Posts Tagged ‘Social network’

Now that the holidays are upon us, we can begin to think of the perfect gift for our family gift exchange. You know the gift swap party; the one where you open gifts and steal the gifts from one another while having a great time together.

Some call them a White Elephant Gift Exchange, or a Yankee Swap, or a Dirty Santa. No matter what it is called in your family, you can now access and play a new online version of the party game called AlbinoPhant.

AlbinoPhant is just like the traditional gift swap party, only it can be played from any Internet connection. This means that family members or friends from all across the country can join the party with no travel involved. That will be helpful for tight family budgets this year.

The online white elephant party allows families to stay connected and share gifts with each other in a lively atmosphere of fun and games.  With the enhanced sharing tools on the web, the online version allows more expressive conversation than ever before. A steady stream of AlbinoPhant comments allows party participants the opportunity to post YouTube videos and images to assist in participating in the fun. There are even opportunities to share some of the conversation outside of the party in other social networks, allowing the party atmosphere to spill over to other corners of the web.

These social events are some of the most popular gathering and gift-giving activities in the US and Canada.  Sharing gifts from these parties saves family members on the volume of gifts purchased during the holidays. The online party combines e-shopping and gift sharing in one place, thereby reducing shopping travel as well. At the end of each party, the real gift you get is delivered to each individual’s door.

The online gift exchange is a labor of love by the Christensen family. They have used the online gift swap to stay connected with their scattered family members for several years. Sarah Christensen, a mother of five and grandmother of seven shares her love of the game by commenting, “When our youngest left home three years ago, we missed our family gift exchange party so much we started doing our party online.” And Bruce Christensen added this comment, “We visited more in 19-days while we were playing than we do all year, because of this party”. Their entire family loves this game and is thrilled to share it with others at this time.

The Christensen’s hired a team of Facebook developers and other web professionals to take their simple family party and turn it into a fully operational Facebook application.

Your family may not be descendants of any famous outlaws, but they can give gift thievery and lively banter a new home on the Internet this holiday season by playing AlbinoPhant on your computer.

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PartyWeDo
The AlbinoPhant Creators
Your Party 2.0 Specialists

Social networks are very engaging walkways through today’s web experience.

The question we continue to ask is:  How much more engagement could you yield when you add extra FUN along the way? Would people stay longer or return more often, if a smile came to their face during each visit?

We like to think that transforming a social site into a fun party game, would increase engagement. This is the reason that we are sharing a holiday party that revolves around fun this season.

Volkswagen is also helping us prove this point with a project they have titled the Fun Theory.  Pete Cashmere reported more details on this project for Mashable where he wrote:

Among the experiments: does turning a set of subway stairs into a real-life piano encourage people to use them (answer: yes, 66% more). Another experiment asks whether making a trash can sound like a 50ft-deep well will make people pick up their trash.

Both of these experiments in engagement demonstrate the value of FUN to get people more involved.  More fun does indeed add to more participation.

Volkswagen and their agency have created a very viral video campaign, but they have also helped to demonstrate how online party games will add to regular social engagement. Web users traveling the trails and climbing the stairs of social networks will find themselves more engaged when there is fun involved.

Time will tell whether the AlbinoPhant online white elephant party will prove that fun equals higher engagement in social spaces. But if it does, then many other fun party activities will find their way onto the pages of Facebook, Twitter and the other social sidewalks on which we travel.

Thanks to Volkswagen and their agency DDB Stockholm for these videos and test results. We will share a couple of these for your entertainment and education… Enjoy the extra engagement this video FUN will offer:

The Fun Stairs Experiment
The Deep Trash Can Fun Test

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PartyWeDo
The AlbinoPhant Creators
Your Party 2.0 Specialists

The kitchen has always been the gathering spot for friendly and relaxed conversations. You would think that the living room would be the spot for the gathering, but friends generally end up in the kitchen to be closer to the host.

Kaila Colbin wrote an insightful piece for media post this week where she allegorizes that the social web is like these two rooms of a home.

She suggests that a party setting finds friends gravitating to the kitchen rather than the living room.

She also suggests, and we agree, that web interactions are more efficient and effective when we are in the right social room. In other words, if the Kitchen is where your group wants to gather, then you should forget decorating the living room and focus on socializing near the sink!

AlbinoPhant is an online party that relies on the web for its platform and its very existence. It has become apparent to us that our users are in the Facebook kitchen and we need to be pulling up a stool in the middle of the action.

AllFacebook blogger Nick O’Neill suggested that “Facebook is increasingly becoming a place for families” as he wrote about some of the family applications that have also parked in the Facebook kitchen.

The online white elephant gift party is built to join family and friends to share gifts in a social setting. The Facebook cooks have mixed in all the ingredients for these sharing activities for our target audience, so we have chosen to dine at their table.

The fact that Facebook is currently testing gift sales is further evidence to us that our party is sitting in the right room.

Thanks to Willow Decor for the image.

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PartyWeDo
The AlbinoPhant Creators
Your Party 2.0 Specialists