Time for another installment in my CEO interview series, this time it’s Kevin Fremon from vibe.me. Vibe.me is a “location-aware web and mobile platform that gives people the ability to see and experience the world around them in a whole new way. By doing a “vibe update” via a smartphone app, SMS, or website, users share the vibe they get from places they visit, news they read, or products they use while earning “Karma+.” Vibe.me helps users navigate through locations and events by offering a real-time map view of all the vibe updates happening around them.”  I thought this was a really interesting idea, the ability to “view” places based on sentiment, so I tracked down Kevin and he was kind enough to speak with me via an email interview:

Rick Liebling: First, tell me about vibe.me, what is it exactly?

Kevin Fremon, CEO of vibe.me

Kevin Fremon: Vibe.me is a simplified social network similar to Facebook, Twitter, and now Google+.  Although, what makes vibe.me unique is that it’s based specifically on people sharing their “vibe” (emotion, sentiment, feeling) in relation to a variety of things that are a part of our day-to-day life.  An example I love to give that always gets people excited is being able to “check-in” and associate a vibe to a specific location like a restaurant, bar, or even a stadium watching a ball game. Vibe.me users will also be able to view the real-time vibe of any location.

The location aspect is fun to talk about but that’s just one of the facets.  Vibe.me users can associate a vibe to just about anything such as trending topics in the news, #hashtags, media, products, brands, or just their daily life as it happens.

RL: What was the inspiration for creating vibe.me?

KF: Over the past 6 years my two co-founders (Will Mason & Dustin Brown) and I have run a digital agency (dontblinkdesign.com) here in Santa Monica. Our niche was developing sophisticated web software for other entrepreneurs with BIG ideas.  We’re suckers for collaborating with passionate people and expounding upon already really great ideas, hence we were very successful as an agency.  Over time it really got to a point for all of us where we wanted to bring our very own BIG idea to life and would brainstorm every now and again during lunches, down time, etc.

Then one beautiful summer day last year I was out on my typical afternoon walk around the block with my dog Luna, who also happens to be the vibe.me mascot.  The sun was shining, had my flip flops on, and all was right in the universe.  At that moment I grabbed my iPhone from my pocket and popped open the Facebook app and proceeded to update my status as “I FEEL AWESOME!”… Suddenly I said to myself as I quickly deleted my status update “Man, people rarely do status update about how they feel” and canceled out.  At that moment the “light bulb” went off.

RL: It seems a new platform, service or tool is introduced every day, why should people choose to spend some of their online time on vibe.me? What’s in it for them?

KF: The value I believe people get from making vibe.me a part of their daily social routine comes down to a variety of things. Our users are telling us that they really enjoy using vibe.me because it allows them to add a bit more “depth” to their social updates.  Also that they feel more “connected” to their friends because they get a sense of actually how they are doing throughout the day vs. just what they are doing.

Beyond the deeper connections people will be able to maintain, what I’m personally excited about is all the amazing data that we will be able to provide our users with through different visualizations.  One of our initiatives as we release the mobile app and reach a larger scale will be a vibe map feature.  Imagine being able to see the real-time vibe across the country (or world) as it happens. Then being able to add other data sets on top of that such as weather or current events. Since our data is very quantifiable and everyone can relate to a vibe or feeling, it will be very intriguing and powerful in my opinion.

RL: Mobile is becoming a more important element in people’s lives, especially as it relates to social media, Does vibe.me have a mobile app, or plans for one?

A4: I couldn’t agree with you more. Vibe.me absolutely has a mobile app currently in the works and we’re very excited about it’s release later this year.  Often I’m asked the question, “Why didn’t you start with the mobile app?”  While our team and users have been jonesing for a mobile app from day one, we wanted to establish vibe.me as a full social platform vs. just another kitschy social mobile app.  Also, the web provides a much better landscape to find our product/market fit by getting the idea out there in front of people, gathering user feedback, and continuing to iterate along the way.  It’s completely different with mobile apps these days since there are so many awesome apps out in the market.  If your app sucks, likely people won’t ever give it another chance no matter how much you improve it.

