“What’s going on?”
An easy enough question to answer, yet more people are finding it increasingly difficult to take time out of their busy lives to connect with one another. Take SocialEngine user Kim Starks for example. Kim has always been interested in people and how they interact with one another. She was inspired to create an online community to better connect with the people closest in her life while also sharing the latest ‘buzzed’ about topics from around the web.
In this week’s Client Spotlight, I got to talk with Kim, creator of VoiceBee, about how she got her start with SocialEngine and what we can expect from her latest project.
Tell us all about yourself!
Kim: I’ve lived here in Florida all my life, and I think I’m one of nine Floridians here. When meeting people here, they are always shocked to hear of a Floridian. I live minutes away from all of the tourist attractions such as Walt Disney World, Universal Studios, Sea World, Wet & Wild, and more. The nearest beach is about 35 minutes away and my neighborhood is surrounded by golf courses. I don’t golf, but I do love telling people about them. My neighbors are people and gators, literally. Living in a tourist attraction, I’m always getting to meet different kinds of people and that led to online networking, which I’ve been doing for the past three years. People’s interests and their conversations have always intrigued me and are the very reasons for my current adventure in life.
My latest adventure is a new online community that I started called VoiceBee. VoiceBee is an online buzzboard to share “buzz” from around the web or from your life. Our scheduled launch date is March 1st, but we are now live for our pre-launch. It’s a very exciting time for me!
Explain how you came up with VoiceBee.
Kim: I actually came up with VoiceBee in 2010 while having a conversation with a friend. When meeting up with friends, the phrase I always use is, “What’s Buzzing?” We proceed to update one another with what’s going on in our lives. I thought to myself, “Voice and Buzz” and at that moment, I knew I wanted the “bee” to signify “buzz.” I immediately went to my computer to check if the domain name ‘voicebee’ was available and to my surprise it was. So I pulled out my credit card and bought as many VoiceBee domains as I could, not realizing exactly what I wanted to do with it. Several people and companies have contacted me wanting to buy the domains and I would turn them down. In 2012, I decided it was time to bring VoiceBee to life.
How long have you been using SocialEngine?
Kim: Wow, I’ve been following you and your members since 2010. I remember when you were SocialEngine.net and someone else had SocialEngine.com. So please know how happy I was when you obtained your dot com. Yes, this is how far back I go with following you guys.
How has your SocialEngine Cloud experience been so far?
Kim: Social Engine Cloud is amazing and the administrator panel is really easy to navigate and understand. The demo SEC community you launched for Admins is the second best thing you have done for us. The first thing of course is the amazing SEC platform. I’m appreciating the fact that we are all able to help one another and make new friends at the same time.
What’s next for you and VoiceBee?
Kim: Shhhh, it’s a secret, but what I can tell you is that we use one of the SE third-party developer’s seTweaks. They have done all designs and customizations for VoiceBee and they will be working on our next project that we are hoping to implement in April.
Anything else you would like to add?
Kim: Yes. Firstly, I want to reiterate what an amazing platform SocialEngine Cloud is. The added bonus to SEC is the support you receive with it. It’s like having your own IT team. Therefore, I’m giving the entire SE team a world of thanks for giving us the tool to follow our dreams at such a low cost. Secondly, I want to thank the seTweaks team for the amazing work they have done for VoiceBee. Lastly, I want to thank the SEC community. I have made some really great friends on there who are now my brothers and sisters of SE. Making friends on the SEC community is simply the best.
Thanks again, SE, and “BEE HAPPY EVERYONE!”
