Bigger. Better. Bolder.

We have some exciting news that we are so happy to finally share with all of you! Over the weekend we unveiled the bigger, better, Bolder – a full product update that incorporates much of the great feedback we have received and demonstrates the culmination of a whole lot of learning. We’re especially excited to share this news, as it’s likely to have a huge positive impact on your experience with Bolder moving forward!

THE BOLDER BEGINNING.

As you may or may not know, we first launched Bolder in 2010, based on the thinking that the world could use more positive action. We recognized that businesses had a big influence on social media, and saw an opportunity to create positive action by developing a platform that would help businesses engage with consumers in a new, meaningful way. The way we saw it, we could offer something with Bolder that let everyone win: Businesses, individuals, and the world as a whole. Today, we are happy to say that what started as an idea has been proven and we are poised to take Bolder to the next level.

Here’s some visibility into the product updates and our motivation behind each new feature:

• COMPLETELY NEW SITE DESIGN/USABILITY UPGRADE: It was time for the look and feel of Bolder to reflect all the amazing things that are happening with our tools and the actions being taken by all of you. The Challenge-Action-Reward loop is now customized to the activities that you enjoy.

• INFLUENCER PAGES: On the Bolder platform, Challenge creators influence positive action. In line with that, we now offer dedicated Influencer pages. The point is to showcase the collective positive actions taken against all Challenges an Influencer has ever started. Think of it as the history of all actions that an Influencer has inspired on Bolder. There are a few new things here too, like the ability for you to suggest new Challenges to Influencers and to see who the top users are for any given Influencer.

• REWARD SYSTEM: With this new release, we took everything we’ve learned and developed four unique reward types: Deals, Donations, Prizes, and Action-for-Action. Each reward type now creates a unique experience while driving participation in meaningful ways. Action-for-Action (ex: I’ll do something if…) is a brand new addition, and one that we are excited to see utilized.

• USER CHALLENGES: We realized that everyone has influence over their own communities online. As a result we are currently testing User Generated Challenges – in the coming months you can plan on starting your own Challenges and motivating action, as well as interacting in meaningful ways with your own networks! We’re having fun with it currently, and we’ll have more details soon.

• CHALLENGE CREATOR - MAKING THINGS SIMPLE: At the core of Bolder lies the Challenge-Action-Reward loop. We’ve built and implemented a Challenge creator that lives right on the home page to make the process of starting Challenges easier for everyone.

• INTERACTIVITY THROUGH MEDIA: We’ve increased the presence of multi-media in Challenges to help bring them to life and to make sharing your real life actions more visual and telling, online.

So, while we are on the subject, and have your completely undivided attention (right?), we’d also like to take this opportunity to recap some of our successes to date, as well as offer some insight into where we are now, and where we are headed.

THE BOLDER COMMUNITY IS GROWING AND TAKING ACTION

Let’s take a minute to revisit our humble roots. Whole Foods Market Palo Alto sponsored one of Bolder’s first Challenges – to “Reuse something you normally throw away,” which inspired 60 people to act and share their story. It’s great to think back to that Challenge and see how our first small-scale Challenge success has steadily grown in the past year!

ACTING BOLDER IS WHERE IT’S AT!

Not only do we hear about participants generally enjoying being Bolder, people seem to just be having some good ol’ fun too! Check out this ridiculously awesome story that Atayne inspired with their Challenge to “Plan an active date” Or, this inspiring story from Nova R. from a Challenge that Stonyfield issued to “Eat an organic breakfast.” And then, this great pump up from Katrina from KEEN’s recent Challenge to “Take a 15 minute recess.”

Especially with our upcoming launch of User Generated Challenges, we’re excited to see what this next phase of our business holds and what answers surface to the question:

What Bolder story can you inspire?

BUSINESSES ARE REAPING THE REWARDS, TOO

Businesses have been our strongest partner to date in driving positive action by sponsoring challenges and helping to inspire individuals. The interactions that you have with businesses on Bolder are meaningful engagements that you should be proud about. It appears that this is the case as Bolder offers an average feedback rate of 26% in 2011, meaning that 26% of you that visit a given challenge homepage complete the action on that page. This makes us fairly confident in thinking most of you like the Challenges and Rewards we are offering, but please keep the feedback coming! We’re extremely proud of this result, as it is many multiples higher than engagement metrics from other Social Media Marketing tools or traditional search. We also think it shows that people want to be inspired and motivated to improve their lives.

HOW MUCH BOLDER CAN WE BE?

Today, we are happy to say that our ideas have been proven and we are poised, with your help, to transition Bolder to the next level. But we’re just getting started. We’re beyond excited to move Bolder into this next phase with you. There’s so much we want to do, so keep the feedback coming! We’re hoping to ultimately provide a platform for businesses and individuals to build stronger relationships and unlock value through the power of collective action.Information is power, but action is change.

Matt, Rob, and Jeremy

Bolder Co-Founders