ShareThis Blog

Product Discovery At ShareThis

November 22nd, 2011

In my last blog post, I wrote about the never-ending pursuit of innovation at ShareThis and how important this was in attracting me to my role as VP of product. This time around, I’d like to address another topic near and dear to my heart – product discovery. In brief, product discovery can be defined as the process (part science and part art) of identifying the right products to build for your customers at the right time and in the right sequence.

As I mentioned previously, the ability to continuously innovate drives competitiveness, customer satisfaction, and employee passion. The product discovery process, as well as the resourcefulness and creativity that accompany it, is the wellspring of innovation.

I’m particularly fond of the way Marty Cagan of the Silicon Valley Product Group writes about two key steps to the discovery process. First, once you’ve identified a customer problem, need or desire, you must discover whether there are enough real users out there that would benefit from a solution. I admit, I think daily deal sites are pretty useful; but how many do I really need? Lots of companies have launched variations of the Groupon core product, but how many users will truly benefit from these alternatives? Second, you need to discover a product solution to an identified problem or need that is usable, useful, and feasible. Dealradar.com (a popular daily deal aggregation site) has made daily deal shopping much easier and enjoyable for me!

The tools used in product discovery are numerous and varied, but they tend to fall into four categories at ShareThis:

1. Feedback. There’s no easier way to identify customer wants or needs and quantify their impact than by looking to the current users of your products. By leveraging such mechanisms as Get Satisfaction (feedback mechanism on every page of our website), custom forums, inbound emails, customer calls, an in-person user visits, we can derive some of our best ideas from the most important sources of all – our consumers.

2. Ideation. I’ve found that, when done right, focused brainstorming sessions can lead to the generation of very innovative ideas without falling into the trap of group thinking. In addition, by providing employees with open forums for submitting product suggestions at any time, you create another channel for encouraging innovation.

3. Competitive Assessment. I’ll be the first to admit that inspiration often comes from studying your competition. Others in your space can provide a fantastic stimulus for new ideas, not simply in terms of great things to build, but great products to improve upon.

4. Big Thinking. If you allow yourself to think beyond your company’s offerings, and even your industry landscape, and focus instead on trends occurring around you, you can often discover sparks of innovation that can fuel impactful product initiatives. For example, by looking to trends in casual gaming, we realized that sharing leaderboards (top users) provide very interesting data for our publishers and consumers.

In the end, there is no shortage of ideas for new products at ShareThis. Our job is to take all these ideas, and discover the gems that solve real problems and mean something to our users. This requires a connection with our customers, big thinking from our team, and a healthy does of creativity to make it all work!

by, Barry Grant, VP of Product, ShareThis, Inc.

Follow ShareThis on Twitter: @ShareThis

Like ShareThis on Facebook: /ShareThis

Weekly Top Shares 11-18-11

November 18th, 2011

If at first, you don’t succeed, try and try again. The old adage applies to more things than you might think. Like nose jobs. Apparently, once you’ve gotten that first one, you’re destined for another. At least, that’s the verdict delivered by the American Society for Aesthetic Plastic Surgery and one Dr. Frederic Newman of Fairfield, CT. According to them, 127,000 nose jobs – or, ahem, rhinoplasties – were performed in the US in 2010. But that doesn’t mean that 127,000 Americans are walking around with a surgically altered schnozz. That’s because, according to Dr. Newman, the number of rhinoplasty revisions performed is also on the rise. In his personal practice, re-dos outnumber original procedures 2 to 1, he says, citing scar tissue and “patient frustration” as particular hazards of a second procedure. Strange, but true.

You wouldn’t think that marriage and nose jobs have much in common. And they don’t, other than that apparently, some people can’t be satisfied with just one. Kim Kardashian’s divorce got enshrined with its very own SNL comedic sendup. Then, only days later, news of Demi Moore’s separation from her third husband, Ashton Kutcher, reverberated across twitter. Such are the foibles of the rich and famous.

Speaking of the rich and famous, Forbes’ list of the 400 wealthiest Americans contained few surprises. #1 was Bill Gates. The Microsoft founder has held a top spot in the list every year since he first made the cut in 1987, and is worth a staggering $59 billion. Warren Buffett, the “Sage of Omaha” and legendary investor was #2. Three separate heirs to the WalMart fortune, Christy, Jim and Alice Walton, were in the top ten. And so on, down to the three people tied for 397th place with a comparatively paltry $1.05 billion in net worth: an insurance executive, a real estate mogul, and the owner of the Washington Redskins. Who might be on next year’s list? Perhaps some of the founders of this Inc. roundup of hot startups. And that’s all for this week. Happy Sharing!

by, Tom Spano, Social Media Manager, ShareThis, Inc.