Our vision with the vibe.me mobile app is focused around simplicity and intrigue. Since we’re essentially asking people to use an additional social app we want it to be as easy as possible to get in, update your vibe, and have a look around with as little friction as possible.  Sorry, but using vibe.me you won’t be made the “Vibe King” of establishments or receive “brownie patches” for updates.  Instead, we’ve added in a simple point earning structure called “Karma+” in which users are able to gain points that they can later use to vote on which charity vibe.me should donate to that month, as well as, get swag items like t-shirts or other fun stuff.

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Alan Chan, CEO of bre.ad

Keeping up with the latest developments in social and digital media isn’t always easy. New tools and applications are introduced constantly, some with great fanfare, and many disappear just as quickly as they came to light. Many things more difficult is the marketing blogger community who desperately try to find the “next big thing.” That results in some ventures being overly hyped before they are really ready. I’ve been trying over the last few months to really step back and examine the tool before rushing to judgement. One of the best ways to understand the intentions of the creators is to ask them directly, that’s why I’ve been doing the CEO Interview feature with more regularity. I hope you find these brief interviews helpful and informative. Today I’m speaking with Alan Chan, the man behind the URL shortener tool, bre.ad.

Rick Liebling: Tell me about bre.ad. Where did the idea come from?

Alan Chan: Bre.ad is a social recommendations platform that allows you to attach a 5-second personalized billboard to any link you create using the Bre.ad URL shortener. You can recommend (or “toast”) anything you want, from your favorite charity to your own website. Watch this video to see how it works:

The inspiration for Bre.ad came when I was working on my last company, Arbitrage. I felt 140 characters was sometimes not enough to express myself and I wanted to create a tool that empowered anyone to meaningfully promote the things they care about.
RL: How does bre.ad work?

AC: Bre.ad works in three easy steps. 1) On our site, you create personalized digital billboards to promote your favorite things. We call each billboard a “toast.” 2) You shorten links using the Bre.ad link shortener and share those links on Twitter and Facebook. 3) When your friends and followers click on your shortened links, they will see your “toast” for five seconds before being redirected to the link you shortened.
RL: There seems to be a focus on brands and celebrities, is that who you see as the primary user of the service?

AC: Bre.ad is perfect for anyone who wants to make the links they share more meaningful, but the Bre.ad URL shortener is especially useful for online content producers who have something to promote. Our diverse users include entrepreneurs seeking exposure for their new ventures, individuals raising awareness for their favorite charity, and public figures promoting their personal brands.
RL: Tell me about the analytics the platform offers?

AC: A history of all your shortened links is stored on your Bre.ad profile, along with click-through data by day, week, month, and lifetime. The Bre.ad development team is working hard to build new features and analytics which will be rolled out over the summer.
RL: I think bre.ad‘s really clever, and I can see a lot of great uses for it. I can also see it being used as a crude, spammy tool.  How do you see the platform evolving in order to keep it fresh?

AC: Curating a good Twitter or Facebook account means sharing content that people enjoy. When used correctly, Bre.ad is perfect for that. Every “toast” is voluntarily created by the friend whose link you clicked. Users are encouraged to share meaningful recommendations because “toasts” are customized with their photo and a personal message. If you don’t want to see your friend’s toast, you can always skip it by clicking “Continue” in the top right corner.

Like all the CEOs I speak with, I encourage you to try out their service and judge for yourself if it has value for you. I think you’ll find bre.ad, if used judiciously, can be a terrific tool for brand awareness or driving interest in something you really believe in.

Badgeville helps turn customers into fans

My series of CEO Interviews continues this week with Kris Duggan of Badgeville. As you know, I’ve started to write about Game Mechanics a lot recently and am currently working with Badgeville on a client project.  This is a new and developing area and I think you’ll be interested in reading what Badgeville CEO Kris Duggan has to say:

Rick Liebling: Let’s start off by giving a quick overview of Badgeville. Who are you guys, what do you do and who do you do it for/with?

