The Dos and Don’ts of photo-sharing contests

Posted on May 8, 2013 by Sarah

We read this great blog post on Mobile Marketer by Chantal Tode about photo-sharing mobile contests. While the post was specifically about mobile contests, Tode brought up some really good points that are important to all photo contests, not just mobile ones.

cover model

Something that really stood out in the post was the idea to not make the request for posting photos too specific or hard for consumers to capture as it can result in lower participation and submission levels. This is great advice to follow when thinking about the best way to engage your customers.

With a photo contest, you want to hit that magical formula of something your customers are very interested in and a picture that is easy for them to capture and share.

If you are looking for more than engagement, running a photo contest to gain insight into your customers, for example, the voting and rating side of the contest becomes more important than the contest entries. Consider a contest without user generated entries, where your customers have to vote on their favorite product.

 

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The Cost Benefits of Online Application Management

Posted on May 1, 2013 by Erica Schaffel

GMN paper dietOrganizations usually want to move their application process online because of the time it will save them. For a quick refresher, read what I wrote in January about the time savings associated with online application management.

Although we all know the saying “time is money” and saving time inherently saves money, that’s not always enough to prove why organizations should be moving away from paper.  Not enough, even though 60% of employee time in a typical organization is spent working with documents!

Recently, the Grant Managers Network came out with a report called The Paper Diet. In this report, the authors detail several paper processes that if moved to paperless, would help organizations significantly cut down on costs. Not surprisingly, one of the biggest culprits is the paper-based application and review process.

Here are some highlights from the report:

  • The average four drawer filing cabinet costs about $25,000 to fill and $2,000 per year to maintain.
  • Each lost document costs $350-$700; between 3 and 5 percent of an organization’s files are lost or misplaced.
  • 15% of an organization’s revenues are spent creating, managing and distributing documents.

Want to know how much money your paper process is costing you? Check out this paper cost calculator.

For more information on the paper diet, including tips to get buy-in from your organization, access the full report.

Many thanks goes out to the Grant Managers Network for their continued success in providing learning materials to the grant-making community. 

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Online Contest and Promotions Provider No Longer on Fire? Get Things Buzzing Again with WizeHive.

Posted on April 17, 2013 by Sarah

extinguish

Just yesterday, Wildfire (now owned by Google)  announced they will be moving away from their roots and will no longer offer their contest and promotions builder as a stand alone product.  While the move furthers Wildfire’s strategy of being one of the leaders for Social Marketing Suites, it leaves a number of their former customers searching for a way to run individual contests and brand campaigns.

We will offer any former Wildfire customer a 2 for 1 deal on do-it-yourself contests just for making the switch. We will also offer $1,000 off to the first 100 Wildfire clients looking to build and run a custom contest.

As a  company focused on making smart, social apps that drive online engagement through the intake and organization of data, we have a simple yet powerful do-it-yourself contest builder as well as custom contest system for large brands and agencies needing a high degree of flexibility or payment intake.   We’ve run hundreds of contests and promotions over the last three years, working with customers such as the American Humane Society, Driscoll’s Berries, JCPenney, Galaxy Note, Toyota, Discovery Communications and iVillage.

Wildfire was a pioneer with their early online contests and promotions and we have a huge amount of respect for how they have grown their business. We wish them all the best in their transition, and are looking forward to providing the customers they are no longer able to service with the power and flexibility of WizeHive.

Wildfire customers looking to take advantage of this offer should go to http://beta.wizehive.com/webform/wfpromotion  to sign up.

 

photo by: Auntie P

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How WizeHive Helped a Fashion Blog Partner with Marie Claire

Posted on April 11, 2013 by Kamaila Sanders

When I’m not working at WizeHive I write for a  fashion blog called Philly Fashionistas. It’s a fun hobby that allows me to meet awesome people, attend cool events, and help women to look and feel their best.

Recently, a photographer from Marie Claire reached out to us asking if we could help him to find some stylish girls for a photoshoot they were doing in Philadelphia for their July Beauty Roadshow feature. As you can imagine we were happy to help.

Rather than just have the girls email us their photo and contact information we decided to use WizeHive to automate the process.

I created a workspace just for Marie Claire using the Job Candidates app to build a form that helped us to collect the girls’ contact info and where they could easily upload their photos.