Like us on Facebook: /ShareThis

ShareThis Creates New Social Measurement To Transform Media Buying Model, Starcom MediaVest Group to Test Methodology

November 17th, 2011

New Index Empowers Publishers to Derive Greater Value from the Strength of Their Social Audiences

PALO ALTO, CA – November 17, 2011 – ShareThis, the world’s largest platform for sharing and influence, today announced a new methodology to measure the social quality of sites across the Web. This new standard, the Social Quality Index, is the first measure of Web-wide sharing activity and will provide publishers and advertisers with site rankings across 27 key content categories. Sharing, as an inherently social activity, provides powerful insights on how valuable content is to consumers. As part of Starcom MediaVest Group’s ongoing partnership with ShareThis, the agency is assessing the standard’s ability to enhance their planning approach for a cross-section of their media buys.

The ShareThis standard derives a raw social traffic score by taking a combined measure of a site’s outbound share and inbound clickback traffic, and comparing it to page views. The resulting figure can then be benchmarked against the broader measure of social quality spanning the more than 1 million sites and more than 10 billion monthly sharing signals that make up the ShareThis network. This new measurement brings the value of sharing into consideration, adding more dimension to media buying models that rely more heavily on traffic and audience size. The measure:

-Favors rich content and audience interaction over broad reach

-Identifies users with higher purchase intent

-Identifies audiences who are more likely to disseminate content widely

This new standard is being validated across the ShareThis network of publishers in partnership with Starcom MediaVest Group (SMG). SMG will examine the efficacy of the standard as an additional metric to evaluate across its network of brands and publishers.

“Right now, advertisers depend on audience size, engagement and traffic to determine their media buying strategy,” said Kate Sirkin, Global Research Director, Starcom MediaVest Group. “ShareThis’ standard enables advertisers to also take social sharing into account. We look forward to testing the Social Quality Index as an additional way to reach audiences in a more targeted fashion without losing the scale we’re accustomed to.”

Publishers currently lack the benchmarking tools they need to develop their digital strategies and monetize their content. Correspondingly, advertisers are overly dependent on hinging their media buys on measurements such as site traffic and reach. This new standard addresses both of these problems with a unique, Web-scale measurement that examines sharing across 120+ social channels and truly defines the value of content.

“ShareThis is on the publishers’ side. We recognize that their content and audiences are their own, and they should be able to derive value from creating great content and engaged readers, regardless of their traffic or reach,” said Kurt Abrahamson, CEO, ShareThis. “Our social quality standard empowers publishers, allowing them to take advantage of additional social audience monetization opportunities that are available. We’re the first to rank based on sharing, we’re providing competitive intelligence, and we’re helping to clearly identify ways to monetize social activity.”

About ShareThis

ShareThis is the largest market for sharing and influence across the Web, reaching more than 85% of the US population online across more than 1 million sites. ShareThis makes content more engaging for publishers and advertising more impactful for brands by tapping into its true influence and value. Based in Palo Alto, CA, with offices in New York and Cincinnati, the company is privately held with funding from Draper Fisher Jurvetson, Blue Chip Venture Company, DFJ Mercury, Illinois Ventures, Matthew Pritzker Company, Queen City Angels, RPM Ventures and Reservoir Partners.

About Starcom MediaVest Group (SMG)

Starcom MediaVest Group is the Human Experience Company. Our dream is to grow our clients’ business by transforming human behavior through uplifting, meaningful human experiences. These brand ‘experiences’ are brought to life by distinct, strategic point-of- views—Truth and Design and Space for Ideas—created and owned by SMG’s two global agency brands: MediaVest and Starcom, respectively. Ranked one of the largest brand communications groups in the world, Starcom MediaVest Group (www.smvgroup.com) encompasses an integrated network of human experience strategists, investment specialists, content creators and digital experts and part of the Publicis Groupe [listed on the Euronext Paris Exchange - FR0000130577 - and part of the CAC 40 index]. With nearly 6,700 employees in 110 offices worldwide, SMG is the #1 ranked Global Media Agency (AdAge) and 2011 Media Network of the Year at the Global Festival of Media as well as the most celebrated global media network at the 2010 and 2009 Cannes International Advertising Festival.