Kris Duggan: Badgeville is the leading Social Loyalty Platform. We make it easy for marketers of commerce and content brands to drive user behavior using smart gamification techniques. With Badgeville, you can reward any user behavior in real time and measure the health of your community by tracking user behavior and identity using advanced engagement analytics. Badgeville customers range from large online retailers, such as Bluefly.com, to entertainment and media brands, including Interscope Records and Island Def Jam (Universal Music), to community sites such as The Active Network, and many more.

The typical Badgeville customer has users/customers that already are interacting with its web product occasionally, and is seeking to leverage gamification techniques to increase user-driven business objectives and conversions. We launched at TechCrunch Disrupt in September 2010, and are one of the fastest growing companies in Silicon Valley with over 60 customers in 15 countries around the world. Our team of 25 includes experts in game design, social gaming, social media, software-as-a-service, and building large-scale applications. The Badgeville Platform includes the Dynamic Game Engine, with support for sophisticated business rules as part of a gamification strategy, and the Widget Studio, for highly configurable turnkey widgets to deploy a rewards program in a matter of weeks.

RL: Game theory, gamification, social rewards. This is still a pretty new area and terminology is still being solidified. Can you explain which terms you prefer to use and why?

KD: That’s a great question! Terminology for new technologies sometimes can make an industry that solves a real market need sound like passing trend. Gamification is one of those words that happens to be describing this really hot industry right now, and to some has a negative connotation. However, the word gamification, which means using game mechanics for non-game experiences, is something that can be applied in very positive ways. Gamification has really been around forever — loyalty programs are gamification, Girl Scout badges are gamification, karate belts are gamification.

However, modern gamification techniques need to be applied strategically in line with a company’s larger business goals in order to work in the long term, and not end up hurting a brand more than they help. We call ourselves a “Social Loyalty Platform” because loyalty (and conversions) is what good gamification delivers. Social rewards are one mechanic that can be used as part of a gamification strategy. Regardless of whether you’re seeking gamification, social rewards, modern loyalty, game mechanics, or something else in this world, we’re confident that our platform is flexible enough to handle unique implementations that represent the angle each customer wishes their deployment to take.

RL: Talk about the difference between designing social rewards for collaborative vs. competitive play and when you should use one or the other in a community?

KD: Designing a gamification strategy for our customers always starts with an analysis of the site audience demographic and business goals. Some companies want to inspire a very competitive experience on their site, which can be very effective in driving user behavior for the users to “win” social rewards and status. On other sites, collaboration is more powerful, as the community is less about being the top fan of the site or brand, and more about contributing regularly and expressing loyalty by bringing friends to the site to participate.

Some people ask us if male-focused sites should be competitive and female-focused brands should have collaborative programs only, but this isn’t true. We have some female-focused deployments that are very competitive, and some male-focused sites that are more collaborative in nature. Ultimately you have to figure out what you want your audience to do, and which members of your audience you want to drive to do these behaviors.

There are also ways to have a combination of competitive and collaborative rewards, which often works very well in allowing the top fans to compete for status, while also making everyone else feel part of the program without having to compete.

RL: Jane McGonigal gave an amazing talk at TED, saying we need MORE play to solve the world’s biggest problems. Do you see Badgeville as a tool in that sort of ambitious goal?

KD: Yes. One of the exciting parts about what we have here at Badgeville is that our software platform can power just about any loyalty program or game based on behavior. While not every Badgeville customer is using our platform for solving the world’s biggest problems, there’s a lot of potential in partnering with the right creative company in developing a program that can not only drive revenues and loyalty, but can also crowd source a program to better the world.

