Today marks a new frontier for I Have Kids on Facebook, as we’ve added new content from the folks at Daily Grommet. We wanted to share a bit about how we came in contact with the Daily Grommet team, and what we hope this relationship will mean for our I Have Kids users.
A couple of months ago Todd & I met with Daily Grommet founder Jules Pieri at her Lexington, MA office:
Daily Grommet HQ
Todd was on a customer site and could only attend by phone, but I was available and jumped at the chance to meet a potential advertising partner in person. In this virtual world it’s easy to fall back on the logic that all business can be conducted by phone/IM/E-mail, but the truth is there’s still no substitute for sitting with someone face-to-face. From the moment I arrived, I could feel that familiar start-up energy and I knew this could be a solid partner for CoreBlox. Jules, Todd & I had a productive conversation where we outlined our goals for introducing targeted advertising into our Facebook app, and we came to understand why Daily Grommet would be a good fit.
Saying we’ve been cautious about advertising in I Have Kids is like saying Facebook is popular. Web application publishers, and Facebook application publishers in particular, are prone to receive a rash of angry feedback from their user base when their attempts to monetize cross that fine line and become an annoyance. Some have noted how application users are conditioned to tune out advertising altogether. There is no shortage of sites out there that offer social application advertising options, but we did not want to disrespect our I Have Kids users by pitching them on airline tickets, timeshares, or the latest goods from a Google AdSense banner. If we were going to advertise then we wanted to find a service that would bring fresh, meaningful content to an audience that is mostly moms. We believe we’ve found this fit in Daily Grommet. I’ll let Jules tell you the Grommet story in her own words:
We’re expecting that the Grommet widget will be a solid complement to our Kids app, introducing our users to interesting products they might not otherwise have discovered while supporting small entrepreneurs in the process. Our goal is to have users look forward to seeing what today’s Grommet is, and perhaps they’ll even find the item attractive enough to purchase for themselves or their family & friends. With the holiday season approaching, perhaps Daily Grommet will become a nice alternative to fighting crowds at the local mall. 
So if you’re an I Have Kids user (and if you aren’t, you should be!), please take a moment to check out the Grommet widget on the left side of your screen and let us know what you think in the comment section or by writing to us at support@coreblox.com.
“What You’ve Missed” Campaign Users that we notice have not logged into the app in a while will get an occasional Facebook notification reminding them of what they have been missing. This is a chance for them to catch up with what has been happening with their Facebook friends in the app. We will also highlight any new features that have been recently added.
New Blog Entry Creation Process – we simplified the process for creating a new blog entry. It is now a simple two step process – user enters blog text on one screen, and then has option to add a photo.
Bug Fix – users can now enter child status messages that contain apostrophes
