Go Sportn

GoFISHn is the social marketing sweetspot

According to a survey just out from the Society of Digital Agencies, the top priority in 2010 at digital firms is social networks and applications. That helps explain the fast growth of Facebook's advertising revenue as well as all the interest we're seeing in GoFISHn.

GoFISHn comes at the social marketing opportunity from two directions: brand advertisers, like gear makers,  can reach consumers through both brand advertising and participation in the community, and small businesses, like  guides and charter operators, can stay in touch with their existing customers on GoFISHn (as well as Facebook and Twitter)  and greatly improve their chances of finding new customers in Google.

The confluence of those ideas makes GoFISHn a stunning platform at the right time for the sport fishing industry.

The GoFISHn screencast

Announcing GoFISHn Maps

When we set out to create GoFISHn, we decided to puts maps at the heart of all we do because fishing is so much about "place" -- Where the fish are, where the holes and shoals are, where the boat is, and most of all, where we caught the big one.

So we created the update type "map," which allowed our members to create, annotate and publish a map on its own. And in the annotations -- the "markers" -- we made it possible to add text, links and images.

In addition, we added a map to all other update types, including reports, photo galleries, videos, answers, personal bests and so on. We've been really happy to see that the majority of GoFISHn members are attaching maps to their updates.

We also added maps on the relevant GoFISHn Encyclopedia pages, whether that's a country or state, a harbor or lake.

And we were careful to get the location of our members, whether they are businesses or anglers, so we can put them on GoFISHn Maps too.

You get the idea: we know a lot about "places" on GoFISHn, and GoFISHn Maps is the final step: We take all that map data from all our members and our GoFISHn encyclopedia and show it on GoFISHn Maps.

You can sort the information according to what you want to see -- professionals, anglers, updates (photos, reports, video, personal bests), encyclopedia pages, and answers.

Each marker on the map contains a link to the associated GoFISHn page. 

And maps can be viewed in three modes -- Satellite (my favorite), Map and Terrain. (More below)

We get GoFISHn visitors to GoFISHn Maps  in a variety of ways.

First, there is the GoFISHn Directory, where we give visitors the option to search for members and businesses by either conventional-word-based search or by map.

  

 

Second, on all encyclopedia pages with a map illustration, we include a link "Explore Map" that takes you to the GoFISHn Map for that same area that shows all the GoFISHn markers.

 

Third, when a member creates a map in an update, we include a link "Updates Nearby" that takes the user to a map showing all our information corresponding to the map in the update.

That's our story in maps! We're happy that we got a little nod for our efforts from Google Maps Mania, one of the most popular Google Maps blogs. The technical work here to integrate Google Maps and our own data is no small deal, and we're really grateful to our outstanding tech team at Kaverisoft.

Results from our GoFISHn member survey

Two weeks ago we sent out a survey to get feedback on basic questions. We got a strong response, and here are highlights of the results.

In our general survey we asked how people first heard about GoFISHn, and more than half credited Facebook, and another 22% heard via "word of mouth." Those 5000 fans on Facebook are great!

We also asked if people a) had any difficulty signing up or b) had problems with the performance (load time etc.) on the site. In both cases, the strong majority said we were doing just fine. That was a big relief to us because it's common for complex new sites like ours to suffer from slow load times.

We asked people about their favorite features on GoFISHn, and the top four were:

• Reading fishing reports
• Reading gear reviews
• Browsing photo and video galleries
• Researching guides and trips

We asked how often people expected to visit the site and those answers were really encouraging: 40% said weekly or daily, and another 16% said at least monthly.  For a site in such early innings, this is a great response.

We asked our business members some slightly different questions, including what most appealed to them about their profile on GoFISHn. The top items, in rank order:

• Self-publishing (I think a lot of businesses are tired of waiting on their webmaster.)
• Strong Google optimization
• Placement of their business and updates on many pages across GoFISHn
• Customer recommendations
• Integration with Facebook and Twitter.

We also asked our business members to rank new features we're planning, and their top pick was a page where they could see their stats for pageviews, visitors and so on. We're on it, and lots more besides.

Thanks for taking the time to take the survey. It will help us make GoFISHn better.

Announcing GoFISHn Widgets -- What are they? Where do I get mine?

You make the effort to post updates -- photos, fishing reports, video -- and GoFISHn makes sure those updates get seen all across GoFISHn, on Facebook and Twitter, and in search engines like Google.

Now GoFISHn also makes it possible to show your GoFISHn updates on blogs and websites anywhere on the Web thanks to GoFISHn Widgets.

What are GoFISHn Widgets? Think of a widget as a small, self-updating billboard that displays  content and links from your GoFISHn profile on another website or blog.  Below are the widgets now available to every registered member on GoFISHn. The first contains links to the latest updates you've generated in your profile. The second contains links to your latest photos. The third is a widget "badge" that carries a simple link to your profile.

The GoFIShn Photo Widget

 

The GoFISHn Feed Widget                                The  GoFISHn Badge
 

How do GoFISHn Widgets work?

You don't really need to know the technical stuff, but here's the idea: They are snippets of HTML code that get automatically updated from your profile on GoFISHn.

How do I get my GoFISHn Widgets? 

Log in to your profile on GoFISHn. On your profile main page, click on the yellow "edit profile" button. 

On the left side of the next page click on the  link "Gofishn Widgets."

On the next page, you'll see your two widgets and the badge, instructions on how to deploy them on blogs and websites,  and the snippets of code you need. For most blogs and websites, it's takes about five minutes for a mildly techno-capable person to put the widget in place. If that's a problem, drop us a line at info@gofishn.com and we'll help you out.

Where can I put my GoFISHn Widget?

You can put your GoFISHn Widgets on virtually any website or blog where you have permission to do so. If you have a blog or Website,  please add your GoFISHn Widget. You can also ask friends to add your GoFISHn widget to their blogs and Websites too. The more exposure your GoFISHn Widget gets, the more folks will know about your fishing adventures and your business -- if you are a GoFISHn pro/business member.

What's the benefit of a GoFISHn Widget? 

If you are a GoFISHn Angler, it's a fun way to show off your GoFISHn updates. If you are a GoFISHn Pro/business, the GoFISHn widget helps in three important ways.

First, it helps existing customers follow your GoFISHn updates and increases the chances that a new customer might find you.

Second, It helps your performance in Google's search results by creating more in-bound links to your GoFISHn profile.

Third, you can make money from folks who click on your widget and create accounts on GoFISHn. Click here to learn more.

What if I need help?

If you need help, drop us a line at info@gofishn.com and we'll help you get the GoFISHn Widget in place.

GoFISHn reaches 1000 registered users in a month

 
GoFISHn launched December 5, and mid afternoon January 4 we saw our 1000th user register. The event occasioned a press release, which you can see here. Mr. 1000 was Philip Oursien from New Brunswick, Canada. Related numbers: 11,400 unique visitors during that same time period, and we reached 4.500 fans on our Facebook Page that same day. Would that the numbers were always so tidy. Happy New Year!