We’ve spoken with a lot of large brands that are interested in ways to use Badgeville to help drive more participation by customers in their ties to charities and causes around the world. The right creative minds could really make a difference using our software, and we look forward to see future implementations using Badgeville to promote all the ideas McGonigal talks about. Currently, we see customers in health, education, and finance using Badgeville to help drive positive behaviors that, while tied to business goals, are also designed to help users solve global problems on a personal scale.

RL: What will we see next in this industry?

KD: This industry is at its infancy, and even so, innovative companies of all sizes have taken note. Expect to see gamification applied in a variety of ways, and as something that becomes an expected part of our everyday experience. We see interest from such a wide range of industries today, it’s clear to us that these techniques are going to become more and more prominent over 2011 and beyond.

For instance, SAP, one of the largest enterprise organizations in the world, is currently running a Gamification Cup, where its developers are using Badgeville’s API to compete in a challenge where they have to come up with creative ways to use gamification to improve existing SAP experiences. Everyday, our horizons for the breadth of this market and industry expand. There will be plenty of surprises along the way, but we are confident that gamification, social rewards and social loyalty will have a long-term effect on helping many industries connect with their customers, drive behavior, and understand their audience on an entirely new level.

For more on Badgeville, see this recent Forbes article.

Last week I had the opportunity to interview Duleepa Wijayawardhana, CEO of Empire Avenue. This week I’m excited to share an interview I conducted with Azeem Azhar, the CEO of PeerIndex. PeerIndex describes itself thusly:

PeerIndex is a web technology company that is algorithmically mapping out the social web. The way we see it, the social web now allows everyone endless possibilities in discovering new information on people, places, and subjects. We believe that the traditional established authorities and experts – journalists, academics, are now joined by a range of interested and capable amateurs and professionals. As this locus of authority shifts, many new authorities emerge. PeerIndex wants to become the standard that identifies, ranks, and scores these authorities — and help them benefit from the social capital they have built up.

Azhar is an Internet entrepreneur and investor with a background in journalism, having worked previously at The Economist and Guardian. Azeem has been active developing services on the Internet since 1992, as a student. He was involved in the launch of The Guardian, The Economist and BBC web services during the 1990s; as well as having a fin-de-siecle/Internet bubble escapade with an incubator between 1999 and 2001. More recently, he was has been an investor in Powerset, New Energy Finance, Daylife, Seedcamp and Dopplr.

I’ve been checking out PeerIndex for several months now and I really like it. They provide some great data viz, use more sources than Klout and let you create more robust lists than Klout as well. Here’s what your dashboard looks like on PeerIndex:

Rick Liebling: Give us a general breakdown on PeerIndex. How does it work, who should use it, and why?

Azeem Azhar: We think the locus of authority is changing – as a result of the digital revolution – and that patterns of influence are much more wide spread and fast changing. Our focus is to help unlock those relationships for the benefits of the peer opinion leaders and marketers.

Our business model is two fold:

> Helping marketers connect directly to peer opinion leaders.

> Data licensing via our API

PeerIndex is really perfect for three constituencies:

·       Individuals who want to understand their authority in different topics & who ultimately want to benefit from their interactions on social networks

·       Community managers (e.g. subject matter bloggers or conference organisers) who want to build PeerIndex groups (leaderboards) around their subjects and topics

·       Marketers and PRs who want to identify topic leaders

RL: How does PI differ from Klout?

AA: I can’t talk particularly about Klout – Joe and Phil are good guys & they have a cool office.

I can talk about PeerIndex.

We use the term ‘peer opinion leader’ because it better captures what we think of the world: opinions (not raw pulling power) matter – people have impact, draw, status in given domains or topics. I would trust you on the subject of internet marketing . I wouldn’t trust you on the topic of computer security (sorry!). And you have a reputation in one area but not in another.

And the key thing we care about is PeerIndex in topics (as a result). We wanted to build the de facto way of understanding who is an opinion leader or expert in a specific topic or category; and it’s baked in from the beginning.

In your case, we see you have a topic PI of 82 in marketing – which is really high. It basically means you are a highly trustworthy, influential person on the subject of marketing. Your overall PeerIndex is 63 – which is quite an elite score too.

