[promoted] FlipNpik’s Social Media Model: Boosting Incentives for Local Promotions

<br /><br /> <br /><br /> <br /><br /><br /><br /><br /><br /><br /><br /><br />Launched in 2009, the social networking<br />app Foursquare was hailed as providing a cutting-edge approach for users to<br />share their location with friends. Called a “check-in,” people would reveal<br />their location through their mobile device by selecting the venue they were<br />frequenting at that time.<br /><br />The app grew immensely popular as users<br />around the world accumulated points for spending time at their favorite<br />retailers, restaurants, nightclubs, libraries or other venues. But the excitement around<br />this movement soon abated as users began to realize that there was no utility<br />around the points they had collected.<br /><br />Now there’s a<br />startup called FlipNpik that’s offering a new approach to this idea. This collaborative<br />social media platform, dedicated to local businesses and connected to<br />blockchain technology, allows users to monetize their social media engagement<br />through a decentralized network where value is created and equitably<br />distributed among FlipNpik’s community.<br /><br />Major drivers<br />behind the company’s creation were concerns on the part of small- to<br />medium-sized businesses, particularly local ones, regarding the dominance of<br />major advertising players like Facebook offering few promotional options to<br />small enterprises with a limited budget. Predicated on the cultivation of<br />mutually beneficial relationships, FlipNpik provides a robust setting for small<br />businesses and community users to actively engage with one another in<br />productive commerce.<br /><br />Fostering a<br />Two-Way Partnership<br /><br />Through the use<br />of FlipNpik’s creatively designed platform, businesses are able to obtain<br />visibility and promotional buzz through the use of tools that allow them to<br />compete with much larger advertising chains that have budgets that give them a<br />major strategic advantage. <br /><br />Consumers, by way<br />of FlipNpiks’ participatory model, are able to tap into monetary incentives<br />tied to their social media posts that show support for their favorite places.<br />These users can also participate in various other incentive-based activities<br />such as adding new businesses to the app or by becoming an “Ambassador<br />Partner.”<br /><br />In return for<br />these activities, active users receive Flip Social, a reward system designed to<br />attract and retain users of the platform through various incentives and<br />promotions. Users can either use their Flip Social to get promotions, to play<br />on the app or can convert it into the FlipNpik token. If they wish to have more<br />active roles and serve a specific business, they can also become “Ambassador<br />Partners” and gain 20 percent of the business spending on the app. <br /><br />FlipNpik’s<br />efforts to promote the democratization, collaboration and fair and<br />equitable sharing of value creation with its community are fueled by “The<br />FlipNpik” (FNP), a utility token, distributed and identified on the<br />blockchain-based financial platform Stellar. Company leaders believe that<br />Stellar is ideal for its project, given the platform’s ability to support high-volume<br />microtransactions cost effectively and at high speeds.<br /><br />Flipping the<br />Page to the Journey Ahead<br /><br />FlipNpik, which<br />has operated in Canada since 2016 and in Europe since 2017, has witnessed a<br />steady trajectory in the development of its model. Unlike scores of blockchain<br />projects still in conceptual development, FlipNpik already has a viable<br />product. The FlipNpik mobile app is available on iOS and Android, and its<br />technology has been released in over a half-dozen countries including England,<br />Switzerland, Ireland, France, Canada and Singapore.<br /><br />While Yelp,<br />Foursquare and social media titans such as Facebook and Instagram continue to<br />be part of the same competitive landscape, FlipNpik is arguably the first<br />platform to remunerate users for their social engagements.<br /><br />“My main desire is to help small<br />businesses succeed,” CEO Henri Harland said. “Social media has now become<br />almost indispensable for all businesses if they want customers. But while they<br />have to promote themselves and be seen, they often can’t keep up and compete<br />with giant retailers who have unlimited resources.”<br /><br />Harland added that FlipNpik aims to solve<br />this inequitable state in the social media world by allowing small local<br />businesses to have an ecosystem dedicated to them, one where all users are able<br />to obtain remuneration for their social engagements. <br /><br />“We believe that with the power of the<br />masses, small businesses will stand a chance to stay in the game and all users<br />will finally be remunerated for their actions on social media,” he said. <br /><br />Harland cited inbound marketing as the<br />underlying trend behind FlipNpik, one where consumers are attracted through<br />relevant and helpful quality content shared through channels like blogs and<br />search engines. He said that these very consumers are no longer interested in<br />traditional advertisements, preferring peer-to-peer recommendations.<br /><br />“To be enticed by a brand or attracted to<br />a product, the consumer must have access to instructive, entertaining and<br />personalized content shared by a trusted source,” Harland said. “And that’s how<br />FlipNpik was designed — by rewarding and remunerating the community to<br />build business content and pages and share it with their friends and family." <br /><br />Funding is a critical element of<br />FlipNpik’s advancement, and the company is utilizing an<br />initial coin offering (ICO) model. <br /><br />“We have made an unconventional but<br />democratic move by opening the private sale to the public,” Harland explained.<br />“We have offered bonuses that are generally only offered during the private<br />sale phase of the ICO to anyone who can spend a minimum of $100, leveling the<br />playing field for the small investor. To date we have raised $2.5 million in<br />the private sale.”<br /><br />Ultimately, it is all an effort to drive<br />the project’s long-term vision.<br /><br />“FlipNpik aims to become the first<br />collaborative commercial social media platform to allow users to monetize their<br />social media engagements,” Harland said. “In the next 12 to 18 months, we<br />envision FlipNpik as the reference for consumers seeking to find small local<br />businesses in their neighborhoods as well as inscribe and recommend new<br />businesses to their peers. We are also excited about it becoming a reference<br />for tourists worldwide seeking to find businesses recommended by locals.” <br /><br />Note: Trading<br />and investing in digital assets is speculative and can be high risk. Based on<br />the shifting business and regulatory environment of such a new industry, this<br />content should not be considered investment or legal advice.<br /><br /> <br /><br /> This promoted article originally appeared on Bitcoin Magazine.

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