YouGottaCall.com: My Take on unimaginative B2C word-of-mouth start-ups

Saturday, March 18, 2006

My Take on unimaginative B2C word-of-mouth start-ups

Brannon also offers small businesses a unique advertising capability. For just $125, businesses get a unique ID to pass out to valued customers. Customers then log in and post comments about the service they received.

Each company receives 12 keywords for the search function, allowing customers to specialize. Also, each company Web page lists the company's site, contact information and rates the company based on customer referrals.

Original article byLaura Braverman as it appeared in the Cincinnati Business Courier.

My Take - There remains an obvious gap to be closed before this concept can become the perfect viral marketing engine! Contact me if you have some programming bandwidth or vc.

- - Your Frustrated Editor

Saturday March 18, 2006 - 01:45pm (EST)

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About YouGottaCall.com

YouGottaCall.com is a local and Web-based (Web 2.0) social network owned and operated by YouGottaCall.com, LLC, a Connecticut (USA) based corporation.

Purpose:
The purpose of YouGottaCall.com is three-fold:
1. to facilitate “word-of-mouth” referrals among consumers for the local businesses they trust
2. to increase sales revenues for trustworthy businesses
3. to benefit the not-for-profit organizations that are supported by the network members

Process:
YouGottaCall.com provides consumers with a means for
· connecting with their friends, neighbors and co-workers on an Internet-based social network (URL: http://www.yougottacall.com)
· associating with the local businesses they use and trust.
· designating a not-for-profit (501(c)3) organization to receive the funds that are generated from successful referrals

YouGottaCall.com provides businesses with a means for
connecting with their customers and neighbors encouraging more word-of-mouth sales leads rewarding their network of referrers

YouGottaCall.com provides not-for-profit organizations with a means for connecting with their network of supporters
generating recurring development funds from the word-of-mouth referrals activities that their supporters are already conducting

Payments
Membership in the YouGottaCall.com network is free.

In addition to registering themselves as “consumer Members”, Members may also register as either
· Business Members – if they are business owners or sales representatives. Business Members may set the amount of the voluntary reward they will pay to the network when they receive new business as a result of a network referral; or
· Not-for-Profit Members – if they are employed by a 501(c)3 non-profit organization. Not-for-Profit Members may invite their supporters to join the network and designate their organization to receive the funs generated by network referrals to Business Members.

There are no charges for usage of the network by Members to locate or contact businesses. Registration is required to view details of Business Members. Registration information is kept confidential per the terms of service.
· Business Member’s voluntary payments for successful referrals are distributed to the Members involved in the referral.
· A percentage is also credited to the accounts of the other Members who invited these Members into the network.
· YouGottaCall.com,LLC retains a percentage of these payments as its operating revenue.

History
The idea for a web-based network connecting consumers with businesses was conceived by Tim Tracey in 2005. The system’s design was developed over the course of two years.

The goal of the YouGottaCall.com is to “turn local advertising upside down and inside out”. “Upside down” because businesses only pay for advertising after it has been effective – not before. “Inside out” because businesses pay the advertising fee to their neighbors and satisfied customers who brought them the qualified sales lead – not to a third party publisher.

The mission of YouGottaCall.com is “Rewarding the community by empowering trusted relationships.”

An “intrinsic revenue” model was part of the original concept. The incorporation of Not-for-Profit Members as a separate class of membership and the designated recipients of earned rewards resulted from market research. Research showed a reluctance of prospective members to refer a friend to a trusted business if they were to receive a financial reward.

The donation of such funds to a “cause” (i.e. a registered not-for-profit organization) was shown to alleviate this reluctance. Further research showed that affiliation with favorite not-for-profits was a positive factor for the use of the network to share word-of-mouth referrals.

YouGottaCall.com, LLC was incorporated in August of 2007. Foresite Technologies, LLC of East Hartford, CT was selected in September 2007 to develop and host YouGottaCall’s software. Mike Giuffrida, Ben Sweet and the Foresite team have been valuable and creative resources in the progress the network has achieved.

The beta site was launched in January 2008. Since then, the software has been operating in production mode limited to Members, Businesses and Not-for-Profits in Central Connecticut. There are (as of June 2009) 233 Members including over 125 Business Members.

Similar Services:
Other Web-based services offer local and/or search functionality. None offer the combination of social, local, affiliate, not-for-profit features which comprise YouGottaCall.com’s process. These include:
Facebook (www.facebook.com)
LinkedIn (www.linkedin.com)
On Line Yellow Pages (various)
Google (www.google.com)
Angie’s List (www.angieslist.com)
Craigslist (www.craigslist.com)
Yelp (www.yelp.com)

(see chart)

Future Developments:
Several non-profit organizations in greater-Hartford are on our test committee.
The proof of this concept will be in the viral, exponential growth of the network’s Members and utilization.
Integration of YouGottaCall’s functions into other social networks using their API is planned. E-commerce development featuring electronic payment and full reporting of the status of all membership development, referrals and donations is slated prior to completion of the test market stage.

Roll-out is planned on a metropolitan region-by-region basis.

Intellectual Property:
A non-provisional business process patent application was filed on YouGottaCall.com, LLC’s unique system for supporting word-of-mouth referrals and rewards with the USPTO in December of 2008.

More information:
Corporate blog:
http://www.yougottacall.blogspot.com/
Corporate address:
YouGottaCall.com, LLC
40 Chapel Road Suite M
South Windsor, CT 06074
Email: support@yougottacall.com

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Saturday, March 18, 2006

My Take on unimaginative B2C word-of-mouth start-ups

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My Take on unimaginative B2C word-of-mouth start-ups

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