Posted in newsletter
Posts Tagged ‘users’
That’s right, we’re not only going to BlogHer later this month in Chicago, but we’re also sponsoring it!
At BlogHer, we’ll be asking users “Are you a go-to girl?”
We’re all go-to girls (or guys!)… whether our friends come to us for advice on restaurants, recipes, books or babies. You can store all that expertise in one place online: springpad! Share your favorite go-to tips with readers, friends and family via springpad – it couldn’t be simpler.
springpad’s newest features are all about creating collections of your favorite things & sharing them with your networks.
Before the Internet, women used to swap ideas while they hung laundry in the back yard, but that’s not how it works anymore. Our friends are all over the world & we communicate with many of them by reading their blogs or following them on twitter.
In preparation for the conference, check out the BlogHer09 springpad profile – it’s jam-packed with all of the important things you’ll need to plan your trip to Chicago!
Posted in Uncategorized
Scheduled Downtime: springpad will be unavailable on Sunday morning 7am-9am (EST) for feature upgrades. Sorry for the inconvenience.
Our upcoming release of springpad includes a handful of features that our users have been asking for:
1. Mobile web access: View your springpad data on your iPhone or other browser-enabled phone. This is just the first step in our mobile initiative… Stay tuned for more fun ways to access springpad on the go in the coming months! We’ll be looking for users to test it out & give us feedback (feedback@springpartners.com).
2. Improved sharing features: Post items to Facebook easier, showing more details to your friends.
3. Performance improvements: We are continuing to do work to make springpad more responsive.
Be sure to check out feedback from springpad users on Get Satisfaction!
Posted in Using Springpad
We are introducing a whole slew of new springpad features tomorrow morning, with a focus on improving sharing. Read more about the features below…
Sharing made easier
1. Social sharing: Share your great ideas & favorite things via facebook, twitter, or good old fashioned email. Your friends don’t even need to be springpad users to see that new recipe that you’re recommending.
2. Share privately or publicly: You control whether you’d like your data to be viewable by all springpad user or just your closest friends.
Collect ideas from other springpad users
1. Follow people you trust: If someone sends you a recipe that you just love, you can follow them. You’ll see anything new that they add to their springpad so you can make a copy of it for yourself.
2. Create your own profile: Begin curating your own collection of springpad items to recommend to other users.
3. Community Discussion: Invite your friends or other springpad users to tell you what they think of that restaurant that you are considering.
Navigation improvements
1. Organize your collections in My Stuff: As you begin to find ideas from the people you follow & add them to your collection, springpad will help you stay organized.
2. New sections in top navigation: Home lets you see what you’ve done in springpad lately, and Discover helps you to find new ideas to add to your springpad.
3. More room to add details: Each item in springpad now has larger view that gives you the room you need to keep all of your notes.
Use the springpad clipper to save Recipes & Products
In addition to clipping notes, now use the clipper to add recipes & products to your springpad as you surf the web. The clipper can also be used as a basic bookmarklet for saving websites if you don’t highlight anything before you “Spring It!” Read more about the springpad clipper...
Sign up for an account in just one click
Register for springpad using your Google or Facebook account. We’ll soon be adding other services.
Send a copy of your data to your email account
Send a copy of your information to your email, so you can reference it when you aren’t logged into springpad. This is our first step toward improving your ability to access your data wherever you’d like to.
Posted in Using Springpad
Recently, we were talking to a few of our test users and one guy said that springpad is so easy even his wife can use it. I wasn’t really sure how to react to this, being a woman, a wife, and a relatively technical one at that. But it turns out that I kind of agree with him. Wait, let me explain…
One of the key ideas behind springpad is that it’s built for regular people, who use fun and functional online tools like Facebook & email. You don’t need to be super-techie to use springpad, but if you are you’ll still find some great features that you like.
The other key idea is that we are helping people organize life projects, like managing shopping lists, planning potluck dinners, and organizing family vacations. Juggling all of those life tasks is not easy, and someone who is going to make the leap to try to do it in a tool definitely doesn’t have the time to mess around with settings and features that take hours to understand.
