RefMob is launching at the TechCrunch50 event today a service that allows business owners to make more noise about their paid referral programs online while at the same time giving more people the opportunity to earn bonuses for referring people using social networking apps.
RefMob enables people to share paid referrals that they know of for a variety of business categories, like bonuses for getting new apartment tenants or driving more job applications to a company looking to hire, instantly on Twitter and Facebook. The general idea is to let people leverage the tools they’re already using to keep in touch with each other for sharing referrals and consequently making arrangements for splitting the financial gains between them.
The big plus for companies is that they get an easy way to create a paid referral program online that they can easily distribute via their customer base, essentially magnifying the reach. They can easily measure the success of these programs in a handy dashboard and evaluate results for future programs.
Expert panel Q&A:
Q – Paul Graham: I like the idea, and I can see business getting excited about this. But which ones are you going to be able to convince?
A: We have found there are lots of small business owners who struggle with their social media strategy and we can help them. Companies who conduct business online are obviously a good match for our service.
Q – Marc Andreessen: What does a business do to get started?
A: They sign up, create a referral and distribute it to their customers by e-mail.
Q – Tony Hsieh: It seems unnatural friend behavior to institutionalize this type of thing?
A: Well they do work, although admittedly not in every industry. We just want to magnify the effect for those who it would work for.
Video:
Pictures:
Extra coverage:
RefMob Launches at TC50 to Revolutionize Word-of-Mouth Referral Programs” eMediaWire.
TC50: Refmob gives customers a slice of the referral market VentureBeat.
Paid refferal programs are great. There is a UK ISP here and there business model is baseiccly 90% refferal. They give you £0.25p equivlient to about $0.60c off your internet bill everytime someone signs up from you reffering them. This idea sounds like it could be good, the internet is full of affilaite marketing and shouting loud about piramid selling techniques. Hopefully it will go down well at TC50, great article Robin.
$0.6 is too little for a referral–>Sign up.
A marketplace for pushing Referrals. Good idea!.
Here’s a clean and crisp website. None of the over-the-top fancy distractions. Makes you want to take those referrals a bit more seriously, I have had at least five referrals that I never followed thru, but this could be a turning point. Great idea!
Would be even greater if I can find you on yelp or maybe you could think of a “Reviews+Referrals” model down the line…Adding a level of credibility too
Are there any competitors?
Let me answer that for you YES! ReferralVille.com
How does this manage the disclosure the FTC requires when you’re selling to your friends? I agree with Hsieh this isn’t natural behaviour, this company hopes to create that behaviour by paying. 100% spam.
How to prove your friend actually used your ad for his/her decision?
I am not sure how RefMob tracks the referrals, I do know that through the uRefer system we are able to track all referrals made online and reconcile these records for our clients. It gives those making and accepting referrals piece of mind knowing a 3rd party is tracking this activity and handling fulfillment.
We also work with our clients to drive off-line referrals and the means to track them.
If consumers realise going to a place like Yelp means they’re being sold to and tracked they’ll just stop going there. There’s a limit to how much you can spam to consumers before they stop going to the internet altogether. Have we reached that point already, does anyone still like the internet?
if hiush was self aware he’d realise he owes a lot to making people do unnatural things but i agree with him on this one, excommunicate from the human race anyone who does this to their friends
Great idea. We’re in the same space, with about a year head start. Our approach at uRefer is a little different than RefMob’s, though…although we have hundreds of small and medium-sized clients, we also have an enterprise referral program offering that has been very successful for large companies. Check our our website to see some of our clients (Scotts LawnService, DirectBuy, American Laser Centers, and others). If you are considering a referral program, you should make sure to put uRefer on your short list.
I only say this b/c I went down this road with a similar idea.
It’s one thing when a friend refers a friend with no expectation of compensation. It’s another thing when there’s compensation involved–is the referral good or is the referrer merely trying to profit? It seems like a subtle difference, but I think it adds a significant level of awkwardness. However, it is certainly possible to come up with something that reduces the awkwardness.