Contact Information

Aly Brady or Kei Hoshino Quigley

LaunchSquad

415-625-8555

sharethis@launchsquad.com

Lena Petersen

Starcom MediaVest Group

312-0220-4169

lena.Petersen@smvgroup.com

Announcing a transformative social quality methodology, from ShareThis

November 17th, 2011

Today is an exciting day for the team at ShareThis. We’re announcing a new methodology that will change the way web content is valued – for the better. This new standard, what we’re referring to as a Social Quality Index (or SQI for short), is the first measure of Web-wide sharing activity that focuses on the social quality of sites, helping publishers evaluate how content is performing, and establishing a benchmark for that performance. For advertisers, this means there is now a way to consider a content’s value when buying media across publisher sites.

We’re excited about this announcement because we believe that it draws the focus of social media back to where it originated – the content that people want to share, and the people who want to share it. We’re also excited to have Starcom MediaVest Group collaborating on it with us.

To learn more about the SQI, you can read about it in our press release, or on our website here. Also, we’ve anticipated that there will be a few questions for our Publisher network, and have provided some of them with answers below.

Thanks for your continued support of ShareThis!

Kristen Fergason, CMO + the ShareThis Team

Why is ShareThis creating a network-wide index?

At ShareThis, we have known for years that the act of sharing content provides powerful insights for both publishers and advertisers. We also have witnessed how content continues to be under-valued as part of the current digital media buying equation. Without a way to benchmark content’s value, over-dependence from media buyers on traffic and reach would only continue to grow stronger. We decided that this was a serious challenge for our publisher network, and one worth understanding better. So, we posed the problem to our team of renowned scientists, and they found a solution — an index of social quality, or SQI to keep it simple.

What does this mean for the ShareThis Publisher Network?
Your content has a value, and you should be rewarded for that value. Our goal for the index is to help you drive better business decisions that result in greater returns, via audience engagement and earned media from it, and also advertising spends. As part of the ShareThis Publisher Network, you are better able to gauge how sociable both your content and audience are, and therefore make better decisions that help you achieve your business goals.

How exactly is the index calculated?
The ShareThis standard derives a raw social traffic score by taking a combined measure of a site’s outbound share and inbound clickback traffic, and comparing it to total page views. The resulting figure can then be benchmarked against the broader measure of social quality spanning the more than 1 million domains that make up the ShareThis network. This new measurement brings the value of sharing into consideration, adding more dimension to media buying models that rely more heavily on traffic and audience size. The measure:

-Favors rich content and audience interaction over broad reach

-Identifies users with higher purchase intent

-Identifies audiences who are more likely to disseminate content widely

How can I take advantage of the new index?
Publishers already on the ShareThis Network don’t need to do anything at this time. In early 2012, more information about your web site’s social quality rank and how you can leverage it for your own business decisions around editorial and advertising will be available through your analytics dashboard. We will notify you as soon as it is released.

ShareThis Publisher Services Blog Post

November 15th, 2011

Here on the Publisher Services team, we often get the question, “What type of websites use ShareThis?” This never fails to put a smile on our faces, because there is no one answer to this question.

Anyone who is interested in harnessing the power of social media (and who isn’t?) can benefit from social sharing in different ways. From sports and entertainment content giants to brand and e-commerce businesses, our network of over 1 million websites is comprised of a wide range of web properties.

Just like people, every web property has its own unique identity, and therefore can benefit from social sharing in different ways. Some properties have audiences that share almost exclusively via Facebook, while others have users that share more privately through email. Internationally, people will share into social destinations that are popular in only certain regions of the world. ShareThis makes it easy to allow every publisher to feature sharing channels that best resonate with their audiences.

But how does a publisher know the best way to implement – and optimize – social sharing on their site? As with many strategic decisions relating to running a web business, guidance can he found by monitoring analytics. Just a few months ago, ShareThis revamped its Sharing Analytics dashboard for publishers (http://help.sharethis.com/analytics/analytics-overview). By using this free tool, web and editorial teams can see what content is being shared and clicked the most, the channels that users are sharing to, and even what parts of the world have the most sharing!

Using these insights, publishers can fine tune how they display ShareThis on their site, and even make editorial decisions informed by social sharing data points. On the publisher services team, we work closely with many of our publishers to help them make informed decisions. As mentioned earlier, there is no “one size fits all” approach, and that’s what makes the job both challenging and fun!

If you are a publisher, feel free to take a look at our latest product and analytics offerings at: http://sharethis.com/publishers/.

And, if working with publishers sounds interesting, you might want to think about joining the Publishers Services team at ShareThis! Here are some of the roles we are looking to fill: http://sharethis.com/about/careers/

by, The Publisher Services Team, ShareThis, Inc.

