- Social Media check in service
- Check in to Books, TV Shows, Sports Programs, Movies, Music, Video Games, and … Thinking about Celebrities and Topics.
What’s the Hook?
- Earn Stickers (badges)
- Earn enough virtual stickers and get a real sticker
- Recommendations based on your connections’ interests and your interests
- You can become a “guru”
Pros
- One stop media check in service
- Hey, you get real stickers!
- Social aspect of talking about the media you consume with others
- Connect to other Social Media networks (Facebook, Twitter)
Cons
- Recommendation system is HORRIBLE!
- You can’t check in to specific TV episodes
- Security via mobile app is nil, and hard to understand via the online UI
Review
I’ve been using this mobile app for 3 months now. What initally drew me in was the idea of getting a real sticker when you accumulate enough fake stickers. I gotta admit, I’m a sucker for swag.
First, from a branding perspective that name is horrible. But, the features more than make up for the name. Most other social media check in apps just stick to one thing. Miso, for example, just does TV and Movies. GetGlue lets you check in to Movies, TV, Books, Games, Wine, Music, Chatting about a celeb, or thinking about a topic. Ok, those last two are kind of lame, but …
If you interact enough with these, you earn stickers. A sticker is the GetGlue equivalent of a badge. This is what drew me in. If you collect 20 stickers, you can then order a free sticker of your choice. Many of the stickers are branded, which is cool.
Last but not least is the ability to become a Guru. These are people that have proven to especially passionate about certain media types. Other than being able to edit content on GetGlue, I’m not sure what Guru status advantages are.
You can also connect to Twitter or Facebook, or subscribe to friends activity.
So that’s all the good stuff.
The bad part is there is absolutely zero security in the iPhone app. Anyone can see that you are watching, or playing, or thinking anything that you post. I don’t want the world to know all of that about me. As a matter of fact, I’m probably more inclined to open up honestly about my likes and dislikes if I’m only talking to an approved group of friends. Of course you can change your settings, but that’s not all it’s cracked up to be. Even if you change your security settings, it’s hard to tell if people can see your profile or not.
There are a few things that I’d like to see from Getglue. First and foremost is beefier profile security. That’s a given. I’d also like to see more granular checkins. Like checking into a specific episode, or a chapter in a book for example. This would spur so much more conversation, and isn’t that what Social Media is about anyway?
As a digital marketer, this network is great for branding. I’m sure on the back end one see how many users checked in to content or earned a badge. But what is this really worth? Is there a correlation between checking in somewhere or earning a badge and brands making more money? Let’s face it. At the end of the day, companies are in business to make money.
I’ll keep my eye on GetGlue. It’s a great idea, and I give it a social media grade of B+, but I am curious how they plan to monetize.
About Pan Galactic
Pan Galactic is an SEO Agency in St. Louis, Missouri. We also serve many clients as their primary Social Media Marketing firm.
We are renaissance Search Marketers who also have experience in email marketing, display advertising, and paid search. This broad background enables us to create unified strategies for brands across all digital channels and use data from one channel to inform decisions in another. Our past work runs the gamut from small, local businesses to household brand names like Dell Computers, Shasta, Purina, Botox, Columbia Sportswear, Kotex, and Coach.
Pan Galactic has cultivated relationships with the major search engines and Social Networks. Our staff has been a beta tester for the Bing interface, Google’s Agency Land Search Marketing education portal, as well as numerous social media analytics platforms. We are also certified in the use of Google’s Adwords PPC marketing program, Google Analytics, and proficient with paid advertising on various Social Media networks.
Because of our experience with digital marketing, Pan Galactic’s staff has been asked to speak at several local conferences and has been asked to blog for Searchfuel, Trada, Hubspot, Social Fresh, and Marketing Profs.