Twitter co-founder launched a new app two weeks ago called Jelly, and there are already some high profile early adopters. So what is Jelly, and how can brands use it to enhance their social media presence?
What is Jelly?
Jelly is a social query app. What does that mean? Well, it means that you can search with pictures and people from your social networks and connect to answer questions. Did you see a really cool plant on your hike, and have NO idea what it is? Share a pic and ask your network to tell you about it. Plus, you can forward questions outside of the app so that you can ask your friends that don’t have Jelly.
How Brands Can Use It
Brands are always looking for new ways to enhance their social media presence. Jelly might just be a new, amazing way to ask questions that your followers actually want to answer. So often those Facebook and Twitter queries go un-liked, favorited, commented on, or shared.
With Jelly, brands can post questions and engage their audience to create a kind of community around followers of a brand.
Here are some early adopter brands that are trying out Jelly, courtesy of Digiday. See which ones are seeing success!
Whole Foods
We’d have to put Whole Foods’ first foray into the Jelly universe in the “fail” category. Their confusing question? “What’s your biggest challenge getting back in to your school (or work) routine and how do you feed your family how you want to?” Confusingly worded, and also trying to combine two very different questions together. But, it received 52 answers, so there you go!
Lowes
Home improvement store Lowes had a much clearer question, with a good image. The question was: “Favorite place to watch the playoffs: Man Cave or favorite watering hole?” It’s a fairly typical question we’re used to seeing on brand Facebook pages, but it’s an interesting way to test the Jelly waters. There were 41 answers. So, we’d say it was a half-success. Hopefully, Lowe’s sees that Jelly could be used to crowdsource answers about what types of products or training services consumers most want to see in stores. It’s a great way to do real-time marketing research.
General Electric
GE stayed on brand and played it safe, a bit like Lowe’s. But, we like that the question they asked is a bit more cerebral and interesting. The question was: “If you could have a cup of coffee with any scientist (past or present), who would you sit down with?” I mean, really, no one cares if people watch the game in their basement or a bar. But, what scientist people are most interested in speaking with? Definitely a meatier question.
Ben and Jerry’s
The ice cream brand has consistently won at social media. Their first question on Jelly was, unfortunately, a bit of a dud. They asked “Do you think companies should label their products if they contain GMOs? We do.” Clearly, a self-serving question that’s not inventive. We definitely appreciate the sentiment, and it’s great to highlight that they don’t use GMOs in their ice cream, but Ben and Jerry’s needs to add a little of that sweet social media magic to their Jelly presence.
Shutterstock
Jelly may not be your typical B2C business that does well on social media, but they seem to already know how to use Jelly! Shutterstock posted a cryptic photo from their database with the question: “Here at Shutterstock, we’re pretty obsessed with macro photography. Can you tell what this is a photo of?” It may have only received 27 answers, but Shutterstock is using Jelly the way it’s meant to be used – as a way to crowdsource information and answer questions that can actually be interesting or helpful. Great job, Shutterstock!