Using WizeHive to manage this application process was great because it allowed us to easily and efficiently do the following

1. Make it easy for applicants to enter for their chance to be featured in Marie Claire

PF2
2. Publish a link people could click to access the application

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3. Promote and share the opportunity through our social media accounts
4. Have one central space where everyone from Marie Claire could view and review the applications and photos and make a decision about which girls would be selected to be featured in the story

PF3

Using WizeHive took a process that would have been painful and uncollaborative in email and made it simple and fun. Next time, I would like to get really fancy and set up workflows that would automatically email anyone who was moved to the ‘yes’ or ‘no’ folders.

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WizeHive News: WizeHive Welcomes New Addition to its Board and Closes Seed Round

Posted on March 28, 2013 by Sarah


With more than one million transactions per month, WizeHive strengthens team and adds local investment

WizeHive, a productivity tool that makes it easy for anyone to build and deploy powerful online business applications, is pleased to announce the closing of a seed round from Philadelphia’s growing venture capital community, and the addition of a Gabriel Weinberg, founder and CEO of search engine Duck Duck Go to the board. Mr. Weinberg will join Dr. Michael Zisman, former CEO of Lotus Development (Lotus Notes), as investors and board members of WizeHive.

WizeHive kicked off 2013 announcing that 2012 revenues nearly doubled, fueled by a 95% year-over-year renewal rate of its current customer base. The company is now processing over one million activities a month for clients that include Discovery Communications, The Smithsonian, the Canadian Red Cross, CEA, Northwestern University, Global Health Corp, F&W Media and the American Humane Society.

“This is a very exciting time for us. We are experiencing tremendous growth and customer satisfaction, which continues to validate WizeHive’s value proposition – that we can make it easy for organizations to streamline and automate their business processes while increasing online engagement with customers, employees and others that matter most to their organization,” said Michael Levinson, CEO of WizeHive. “Adding Gabriel Weinberg to our board adds to a dynamic and talented team we have been building and we are honored to have him aboard”.

“WizeHive has begun to carve out a niche for itself in the enterprise app marketplace as a leader in group productivity tools, especially in instances where the collaboration needs to occur around data”, said Gabriel Weinberg, CEO of Duck Duck Go, “I am glad to be able to add additional value and insights to help them grow.”

WizeHive’s seed round included investments from Gabriel Investments and Goldin Ventures. Gabriel Investments focuses on accelerating the growth of early-stage companies in the Philadelphia area. The fund, established by Richard Vague and Scott Tarte of noteworthy success in both the energy and financial sectors, also includes Jonathan Brassington, Founder and CEO of LiquidHub , who will be helping WizeHive explore enterprise opportunities: “At LiquidHub, we work with hundreds of large corporations that deal with online database and workflow processes every day and we see a real opportunity for WizeHive in that market”, said Mr. Brassington.

“As a software veteran, it is exciting to see companies such as WizeHive put all the key elements for enterprise use together in a user-friendly, versatile and robust package,” said Dr. Zisman, “I am thrilled to be part of this team”.

WizeHive is also getting ready to roll out an updated version of the WizeHive platform. The new platform will include a powerful API and has been designed to enable users to quickly customize and deploy tailored business applications including forms, workflows, and automated tasks without any programming knowledge. Currently in beta, the new platform can be accessed at https://beta.wizehive.com.

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Employee thoughts: How I Wized up

Posted on March 22, 2013 by Nate Buckwalter

nate at the showWhen I was offered the job at WizeHive they asked if I would be willing to join my new coworkers in attendance at a conference.  I of course jumped at the offer so on my first day at WizeHive I found myself reporting to the Philadelphia Airport to greet my new team.

As the plane touched down in Tampa there was no turning back.  I was en route to the annual Grants Manager’s Network conference where grant managers and other industry stakeholders gain valuable new ideas, tools, and resources at interactive learning sessions designed to support those new to the field as well as seasoned professionals.  WizeHive has been a contributor to this conference since 2009.

This three day event was much like any other conference that I have attended in the past.  We set up shop in the exhibit room where attendees would flood during refreshment periods throughout their various schedule.  This room was filled with many vendors, that all  provide specialized assistance to grant management professionals.  In addition to having a booth we also were able to host a session.  It was exciting to find that the event participants were extremely engaging and curious.

As I mentioned, this was my first day with WizeHive, so I was flying blind, but eager to learn.  Here are a few of the things that I picked up over the past few days:

No one grants management system is right for everyone, not even WizeHive.  It is the case in many industries where there is a vertical scale of the best companies to the worst.  I found that there seems to be more of a horizontal layout, where you can find many vendors on the same tier but they specialize to one particular need and do it very well.  It is a common practice at WizeHive to have an honest conversation with the potential customer and say, “I don’t think we would be a great fit for one another, we specialise in the application, administration and decision making process and do that very well.  It sounds like you may want to speak with so and so..”

