Hat tip to Rentwiki for for this lead:
To preface: After twitterrank filtered through the Twittterverse yesterday, I was a bit gun shy about sharing any personal information relative to my SM sites. ilist asks for private information for every one of your SM sites and you can only imagine what went through my head.
I did proceed despite my angst. The following came right from their website and it appears to me the multifamily space may have another avenue for marketing. Not only that, the market will very tightnit and focused. My question is, will that market feel invaded upon?
About iList
iList is a free social classifieds service with an emphasis upon ease
of use, openness, authenticity and clean design. iList lets you use
the power of your social networks to spread your listing quickly,
giving you the ability to cross-post your listings to common services
such as Facebook, MySpace, Twitter, Craigslist and more. Also, listers
on iList use their social network accounts or mobile phones to
reinforce their authenticity, avoiding spammers that plague other
classifieds systems. If you‘re a developer geek, we‘re
avid supporters of data portability — we have a full, REST-ful
Developer API that
developers can use to interact with iList data.
0 Responses
“Will that market feel invaded upon?” – When I first realized that linking to Social Networks required my UN and pass, I asked the same thing. But, after getting Google Alerts on Craigslist for the past few months I’ve been overwhelmed by the amount of crimes/scams this feature would have stopped. Also, I wonder if increasing familiarity of App. use that requires users to share this information will make more people comfortable over time.
Brad – Thank you for taking the time to comment. I think that as long as increasing the familiarity of the App. is based 100% on users experience and testimony then the answer is yes. That is not to mention that there is a permission mechanism built in. An opt out button if you will.
The thought behind the invasion comment is this; everyday we are bombarded with sales messages. They are everywhere and I do mean everywhere. I think sometimes people just like to go somewhere and have a great conversation without something or someone pushing a sale. They just want to be. They just want to share stories. They just want to dream together. The thought of a trusted friend being the producer of the sales message or product might be perceived as an invasion of that needed/wanted isolation. It’s like having your best friend pitching the latest and greatest MLM on you in the middle of great hot-toddy. It may undermine the very fabric of what makes a social platform viable.
Now, I think it would be fair to ask; what is the difference between a stranger selling you and your friend selling you. Some would suggest the friendship works from a foundation of trust and thus a sale is both an assumed need and a gained benefit. Now others would suggest that that trust is the very reason why you don’t don’t wander down that path. I think a lot of platforms are initially designed with the latter thought in mind and then marketers and advertisers see the embedded opportunity of an audience. I personally do it all the time.
All that said, I am curious to see how it works.