Press Room

1to1 Weekly Magazine - Sears Builds Social Loyalty

 
By Jeremy Nedelaka

1to1 Magazine's Jeremy Nedelka wrote a great article highlighting Sears' strategy behind the MySearsand MyKmart communiites in today's 1to1 Weekly. He talks about how their keen focus on engaging their customers and creating an opportunity for dialogue is why Sears' communiites will survive where so many others have failed.

From the article: Online communities are notoriously hit-or-miss, for a variety of reasons. The lack of engaging features or personalization, no sense of belonging, or too much promotion are just some of the reasons customers visit sites once and never return. Sears created its communities with an emphasis on engagement, recognition, and dialogue to avoid joining the list of orphaned online retail communities.

"The genesis for us was that we need to get to know our customers better, so we wanted to get people talking [to] better understand their motivations," says Rob Harles, Sears Holding Corp's vice president of community. "We didn't really do any promotion; we used our online point of sale to tell customers about the site and ask for their feedback."

The MySears.comand MyKmart.com communities contain customer reviews, discussion boards, consumer guides, and access to coupons. The sites, powered by Viewpoints Network, have 330,000 registered members and attract 1.3 million monthly visitors, more than half of whom come from organic search, according to Harles.

October 26, 2009

Read the entire article

Illinois Technology Association Interviews Matt Moog

This week the Illinois Technology Associated (ITA) featured Viewpoints in their monthly newsletter. Check out an exerpt from the Q&A interview below.     ITA Member Q&A: Viewpoints Network

Illinois Technology Association: In 10 words or less, what problem does Viewpoints solve for your clients? Matt Moog: Viewpoints companies engage with their customers using social technology. ITA: What motivated you to join (or start-up) Viewpoints? What is the origin of the name? MM: The social web and search are two macro trends that are driving how people use the Internet to make decisions.  They use search to find the exact information they are looking for and they rely on the advice of people like them to help them make informed decisions.  By providing a social platform for reviews, blogs, discussion forums, answers all organized around product catalogs and business directories Viewpoints is able to fulfill its mission of helping consumers make smarter decisions. ITA: How does Viewpoints differentiate from its competitors? MM: The Viewpoints Technology Platform powers both Viewpoints.com and other private label communities for our customers. We compete both in the consumer internet space against other review sites such as Yelp, TripAdvisor, CNet and Consumer Reports.   In the consumer market we have a more social platform that also covers the broadest range of categories.  In our business to business service, we are the only provider who combines reviews with a social/community platform and a very strong search engine optimization toolset.  We compete with companies such as BazaarVoice, PowerReviews, Pluck and Lithium. Read the complete interview.

BizReport covers Viewpoints In-line Integration news

Viewpoints Technology Integrates Community, Ecommerce by Kristina Knight

Nice coverage by Kristina Knight from BizReport.com of our new inline integration announcement that we made this week at the 2009 shop.org Annual Conference in Vegas.

 Here's a quick snippet: If you're looking for another way to engage consumers with brand, consider integrating a community site with your existing ecommerce site. Too hard? A new platform from Viewpoints Technology helps brands integrate community with ecommerce so that consumers receive a more seamless user experience.

Read the full story here

Entrepreneur.com reviews Viewpoints.com

Another good review of Viewpoints... my favorite quote:

"When I review resorts on TripAdvisor, I always look for recent reviews from people who are from New York. Why? Because I’m from New York and I know New Yorkers have a reputation for never settling for less than stellar treatment. So, I automatically place less weight on a review written by someone in Montana than I do on one written by someone in New York. (Yes, the person in Montana could be from New York, but we’re not going there today, ok?)

That’s what Viewpoints.com does automatically. It let’s you read reviews from people who have things in common with you (or not, if that’s your preference) so that you can really get the full scoop from someone who shares your same situation, preferences and even values. Who knew!?"

Mashable - The Social Networking Blog Weighs In

Mashable, a well read blog that focuses on Social Networking recently did a quick write up about the official launch of Viewpoints.com and commented on our relationship with Orbitz. Click here to read the full post.