WizeHive’s software is so flexible that sometimes it’s both a strength and a weakness. WizeHive holds the most flexible piece of software I have ever seen and accommodates the widest range of industries, clients, and system types.  For example, our CRM (Customer Relationship Management) system here at the office is powered by WizeHive, but that’s not really our forte.  That same software is used by household name clients in many different industries: corporations, foundations, nonprofits, and institutions.  Since it is so flexible, it becomes hard to define our one favorite customer, we love working with everyone!

My first impression of the WizeHive culture is pretty impressive.  There are few better ways to get to know the people that you will be working with than by embarking on a 72 hour business trip.  Spending my first few hours as a WizeHive employee was an eye opening experience..in a good way.  For example, without this experience I would not know that Jeff, the VP of sales is an expert at karate and is on his way towards his brown belt.  Next time you see him, ask him to demonstrate his Kata.

Don’t tell my boss, but I had a really great time, and I probably would have gone even if I wasn’t being paid for it.

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Why Company Cloud Storage is Essential

Posted on February 14, 2013 by Sarah

Why do employees want cloud storage?
Simple, it’s easy.

cloudsThere is no way around it, employees don’t want to store their data on one device. Whether they are getting work done at home in the evenings, wanting to use their own device, or traveling with a lighter laptop, employees want to be able to access their data anywhere. Here are a few reasons why you’ll want your employees using Company Cloud Storage, not their personal cloud accounts, for work.

If employees go with personal cloud storage, your company is no longer in control of its documents. Here are three scenarios of what could happen when an employee leaves, is ill or gets fired:

1. They could do some serious damage by accident. Think about it, an employee leaves a job and wants to delete everything associated with their time there. In an instant, they have deleted every record of working somewhere. What if there are no other copies of what they deleted? Company logos, reports, documents are gone. Although the intent was not malicious, the effects are just as devastating.

2. They could inconvenience the team/the new person. Your star employee is working on a big project. Five months and just shy of presenting it to a client, an appendix goes crazy and your star is out of commission for the next week. If the employee is storing all the research and information in their personal cloud storage solution, does this mean you need to start the presentation from scratch?
3. They could do some serious damage on purpose. If an employee uses personal cloud storage and leaves on bad terms, the company is at risk for serious damage. They could withhold information that they have kept outside of the company network. They could even take private information over to the competition.

Photo by: buck82

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Introducing: The Do-it-Yourself Contest Gallery

Posted on February 6, 2013 by Kamaila Sanders

Self Service Demo“We know we want to build a contest, but we don’t quite know what we want it to look like yet. What have other organizations done?” Doesn’t it always seem easier to know what you want after you get an idea of what everyone else does.

Even though you can build your entire photo, video, essay, or audio contest for free in 30 minutes or less, most people still want to see what other contests look like. They want to see how entries were organized, learn more about the voting process, and read the custom message that entrants receive.

We heard all of the requests. That’s why we created a gallery to show off some of the do-it-yourself contests that past clients have built, along with a few live demo contests for you to test out. Check them out to see all of the different ways your Wizehive contest can look, gather some ideas about what kind of contest you would like to run, and feel confident that your do-it-yourself contest will operate exactly as planned.

Click here to check out the do-it-yourself contest gallery >

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WizeHive Customer: Social Entrepreneurs Ireland

Posted on February 4, 2013 by Sarah

Social Entrepreneurs Ireland Awards Program provides direct support to social entrepreneurs with a solution for a social or environmental problem in Ireland.

social entrepreneur irelandSocial Entrepreneurs Ireland is an organization that directly supports high potential social entrepreneurs by providing them with financial investment, education and networking locally, regionally and nationally throughout the island of Ireland. Since 2005, Social Entrepreneurs Ireland has provided support to 142 social entrepreneurs, directly investing over €3.7m into supporting these exceptional individuals.

Much like last year, Social Entrepreneurs Ireland will collect applications and go through a selection process to choose the eight social entrepreneurs that will take part in the Finalists Program.

The Finalists Program consists of a series of group and individual workshops with Social Entrepreneurs Ireland and external consultants to help them to define and explore their project purpose and goals. At the end of the Finalists’ Program, three finalists will be awarded a place on the Impact Program and five finalists will be awarded a place on the Elevator Program.

Applications are open until February 18, 2013 for people living in Ireland who meet the eligibility criteria.

 

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