The other thing that really matters to us is who interacts with you. It matters more if a @briansolis engages with you on, say, marketing than if a lower PI person does. And you see these in the outputs – our top ranked users are actually generally not content free celebrities, but content rich opinion leaders (like @om and @karaswisher) who engage frequently with large numbers of high caliber leaders.

RL: When it comes to ranking online influence, the quality/quantity metric issue always comes up. How does PI balance quantitative metrics like number of Twitter followers with qualitative factors like RTs, click-throughs etc.?

AA: 1. Topics and categories matter – expertise and influence rarely cross boundaries

2. Quality of interactions count – simplistic counting mechanisms which rewarded the inane and popular do not reflect the discrimination with which most people and businesses make decisions

3. We wanted to emphasise signals and behaviours which were expensive for the signalling party. Following someone on Twitter is cheap. Getting a super, smart busy respected person to retweet a tweet of yours to their followers is even harder and more expensive.

4. Manage distorting effects of social networks

We count a lot of things very simply (like number of retweets, friend/follower ratio) but we also do some things to discover the underlying structure or pattern that this signals reflect. This allows us to capture the difference between – say – you have an article that gets 1,000 retweets and have 10 articles that each get 100 retweets. Which is more important? Our approaches should generally help us tell those apart.

We don’t really look at things like how many friends or followers you have-but rather we count things that are more indicative of other people trusting you.

A good example is this: it’s worth almost nothing to get @algore to follow you. But if @algore retweets something you say on Climate Change – that will do your climate change PI some good. But if @algore retweets something you say on beach volleyball, probably won’t do much to your PI.

RL: This week it seemed that Empire Avenue blew up. Do you see EA as a competitor, or as something you’d like to have PI plugged into?

AA: We see a lot of games on social networks (in fact dating back to Blogshares), and they build sticky, engaged audiences, so games platforms are an important constituency for us.

RL: I’m really intrigued by woos.at, tell me about that and what plans you have for the future with it?

AA: Woos.at is one of several brand new applications built on top of PeerIndex. They guys behind it are http://wewillraakyou.com – it was their idea, we’re just happy to be able to support them.

RL: What is the opportunity for brands to get involved with PeerIndex?

AA: One current programme is PeerIndex VIP Rewards. With PeerIndex VIP Rewards you can reach Peer Opinion Leaders in your category – but we jealously guard our POLs access so we’re only working with selected brands. POLs are people who have built up a reputation in a topic through their contributions, and protecting them from crap, spam and shilling is really important to us.

RL: What’s the next step in online influence measurement?

AA: For us it will be more data sources and going offline – keynoting at Davos is a worthy achievement that might not be reflected just by looking at your twitter conversations.

Fantastic stuff, thanks Azeem. I encourage everyone to take a look at PeerIndex, it has a great present and a bright future.

DUPS share price at time of writing: 70.66

As I continue to investigate the social network Empire Avenue many questions have arisen. I figured the best person to ask would be the source, so with the assistance of Tom Ohle, VP of Marketing and Media Relations at Empire Avenue, I was able to have those questions answered by Duleepa “Dups” Wijayawardhana, the CEO of Empire Avenue. Before we get to the Q&A, let me just say that, though I don’t know him, I’m a big fan of Dups.  He’s been doing tons of interviews, engaging people on Twitter and doing so with a great attitude. That goes a long way with me.

Q1. To me, the interesting distinction between Empire Avenue and Klout or PeerIndex is that you can affect your score/stock price by taking actions on the EA site. While I appreciate the effort to get people to engage, does that allow for too much gaming of the system?

To answer the question you need to first ask, “What exactly is the point of a game?” So if our game was to give you a definitive, one-time, value and that was it, then perhaps we chose the wrong vehicle. However, our goal is to give you a set of metrics that are about being “social” and that you can improve by being “social.” Our belief and our goal is to set the mechanics up in such a way that trying to raise your score means that you will end up being more social. For example, we say, “increase your share price by interacting with people more on Facebook.” That’s not saying, “Go spam people,” but more like: get them to interact with you, and as your interactions increase your share price should too.

