Ask and you shall receive.
Twitter co-founder Biz Stone launched his new app, Jelly, last week, offering a new way to search with pictures and people from your social networks. While there are already several question and answer apps for your smartphone, Jelly sets itself apart by letting you ask questions with images, and we all know that visuals are a hot button in the marketing world right now. Jelly’s name was inspired by a jellyfish, which has “a loose network of nerves that act as a ‘brain’ similar to the way we envision loosely distributed networks of people coordinating via Jelly to help each other,” Stone wrote in a blog.
Here’s how it works. Start by connecting your Twitter and Facebook accounts to Jelly. Then you’ll have the option of asking a question. As the instructions state, just point, shoot and ask. You can take a picture of anything and ask a question about it. For example, Mark Zuckerberg posted a picture of a spider in his bathroom last night and asked what kind of spider it was. You could use it while you’re out shopping to get an opinion on a pair of shoes or new shirt. The options are endless for the kinds of questions you can ask and crowdsource for answers. Once you take a picture, you also have the option to zoom and draw on it.
If you don’t have a question to ask but want to kill some time and help others, you can look through questions that other people have posted and offer your wisdom. As you can see below, a question will come up on your screen along with the answers that have already been given. You can scroll through the answers, rate them and offer your own opinion. Once you’re done, you simply swipe the image in a downwards motion and the next question appears.
While it’s nice to be able to crowdsource for answers, the Jelly app is very simple at this point in time. On the plus side, there is a 240 character limit, so it keeps answers short and to the point. But you can’t search through question categories and there isn’t any organization of questions and answers. It would be nice if there was a functionality in which you could tell Jelly your interests and then start to see more questions that you are knowledgeable about.
So as a business, how can you utilize this app to drive revenue? The answer lies in consumer feedback. Similar to my previous blog about crowdsourcing for content, businesses can use Jelly to find out what their consumers want out of their products or services. Post a photo of a new product and ask your audience what they think or what they would change. Find out how to connect with your audience and what they want simply by posting a picture with a question. The success of businesses utilizing the app will depend on how many people start using Jelly.
Have you downloaded Jelly? What do you think about the new app? Let us know in the comments section!
