GigPark Blog

A more beautiful internet

2008-11-13T15:29:25Z

Alistair Morton over at Peapod Studios (a long time friend of GigPark) has dedicated a big part of his life to making the internet a more beautiful place. Last week he created this great set of icons for all of your favorite web services: Flickr, Facebook, LinkedIn… and GigPark!

He was also kind enough to release them for free for anyone to use. So help yourself, and if you feel like returning the favor maybe you could recommend his fantastic design and branding studio to your friends :)

We love to see people mashing up GigPark for different things. If you are using GigPark on your site please drop us a line. And if you are thinking about using GigPark please let us know if we can do anything at all to help - from supplying you a logo file to… well, anything really!

Getting recommended has never been easier

2008-11-13T15:30:32Z

Want to get more testimonials and referrals for your business like many others have already done on GigPark? We’ve made asking for and getting recommendations on GigPark super simple.

First, we’ve made asking clients and friends really easy. In just a few clicks, you can email all your contacts, update your Facebook status, and tweet on Twitter. For those of you with a Business Owner Account, just check out the “$ Get more referrals” tab in your “My Business” section.

Second, it is now easier than ever for people to recommend you on GigPark (even if they aren’t members yet). All they have to do is go to your public business page and write a few words about why they recommend you. You can chalk up another testimonial in seconds.

So, after asking your client and friends, be sure to plaster the URL to your public business page everywhere you can … on your email signature, business cards, social networks, website, blog, invoices to clients, etc. Besides being a great place for potential clients to learn about your awesomeness, your public business page is now also an easy and effective outlet for your existing clients to sing your praises.

Don’t have a Business Owner Account yet? Create one here (or if you are already a member, Upgrade).

Tweet Tweet GigPark

2008-10-15T13:52:40Z

You use Twitter. You use GigPark. Now use them together!

Just enter your Twitter username here and we’ll add the people you follow on Twitter to your GigPark so you can see who they recommend. Very cool, we know (we use Twitter too!).

We’ve also made it really easy to use Twitter from within GigPark – whether it’s tweeting about your plumber, or spreading the word that your friend is looking for an african pygmy hedgehog breeder, or even just inviting your Twitter followers to GigPark.

And if you want follow GigPark on Twitter, we’re there too. See ya there.

Run a business? Want more customers?

2008-09-11T21:54:48Z

We think GigPark is a pretty spectacular way to find a photographer, lawyer, illustrator, etc. that you can trust - i.e. a business your friends use. And because word-of-mouth is so powerful, the businesses who get recommended are also finding GigPark is a great way to get new customers.

Starting today, we’re inviting you business owners to create a Business Owner Account so you can get even more out of the nice things your clients say about you. Once you’re in the game you’ll be able to:

Create a public profile for your business
Ensure your contact information is complete, accurate, and up-to-date on all recommendations of you (so new clients can get in touch with you easily)
Get stats on how many people are viewing information about your business
Use GigPark’s exclusive business owner tools to get more testimonials and referrals

Sound good? Great! You can find out more over at our new Business Owners Guide to GigPark. Then when you’re ready… Create your Business Owner Account (or if you are already a member, Upgrade).

I’ll finish this post with 2 kind quotes from business owners already recommended on GigPark and an example of what a business page looks like.

“All my clients come through referral and I’m getting lots of referrals from my clients on GigPark.” - Jackie Lamey, Interior Designer

“I get calls and emails from people every month because of GigPark. I love it!” - Ryan Silver, Web Developer

An open letter to those recommended on GigPark

2008-08-29T15:13:08Z

Dear service hero,

CONGRATS!!! Your clients like you and they’re telling their friends. We’re so proud of you!

As you may have already noticed, we are now aggregating all recommendations for you in one place – your GigPark public business page. All recommendations of you link to this page and we’re optimizing this page for search engines so that it shows up high in Google results.

Soon you’ll be able to “claim” your business page (for free), thus allowing you to create a business profile on this page and ensure that all of your contact information is correct and up-to-date. We’re hoping this will get you even more business through GigPark.

Here’s what to do:

Find the recommendations of you (if you can’t find them, search here)
Go to your business page by clicking the link that says how many recommendations of you there are
Click “Is this your business?” in the Business Profile on the right
Give us your contact info so we can send you a claim code when these tools are ready

We’re just testing these tools with a handful of businesses right now. Some of our first business profiles are here and here and here and here.

Now you know – this guy has been recommended 26 times!

2008-08-21T21:25:37Z

So your friend recommends a photographer … good to know. Would it help to know that 25 others also recommend this same photographer? We thought so.

So now, every recommendation says how many other people recommend that same person and links to their business page.

Special thanks to two of our members, Keltie and Jackie, for suggesting this feature. If you have a great idea for improving GigPark please send it our way!

How to make friends

2008-07-31T14:15:16Z

GigPark has been growing fast lately (Yay!). So there is a good chance your friends have joined and you haven’t found each other yet.

Today we’re launching a feature to make finding your friends on GigPark about as easy as, well… lets just say it’s very easy. Facebook users can now find all of their friends on GigPark with one click. No adding applications or 3 step processes - just click for friends!

Of course people who use Gmail, Yahoo Mail, Hotmail and anyone with an address book can find their friends too… but not as quickly as you lucky Facebook users :)

Happy friending!

I’ll race you…

2008-07-10T21:57:04Z

I’ll recommend 3 services to my friends using our regular recommend page.

Now you try recommending a gardener, a babysitter and a tattoo artist to your friends using our new “multi recommend” page.

You win!

You can get to “multi recommend” by clicking the “Recommend lots of people, quickly” link on the side of the recommend page.

Happy recommending everyone!

PS - If you have ideas for other ways we can make recommending easier, please let me know.

Photo by Tim PopUp.

Say thanks

2008-07-08T15:05:38Z

Do you know how when you ask your friends on GigPark for a recommendation, you often get a lot of replies really quickly? Well, we’ve now made it super easy to post a thank you message to all of those people.

Being a mensch has never been easier.

Broadcast on Twitter and your blog

2008-06-24T18:14:54Z

So, you’re looking for a real estate lawyer and you’ve asked your friends on GigPark. Great. But what about your (not-so-cool) friends who aren’t on GigPark yet? Maybe they have a recommendation for you?

While you probably already know that you can share a recommendation or request on Facebook, we’ve just launched a feature that lets you easily broadcast any recommendation or request to Twitter and your blog too. Just look for the share icon (an open hand).

And since this works for ANY recommendation or request, it’s now easier than ever to spread the word to help out a friend in need or give props to the auto spa that makes your friends’ cars pretty.