Press Release
Social Application Unites Art Lovers across Facebook and E-commerce Site Using Ringside Social Application Platform
Fulcrum Gallery “What is Art?” Facebook application highlights the potential for new revenue streams via Facebook and its own site
Web 2.0 Expo — SAN FRANCISCO and PHILADELPHIA — April 22, 2008 — Harnessing the power of social networking for businesses of all sizes, Ringside Networks, Inc. today announced that customer, Fulcrum Gallery (www.fulcrumgallery.com) has deployed a new social application for art enthusiasts on its own website as well as Facebook, using the Ringside Social Application Server™. As one of the first e-commerce website deployments of the Ringside Social Application Server in less than a month of Beta Testing, Fulcrum Galley is well-positioned to broaden its customer footprint and generate new revenue streams.
The applications are deployed on Fulcrum Gallery at: http://www.fulcrumgallery.com/ArtInterpretation.aspx# and on Facebook at: http://apps.facebook.com/what_is_art/
Doug Kerwin, CEO of Fulcrum Gallery, said, “We have made huge investments in search advertising over the past two years, spending over $1 Million last year alone. We think of social networking as a way for our existing customers to become more engaged and to serve as a source of word-of-mouth referrals. We also see Facebook as a way of extending beyond our own customer base to target a high growth market of college and post-collegiate customers. One of the things that attracts us to this is the fact it does not involve an ongoing per-click cost to our business.”
“What Is Art?” Social Application
Fulcrum Gallery has created a custom social application with the Ringside Social Application Server called “Abstract Art Interpretation of the Week,” or “What Is Art?” for short. The application takes advantage of Ringside’s Facebook compatibility and interoperability, and is running on both Facebook and on www.fulcrumgallery.com. It highlights a selected piece of abstract art and allows users in both Facebook and the Fulcrum Gallery websites to comment. These comments are posted on users’ feeds to friends, inviting them to add comments and rate comments. Fulcrum Gallery is offering weekly incentives for the most popular comments.
“Deploying this application into our existing e-commerce infrastructure was very simple. Ringside provides a widget interface that we were able to plug right into our website with simple HTML tagging,” said Rich Sbarro, chief technology officer at Fulcrum Gallery. “And the fact that we are collecting the comments and ratings that people are contributing on both our website and Facebook gives us very valuable insight and helps us from a Search Engine Optimization perspective.”
Future Directions
Today, Fulcrum Gallery has tens of thousands of customers. The first goal is to engage those customers more, driving incremental sales. The second goal is using the social aspect of referrals to drive new buyers to the site.
Fulcrum will be measuring the effectiveness of this initial social application. “We feel that we only need to see a 1% successful referral rate over the next six months to justify a significant set of additional investments in social networking,” explained Kerwin. “There are a number of programs we could develop, such as creating simple ways for interior designers to collaborate with their customers on selecting the right artwork for their homes or businesses.”
The Ringside Networks open source software is available for immediate download at www.ringsidenetworks.com and www.ringsidenetworks.org, the corresponding open source community website.
For more information about Ringside Networks, please visit www.ringsidenetworks.com. For timely updates on Ringside Networks news and commentary, please subscribe to an RSS Feed at http://bobbickel.blogspot.com/.
Resources
Fulcrum Gallery: http://www.fulcrumgallery.com/ArtInterpretation.aspx#
Facebook App Link: http://apps.facebook.com/what_is_art/
Ringside Social Application Server launch news release: Ringside Networks Brings the Power of Social Networking to Every Business http://www.ringsidenetworks.com/about/news/prarchive/2008/ringside_launch.html
Ringside Networks artwork/graphs:
http://www.ringsidenetworks.com/Products/images/2008March/FB-RingsideIntegrated.png
http://www.ringsidenetworks.com/Products/images/2008March/RingsideArchitecture.png
Ringside Networks datasheet: http://www.ringsidenetworks.com/Products/RingsideDatasheet.pdf
Logo – Long: http://www.ringsidenetworks.com/Products/images/2008March/logo-long.jpg
Logo – Square: http://www.ringsidenetworks.com/Products/images/2008March/logo-square.jpg
About Ringside Networks
Ringside Networks, Inc. provides the industry’s first Social Application Server, allowing any website to harness the power of social networking. The free and open source platform is designed for companies to enable their global communities to interact and communicate like never before. Funded by Matrix Partners, the private company was founded in 2007 in Marlton, New Jersey by former executives and developers from Bluestone Software and JBoss. For more information, please visit the website at www.ringsidenetworks.com.
Ringside Social Application Server is a trademark of Ringside Networks. All other names, brands, or products may be trademarks or registered trademarks of their respective owners.
Contact:
Bob Bickel
Ringside Networks
+1 609-410-5056
bob.bickel@ringsidenetworks.com