Wayin Update: Newt, PGA, and More

Wayin has been moving forward in the last couple of months. We did an initial announcement of their offerings on CTOVision over the summer, but they have evolved quite a bit since then. Since we like to keep you updated on what is going on in the social media world, I figured now would be a good time to check back in with Wayin. I recently talked with someone from business development at Wayin, and she is excited about how far the social media site has come and where it is going.

When Wayin first came online over the summer it was nothing more than some user uploaded photos with the ability for other users to vote on the content. It was very rudimentary, and I personally wondered what its direction was. Since then, however, Wayin has added new services. One of them is Live Events, where users can upload photos and chat about live sporting events, TV shows, conferences, and political debates. In fact, one recent addition is that Wayin has joined with Newt Gingrich‘s campaign through his Facebook Page. It allows a platform for followers to give feedback to Newt about some of the issues he chooses to weigh in on. This partnership invitation has been extended to all GOP candidates, as well as President Obama, but Newt is the first to jump on board.

The partnership with Facebook is a huge development for Wayin. Working with users fan pages, it gives Wayin even greater access to people, without making them a direct competitor of Facebook. It seems that their model is different enough that it can be a great addition to Facebook, yet also stand alone easily. I think it is great to see Wayin moving toward having a greater presence in areas of interest such as politics and other issues of importance. Wayin wants to be a platform for everyone to express their interests though, so celebphotos are here to stay it seems.

Wayin also recently teamed up with the PGA Tour at the Presidents Cup in Australia. Integrated again with the Facebook Fan Page, this was a step forward for Wayin – demonstrating its international reach. Some of the pros that were playing even tweeted about Wayin during the tourney and over 200 people were involved in tournament live events on the website. Wayin also registered and average of 219 new users daily during the tournament from the Facebook fan page. Wayin’s next step is to integrate an iFrame Widget into the PGA Tour homepage.

One of the most creative users for Wayin so far has been Donald William, and artist that uses the username deedubco. Donald invites fans to hang out with him while he paints and listens to his favorite music, allowing other users to comment on his works in progress. That is something I could have never done (not that I am an artist, anyway). I prefer to keep my work close to me until the final product is ready.

Wayin is looking increase its offerings again next month. I could only tease out a few features, but it sounds promising. With its new release in mid-December, look for Wayin to change up its website and mobile application user experience. Wayin users will be able to filter some of their content, so if you want to follow Newt Gingrich, but don’t care to be bogged down by celebrity pics, you can have some more control over that. As always, CTOVision will be there to cover the launch in mid-December. We will keep you updated with Wayin’s new offerings as they strive to carve out their own space in the social media realm.

Note: Bob Gourley runs two channels on WayIn. His personal one is at: http://j.mp/bgwayin He also keeps a thread of technology posts at: j.mp/wayintech