Facebook is a Great Community

Craig — Mon, 28 Dec 2009 03:57:37 +0000

Since launching our Facebook Connect feature at InsurancePen, we have seen an increase in users without even placing much effort into the project. This is about to change.

We have demonstrated some advertising on Facebook and the community really responds well to be approached within the parameters of adding value to the network instead of just selling our products.

Since the idea of InsurancePen is to allow communities of insurance buyers to form together into a larger group to negotiate with better leverage, it fits well into what people see the Facebook and other communities doing for communications and other services.

We are convinced that there are great things happening on Facebook, and it isn’t from a tactical perspective. The positive changes that are organically grown from the social networking websites on the internet are truly transformational for all the right reasons.

The changes force commercial websites (including ours) to focus on what the user wants instead of just using the internet as a billboard to increase sales. This is a good thing, and I can hardly imagine a scenario that would put this genie “back in the bottle”.

Look for InsurancePen to continue building buying groups through popular and niche social networking platforms. We simply think it serves our users best by being there and creating what they want instead of what we may think is best.

It is unlikely that any one thing we do will be perfect, but we are enjoying the effort and are seeing great results from it. I believe the website visits are up over 200% just since adding this feature and continue to grow.

Getting Slower in My Old Age

Craig — Mon, 07 Dec 2009 01:45:24 +0000

Well, I made it through my first 5K at a leisurely pace. I was moderately satisfied with my time since I have just picked up running again, but what is up with this 38 year old running it in 16 minutes?

Male 35 to 39
Place Name City Bib No Age Overall Time Pace
1 Roman Krzyzanowski Plymouth MI 320 38 5 16:45.3 5:24/M
2 Craig Dolecki Redford MI 816 36 11 17:30.7 5:39/M
3 Rich Shearing Canton MI 574 35 60 20:54.1 6:45/M
4 Andrew Talby Northville MI 627 38 79 21:51.1 7:03/M
5 William Buckley Commerce Towns 88 38 101 22:44.3 7:20/M
6 Scott O'Rourke Highland MI 753 38 103 22:46.6 7:21/M
7 Jeff Shepherd Northville MI 580 37 143 23:57.4 7:44/M
8 Jayston Weitzel Madison H MI 675 35 225 26:19.6 8:29/M
9 Craig Deroche Novi MI 836 39 245 27:03.2 8:44/M
10 James Best Westland MI 49 37 283 27:47.3 8:58/M
11 Bruno Lombard Royal Oak MI 887 39 298 28:22.4 9:09/M
12 Winson Wang Farmington Hills M 664 39 316 29:04.2 9:23/M
13 Sam Baker West Bloomfield MI 28 36 328 29:17.0 9:27/M

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Craig DeRoche » Craig DeRoche

Facebook is a Great Community

Getting Slower in My Old Age