That’s an interesting point. The people who are “winning” in EA aren’t the spammers, they are the people who are creating content and engagement  across multiple social networks. It doesn’t mean the spammers don’t exist, but they exist on Twitter and Facebook as well, as we all know.

Q2. 10 years ago sites like Wall St. Sports and Hollywood Stock Exchange offered virtual exchanges, were they in any way the inspiration for EA?

Not really; ultimately we didn’t even base Empire Avenue on an existing stock exchange. In existing stock exchanges, virtual or real, you bid and ask. It’s very complicated and not at all easy for people to get into. Empire Avenue has a system of “Market Makers.” We set your share price every night based on your activity, engagement and interaction. You then buy at that price and drive it up further or sell. Ultimately the data that can be gleaned is pretty much the same, but not at the expense of making people run away from complexity.

Q3. How do you see brands utilizing Empire Avenue in the future?

In any number of ways. Empire Avenue is ultimately a game, but a game that can have some real-world marketing and networking value:

1. The easiest way for a brand to get involved is simply to create an account and then just watch their social media stats. Use the game stats and advisors as a way to be better at Social Media in general, use it as a training tool. This requires little to no activity on their part, just a dedication to checking on their scores and putting them to some use.

2. Play the game itself and really boost your brand and brand awareness. Ultimately Empire Avenue is a meta social network. What you do on Empire Avenue can spread to many, many other networks. You can use Empire Avenue to gather shareholders, reach out to people, offer incentives from Luxury Items to other stuff that we will roll out in the future. Brands like Intel, AT&T and Ford are doing a fantastic job of embracing Empire Avenue’s platform.

3. Use our site to find people of note that are of interest to you and your brand. After all, we do have some cool metrics, so research people, find out what they say and heck, reach out to them and interact with them all on the same platform. Perhaps your brand could benefit from their expertise, knowledge or as a spokesperson.

Jane Fonda's share price at time of writing: 72.98

Q4. Recently I saw that Jane Fonda joined Empire Avenue. Are you encouraged by celebrities joining EA, or do you fear that could tilt the balance in a negative way?

We’ve created the platform so that it’s difficult to “run away” with the share price. So celebrities joining is a good thing. It’s a lot of fun, gets people involved and hey, we all want to buy those that we know. Ultimately, we hope that it will drive you to connect with people you’ve never met in a meaningful fashion, and perhaps even, connect with brands and with celebrities you’ve never met or considered either!

Q5. What additional Social Networks will you be plugging in to EA in the future? LBS platforms like Foursquare and Gowalla? GetGlue, Orkut, Cityville?

We want to put every network into Empire Avenue. Our algorithms are scalable, so it is simply a matter of time and resources now.

Final question:

Q6. What response do you have for those people who view Empire Avenue as another simplified metric and ‘vanity score’ for those in Social Media?

People will see what they want to see and I would hope people join to try it out and then make a judgement call! I see my share price at 65 as something to improve, not necessarily something to lord over my friends. I would say that most people still tell me how Twitter is basically a simplified metric and a vanity score in number of followers, or that Facebook is about getting the highest number of likes and/or friends. But in all cases you miss the point; in each case getting those numbers up involves you having to connect, to reach out, to engage. As human beings that’s what we do, that’s what we want to do. To engage with someone else half-way around the world just because they bought you on Empire Avenue and you start reading their Twitter because you want to see if you are going to invest… and then you realize, you might have met someone really of value to you… now that is power, that is fun, and that is the point.

A big thanks to Dups for taking the time to provide these thoughtful responses.  I think a lot of people are trying Empire Avenue now and are frustrated or haven’t taken enough time to explore all the possibilities. Right now I think the platform is really interesting and has real potential. I encourage you to give it a try, meet  some new people and decide for yourself.