It’s All About Community

Web2.0 seems to be a lot about invite-only betas. We hear about them through a variety of media and we patiently wait and often salivate. We sign up to receive invites or even just sign up to be notified when a service becomes more mature. Invites create a buzz and certainly the whole GMail launch strategy made an art out of this marketing strategy. I will admit to being a victim of much marketing. I like my toys. There’s a new service that I stumbled across the other day that allows you to ask for, receive and then share invites to these sacred sites: Mashable Invites.
I have been using the service for a couple days and have been amazed at how fast others share thier invites with you. Its a cool concept. I like getting and I like sharing. This thing actually works. What is particularly important about this process is that it works. Its built on community and sharing and people do just that. Its one more quick response to changes being made in cyberspace.
Its simple to use. You create an account. You can browse through the list of sites that that are being tracked. if one interests you, you simply ask for an invite. Your email is added to a list of people requesting invites. Shortly you will discover that someone has sent you an invite. You can join the beta site. The idea now is that you should return the favour and and go back and send invitations to the top emails on the list. If you send invites and people confirm receiving them, you will discover that your name is raised up the list next time you request an invite. You are rewarded for returning favours. That’s what the site is all about.
So if you are hankering for an invite to that hot new site…check it out.
Oh, and one more thing…(yeah it was a Steve Jobs keynote day) it’s really handy to be able to subscribe via RSS to a feed of the site and you’ll be informed when new sites are added to the invite list.