Follow ShareThis on Twitter: @ShareThis

Like us on Facebook: /ShareThis

Weekly Top Shares 11-11-11

November 11th, 2011

By now, Halloween candy is probably all but a distant memory. But the Halloween prank that late-night host Jimmy Kimmel sprang on the kids of America continues to generate laughs online. Kimmel urged his viewers to film themselves telling their children they’d eaten all their Halloween candy, then post their videos to YouTube. The resulting hilarity included more than a few tantrums, a helping of insolence and a delightful sprinkling of “kids-say-the-darndest-things” kind of moments. See for yourself, and don’t be ashamed if you feel compelled to watch more than once.

Still looking for lols? You might need them, because frankly, there was quite a bit of doom and gloom this week. The European debt crisis and continuing economic pain in the US prompted ShareThis users to to ponder what Niall Ferguson termed “America’s ‘Oh Sh*t!’ Moment”. Those not as entranced by that intellectual’s declinist musings needed only to point to other signs of distress: the weak housing market, the rising price of peanut butter, the failure of even wealthy athletes to avoid bankruptcy…oh, and Kim Kardashian’s divorce.

Still looking for lols? You must be. So check out this video from a Fox affiliate in Michigan and feel the pain of a long-suffering local newsman trying – and failing – to demonstrate some simple exercises. If you’ve spent a moment in a gym in the last five years, you know there’s always a bewildering array of new devices designed to help us slim down. Thankfully, most of us aren’t on camera during those unflattering moments when we’re conquered by our own lack of fitness and coordination.

by, Tom Spano, Social Media Manager, ShareThis, Inc.

Follow ShareThis on Twitter: @ShareThis

Like ShareThis on Facebook: /ShareThis

ShareThis Expands Media Management Team

November 7th, 2011

ShareThis is in a rapid growth stage, and to keep up with the demand from our publishers and advertisers we’ve been hiring some amazing people lately. In an effort to create seamless interaction between our advertisers and our publishers, we’ve hired two new members to the Media Management team.

Trisha Patel, Media Manager, Publisher Inventory, didn’t have to come far to work for ShareThis. She’s a Palo Alto native! We hired Trisha on October 12th, after a stint with Monster. As our MM for Publishers, Trisha will be monitoring advertising impressions on publisher websites, and bridging the gap between publishers and advertisers.

On a more personal note, Trisha is an avid runner and hiker, as well as a yoga aficionado, and loves spending time with her family and friends. She is always looking for the next best restaurant to satisfy her foodie cravings, and as an art lover, seeks out the latest gallery and museum shows in the Bay area, especially if they are focusing on Dali or Matisse. Trisha graduated from Columbia in 2005 with a degree in business and politics.

Chris walz, Media Manager, Advertising Inventory, comes to ShareThis from Foster City where he worked for Etology, an online ad network for five years. As a Media Manager, Chris will be managing online campaigns, increasing revenue and profit margins for advertisers, and optimizing ad spend to help advertisers hit their goals. His experience in this arena will be a huge asset to both ShareThis and our advertisers.

Before Etology, Chris was at UC Santa Cruz where he graduated in 2006. He loves to spend his free time on the golf course or with his softball team, and if there is any spare time left in his busy schedule, he promises to learn to play the guitar. Chris is also an impressive cook, and his specialty dish, Fettuccini Alfredo, is supposed to be a terrific hit with all of his friends and family.

We couldn’t be more proud to have Trisha and Chris on board, and look forward to their expertise in driving optimization and ease of business for our family of publishers and advertisers.

by, Tom Spano, Social Media Manager, ShareThis, Inc.

Weekly Top Shares 11-4-11

November 4th, 2011

Sometimes, we have to trick our bodies into exercising but, judging by the bulging biceps of the man in the photo accompanying this post on ThePostGame, these routines must do the trick. With calisthenics that hone both your muscular and cardiovascular capabilities, you’ll never waste another eternal 45 minutes on the treadmill. Take your pick from jumping jacks, sprints or a combination of push ups and squats in routines that burn the fat in less than half the time you’d spend on the human equivalent of a hamster wheel.

An interesting phenomenon to counter the Occupy Wall Street efforts that have been making headlines for months now, “The 53%” movement is garnering headlines of their own, like this one in CNNMoney. The group’s name springs from a statistic provided by the nonpartisan Tax Policy Center that reflects the estimate that 47 percent of Americans do not pay federal income tax. “The 53%” are advocating personal responsibility and work ethic and are spreading the word throughout the blogosphere that they are not part of the Occupy Wall Street contingent. Will be interesting if they take to the streets the way their “freeloading” counterparts did.

