WUAB-TV LAUNCHES CLEVELAND AREA SOCIAL NETWORK AT MY.43.NET

Cleveland, Ohio — MY43.NET (Thursday, January 18) — WUAB-TV has partnered with KickApps Corporation to power the social networking component of their new website, My43.Net. My43.Net pioneers a road less traveled by most broadcasters — creating an online platform centered on its community rather than its programming. My43.Net has created an online outlet to appeal to the elusive younger demographic with interactive multimedia at a hyper local focus.

The core components of this newly re-branded site include daily updates from local stories provided by a local alternative weekly, The Free Times, and user submitted content housed by the KickApps platform. The community now has an online resource for finding concert information, local bands, local sports, college tours, dating advice and contests, and meeting and connecting with friends — all backed with the marketing and production power of broadcast.

Traffic to the new site has seen a 30% increase in monthly visits with no on-air promotion. “We expect to reach the one million page view mark after our promotions hit the air,” said Adam Clark, Internet Manager at WUAB-TV/WOIO-TV. “Using the KickApps platform, we were able to launch the social networking and video sharing features of the leading portal sites and create an engaging branded community experience at My43.Net within days.”

The KickApps platform provides major media and high traffic websites with full social networking and user generated content functionality, including video, photo and audio uploads. Websites powered by KickApps have access to a suite of media management, member management and reporting tools that help protect brands and advertisers from inappropriate content. The KickApps deployment at My43.Net also includes “viral widgets”, video blogging, ratings and video-enabled personal pages. The KickApps “steal this” widget feature allows visitors to easily display all of the latest community and premium video content from My43.Net on their own outside personal pages and websites.

“Local context will be a major driver in the next great evolution of social networking and user generated content community,” said Eric Alterman, KickApps’ Founder and Chairman. “KickApps makes all of the technology to offer these community services available to television and radio broadcaster, network affiliate, newspaper, and other local content provider websites on a turn-key basis. WUAB-TV’s deployment at My43.Net is a pioneering showcase.”

For more information, please contact:

WUAB-TV: Adam Clark, 216/367-7370, adamclark@woio.com
KickApps Corporation: Jeff Zaretsky, 212/730-4520, jeff@kickapps.com