Starting a Community: Buzz
by Unknown
Hi
friends, welcome to my last blog post for this semester! For this week’s post, I
am a community manager for a social platform called Buzz. Buzz is an
interactive social community designed for people who are visiting Brisbane or
locals who just want to discover more about the city. Buzz offers a list of
attraction and activities within close proximity depending on the user’s
location where they are able to see and potentially meet Buzzers who are close
by.
Buzz
provides value to users without being dependent on network effects – discussed
in one of my previous blogs “The Network Effect: Tumblr”. The non-social benefits facilitate the adoption
of early users when a new platform is going to be released. Therefore, Buzz
will not need a significant number of users to add value to the platform.
Stage One Benefits
Buzz
is aimed at tourists and locals who are eager to explore more of a particular
city around the world. The platform offers appropriate tourist rights with
eateries available where they can enjoy alone or with friends. Another
non-social aspect of Buzz is that each time a place or activity is completed or
visited, a badge is awarded to the user, motivating Buzzers to experience more
of the city and getting more out of their visit. These features are not
dependent on network effects and adds value to the social platform.
Early Adopter Benefits
There
are many applications and platforms similar to Buzz – Urbanspoon, Foursquare,
The Urban List, etc. So in order to gain users in the early stages, Buzz needs
to rise above these platforms in a different and encouraging way. Therefore,
the early adopter benefits that Buzz will provide are discounts and perks to
the venues listed just for registered Buzz users. This triggers the network
effect as each user that is registered to Buzz is constantly sharing the
platform with their friends, increasing the Buzz community.
Increasing Success Expectations
To
increase the success expectation of Buzz is to constantly update the venues and
activities available on the social platform. This is a very simple way to
encourage more people to register and more businesses and companies to branch
out and be apart of Buzz.
Are you interested in using Buzz the next time you travel?
Nice post, I never would have considered using tourism as a focus for a social platform, but is certainly a niche that is not currently filled. You outlined a number of important features that would attract users, but do you feel that the tourist population is strong enough in smaller areas to get meaningful use out of the application? Not to mention that users of the site are not always on holiday or 'tourists' and so once that has ended perhaps you could offer some reason for users who are done with the platform to stay and share their experience with other users in order to retain a strong number of users. I understand this would be somewhat counteracted by your stage one benefits so all in all really nice idea :)
ReplyDeleteHey, thanks for reading and commenting. The platform is aimed at tourists and people who are new to their city. However, locals are able to utilise Buzz as well. For example, how often do you walk around Brisbane trying to find a new place to eat or something to do? :-)
DeleteHey Michelle,
ReplyDeleteInteresting post. As you have stated Buzz is faced with a fair amount of competition from existing competitors. Do you believe that discounts alone will be able to entice early adopters? For example I know that the Normandy Hotel provides a system where a certain number of check ins via Facebook results in a free drink.
I do rather like the idea of badges. One potential avenue you could explore is integrate an ordering service or book a table. I think this would be quite beneficial as you could always ensure that you had a seat at your favourite restaurant.
regards Matt (kahndo.wordpress.com)
Hey Matt, thanks for taking the time to read and comment on my blog post. Will do the same for you :-)
DeleteI do believe that discounts will entice early adopters (poor uni students, tourists looking for cheap places to eat, etc) However, I do believe that Buzz as the ability to branch out like bringing a friend gets you a free entree or something along those lines.
I love the idea of online booking through the platform - thanks for your suggestion :-)
Hello. This is a really brilliant idea, especially because it addresses the needs of those people who arrive to Brisbane for the first time and do not where to begin because they do not know the place. With the app, people will be able to know the city and its environs in advance and have an easy time when they arrive. So, I appreciate your idea and encourage you to move on with it!
ReplyDeleteHi, thanks for reading! I think that the idea of Buzz originated to my time in Melbourne when I had no idea what to do or where I was going :-) This application also works in major cities around the world so it appeals to a wider user base!
DeleteA great idea. I am actually already working on a start-up very similar to this 1 year in the making. One way I think your platform would gain much value is through data mining information about venues around Brisbane. Also I think the fact that you focus on a city can benefit over other services and create success expectation. I really like the name you have chosen for the service. Nice work.
ReplyDeleteHi Daniel, thanks for reading and commenting. My intention for Buzz is that it can be used around the world in major cities so the application can reach a wider audience. However, I do think that data mining information is a good idea. Thanks :-)
Delete