiss2 

My attempt at a "C" for Canada.... it ended up pretty lame!

My attempt at a "C" for Canada.... it ended up pretty lame!

Have any Questions/Comments? Contact me at kevin.richard@ryerson.ca or send me a twitter message.