So, let me rephrase:
springpad is so easy that even your wife (who has to take the kids to school before work, do the grocery shopping, rake the leaves, manage the household budget, redecorate the living room, and plan for christmas) would use it.
and…springpad is so easy that even your husband (who has to take out the trash, make the coffee, pick up the kids after school, sort the mail, pick up the dry cleaning, do the dishes, and plan the trip to grandma’s for thanksgiving) would use it.
And I bet your neighbor, your classmate, your child’s teacher, your running partner, and your co-workers workers would use springpad, too.
Posted in Under the Hood
I’d like to introduce you to springpad’s Community Manager. She’s totally in love with springpad, but has promised to put that aside for you – our community of users. Oh right, her name is Katin (that’s me)!
Up until now I was the Product Manager for springpad, but have always felt that building a product that truly addresses a user’s wishes & needs is really more about focusing on the user than on the product itself. Then, at BlogHer Boston last week Sarah Dopp asked me, “So, are you the Community Manager?” – After hearing myself stumble through a hesitant reply, I decided that it’s time to declare my focus… So I say it now with confidence and excitement. Yes, I am the Community Manager.
So, what’s that mean? Mainly, I’ll be listening. Listening to you talk about your lives, your work & your passions. Then I’ll figure out how springpad can help. Our goal is to build a product that is simple, elegant & above all useful – something that helps real people get things done & organize their lives.
In fact, let’s start now. Tell me what is bugging you today, what’s rolling around in the back of your mind. What tasks, appointments, projects, parties, trips, plans are stressing you out? Check out the current version of springpad, then tell me how YOU imagine it being useful in your life. I’ll do my best to make sure we build the features you need.
Find me on twitter, at thesimpleme, or on Get Satisfaction. Send me a message from the “Give Feedback” button in springpad, via email (feedback AT springpartners DOT com), or just by commenting on this post. Basically, find me wherever you want to.
Posted in Under the Hood
Similar to other authors of advice and useful content, bloggers employ many tactics to attract first-time readers. It’s mostly in the form of writing creative & useful advice, commenting/linking throughout the blogosphere, and optimizing their posts for search engines.
After attracting readers for the first time, turning those new eyeballs into devoted, repeat readers takes work. As I’ve discussed before, it starts with the constant creation of fresh, new content. Beyond that, there are many creative options – here are the main ones I’ve seen:
- RSS Feeds are a great way to build a regular following and to monitor readership stats via services like FeedBurner, but this does not always bring readers back to the blog to interact via comments or discovery of old posts. The Simple Dollar proudly displays their RSS feed.
- Email Newsletters are not all that different from RSS feeds. And, with all the emails that people get nowadays, newsletters might get lost in the mix. Lots of great food blogs, like Chocolate & Zucchini, Foodista and Tasting Table offer beautiful newsletters.
- Downloadable PDF’s and Excel files allow readers to take the blog’s advice one step further for life tasks, like creating a meal plan. These downloads are great for deepening the quality of the advice, but may not always drive return readership.
- Bookmarking and Sharing Services allow readers to store and distribute a blogger’s advice and related brand. They both re-engage readers & help to reach new readers. To see how they work, check out the bottom of any of 101 Cookbook’s posts – you’ll notice the integrated del.icio.us, StumbleUpon and Facebook buttons.
- Blog Carnivals solicit other bloggers to submit links to articles on a particular topic. The benefit to the “carnival host” is the ability to both create return traffic and aggregate a lot of great content with minimal effort. The contributing bloggers get the chance to distribute their advice in hopes of driving readers to their site. Check out Org Junkie on Mondays, Rocks In My Dryer on Wednesdays, and Delicious Baby on Fridays.
- Contests encourage readers to comment on posts, driving repeat readers and encouraging interaction. Within the Corners of My Kitchen runs a weekly product giveaway and Rookie Moms is currently offering a prize for feedback on their new site design.
While some of these methods are a one-time setup, many of them require a lot of work and commitment from bloggers. Based on their widespread willingness to do this work, we believe that reader retention and re-engagement must be of high importance to these talented content creators.
Here at Spring Partners, we are developing a tool that might just help…
We believe that by helping readers to interact with bloggers’ advice we will not only be helping users, but also helping bloggers to further extend their advice, their brand, and their devoted readership.
Signup to be a part of the springpad private beta. Or, if you are an interested blogger, consider being part of our life expert program.
Posted in Our Partners