A few of my favorite quotes are:

Viewpoints has built up a significant amount of information on its users, as it asks for things like a two-word description of yourself when you leave reviews. This amassed data has contributed to one of Viewpoints’ major upgrades that’s being announced with this release–its improved search engine and filtering options. You can search for reviews based on the type of user you’d like to find. So if that type of user happens to be a fanciful, garden-loving finance expert, you’re more likely to find the type of person that could offer you the most valuable reviews. This all ties into Viewpoints’ existing system of tracking points (tips) left on the site, a user’s trust score, etc.

And also this one:

Viewpoints biggest announcement however, is its partnership with Orbitz. Now Orbitz hotel reviews will be syndicated on Viewpoints , offering you access to nearly 20,000 hotels, directly through this peer-review site

Review of Viewpoints on Read/WriteWeb

Probably the most thorough review of Viewpoints.com to date.  I appreciate that Phil took the time to really use the site and read many of the reviews.   I think he makes some good points about both our strengths and weaknesses.   I agree with most of his points except perhaps the need for more Web 2.0 bling.  I will have to ask him exactly what he had in mind.  All in all, though a fair and balanced post.  I look forward to revisiting our progress with him in another six months to get his take.

KillerStartups.com Write Up

Nice write up today from KillerStartups.com

My favorite quote:

"There are plenty of product review sites out there, but none of them seem to approach the subject with personality. ViewPoints is all about that which is a good idea if you think about it. Most reviews sites don’t delve into the personality of the reviewers so you really can’t tell if he or she is giving a fair or even true review. With ViewPoints readers get a better idea of products specifically because they can get to know the reviewer. "

Read the entire write up here:

http://www.killerstartups.com/UserGen.Content/viewpoints--Product-Reviews-With-Personality/

Dow Jones Venture Wire

Viewpoints Brings In $5M For Review Site

By Ty McMahan 6/19/2007

Viewpoints Network LLC has closed a $5 million round of funding for a new product rating and review site. The investor group for the Series A round includes the Illinois Innovation Accelerator Fund, a new public/private venture capital fund. The $200,000 investment from the fund adds to $4.8 million that was raised in September. In addition to the Illinois Innovation investment, other Series A backers include Joe Mansueto, founder and chief executive of Morningstar Inc.; Michael Alter, president of The Alter Group; Matt McCall, co-founder and managing director of Draper Fisher Jurvetson affiliate Portage Venture Partners; Lon Chow, general partner with Apex Venture Partners; and J.B. Pritzker, founder and partner of New World Ventures and CEO of the Pritzker Group.

Red Herring - Series A

A nice write up today in Red Herring about the announcement that we closed our Series A.  It was clear from the interview that Adena thought we were "just another" ratings and reviews site.  Given how many start ups she must see, I don't blame her.  I have to say when people don't immediately see the difference in our approach vs other review sites it makes me want to work harder at both delivering on our brand promise and articulating our message.   Thanks for the motivation Adena! 

I will say that if I learned one thing while spending 10 years at CoolSavings it was that competitors come and go.  Some will fail.  Some will scrape by and others will explode.  We can't spend all of our time worrying about what the other team is doing.  If we execute and deliver a great experience to our users, everything else will fall into place.

One correction from this article.  We were founded in August of 2006, not October of 2005 as the article states.

Download red_herring_viewpoints_series_a.pdf

Internet Retailer Article

Nice article today about Viewpoints in Internet Retailer. 

Site shines light on product reviews and reviewers

With what are now nearly 700 categories of review, the recently launched Viewpoints.com is aiming to be the most comprehensive “citizen review” resource on the Internet, CEO Matt Moog tells Internet Retailer.

Moog, the former CEO of Q Interactive, originally known as CoolSavings, acknowledges that many retailers now support customer product reviews and ratings on their own sites. Moog differentiates Viewpoint.com from such retailer-hosted reviews as a stand-alone destination and one that shines as much light on the reviewer as the review does on the products.

Download internetretailer.com - Daily News for Friday, June 15, 2007.pdf