It’s no surprise that a mere 147 companies control, well, everything – it’s kinda like that statistic that 2 percent of the world’s population owns half the world’s wealth, or something like that – but it’s still startling to see the numbers on paper. According to a database compiled by three systems theorists at the Swiss Federal Institute of Technology in Zurich that maps out the structure of global corporate control, only 147 companies control 40 percent of the world’s wealth. You can check out the top 50 along with the story at Forbes.com.

Finally, we end on a colorful, if not high, note with a video of a house whose owners went above and beyond to display their Halloween spirit. Usually it’s not until Christmas that we see these kinds of luminary displays, but this video posted to ComedyCentral.com shows that revelers truly got into the spirit this October. Not sure how they coordinated the show with the lyrics of a pop song, but it’s certainly entertaining nonetheless. On that note, a belated Happy Halloween!

by, Tom Spano, Social Media Manager, ShareThis, Inc.

Like us on Facebook: /ShareThis

Sharing and Passion: Essentials For Building Your Brand

October 31st, 2011

Way before joining the ShareThis team, I knew the importance of sharing and how it not only increased traffic on my blogs but how I was able to optimize my content based on popular posts. Our publishers know this too!

In the last week, two of our publishers shared back and invited me to two amazing events. Both events reinforced something we have been saying all along; Sharing can and will help grow your business.

Ever heard of a little website called PerezHilton.com? I was invited to his star-studded event in NYC along with Kelly Norris who is the ShareThis Account Manager for his websites. Perez had arranged for 9 musical acts to play at Hammerstein Ballroom. Kelly and I fist pumped while DJ Pauly D spun “Party Rock” to a packed house. Other acts included Anjulie, Iggy Azalea, Karmin, Mia Moretti DJ Set, Boyz II Men, Mary J. Blige and a DJ set by Little Boots.

Amidst the glamour and the celebrities that walked by us, I couldn’t help but think about how far Perez has come. When he first started blogging, how did his content get distributed before Facebook? Sharing! People emailed and AIMed links to content. As the social media bubble grew, Perez embraced it and created multiple outlets for this content to be shared to. How did he turn a simple blog into an enterprise? Sharing was a huge ingredient of his successful recipe.

Another event I attended was a “Power Lunch” with Marie Claire @WORK presented by Express. This was the first of four lively discussions in their Speaker Series. Set in NYC’s very exclusive Core Club, about fifty women were given the opportunity to learn from top entrepreneurs paving the way in their fields.

The featured panelists, (Erica Huss – Co-Founder, BluePrint Cleanse, Jenn Hyman – Co-Founder, Rent the Runway, Rochelle Behrens – Founder, The Shirt, Julie Rice – Co-Founder, SoulCycle) immediately started off by sharing the stories behind their success. Each spoke about their background and how passion drove their success. They shared stories about why they saw a need in the marketplace for their products and the process of building a company around an idea. It was truly inspirational.

Just in September, we saw 17.5MM shares. Sure some of those shares are silly cat videos, but some of them could be shares around your brand or content. To me, sharing is like an endless digital version of the childhood game “operator”. Messaging is shared to a community from one platform, and in turn may be shared to another platform and on and on it goes. Its clear to me that sharing is a major part in building a brand while gaining and retaining loyal customers.

By, Missy Steiner, Director of Marketing, ShareThis, Inc.

Follow Missy on Twitter: @Missypoo586

Google Analytics Feature Update

October 28th, 2011

Big News: You may have seen the news today on the Google Analytics Blog about optimizing your social engagement data. If not, here is a link for you: Google Analytics Blog. Judging from the amount of tweets today, many of you are in the know, and very excited!

Social Tracking: We here at ShareThis have been working diligently on our Google Analytics integration. Recently, we released a new feature that automatically sends share events to the new social tracking capabilities of GA. This means you can see ShareThis sharing activity in your GA dashboard. The sharing events are organized by each social network utilized by your users. To see the analytics, login to your GA account, choose the “New Version” and look under the “Social” section (Google Analytics new features are in beta). You can get deeper share data, and other social analytics on our newly released Publisher Analytics here.

This is just one more great arrow in the ShareThis quiver of sharing options to help our publishers maximize user engagement. And if you like this, just wait till you see what’s next!

by, Barry Grant, VP of Product, ShareThis, Inc.

Categories

Blogroll