Commet - Community Engagement Platform

The Origin Story

Where did the idea for Commet come from?

In 2009, my wife and I were travelling to Philadelphia to see a series of four Pearl Jam concerts at The Spectrum. They were the last act to play at the old barn before it was to be torn down. The sold-out shows were attracting tens of thousands of Pearl Jam fans from all over the country to Philadelphia for the week.

As we were exiting I-76 East, my wife started calling friends in the community, trying to find out where our friends were currently, where they were staying, looking up directions, and also trying to get multiple groups to meet up at places together. As one can imagine, it wasn't easy.

That's when I had a thought, "It sure would be great to have an app that tells me where all my Pearl Jam friends are."

Over time that idea evolved. If I can do this with the Pearl Jam community, then we can do the same for any community - and not just music groups, but social groups, school groups, non-profit organizations, local businesses and even national brands.

It became clear what kind of power these geo-social connections gives community managers to communicate with their members. They could send news and announcements, event notifications, and even deals on their products and services.

And finally, these geo-social communities give users the power to meet new people, in the real world, and possibly form relationships that can last a lifetime.

The Commet Funnel

What does Commet get right that the other networks get wrong?

Social media networks do not prioritize community-based content.

The way social media networks "curate" your content feeds is not about giving you the best user experience, but is about maximizing their profits.

Sure they allow you to know your friends' political views (all too well), see their baby photos, or what their cat has gotten into this time - but when it comes to actual valuable content from the communities you care most about, it's a huge fail.

The fact is, this content is withheld from you purposefully. The people who run your group and business pages are constantly prodded to pay to "promote" their content on a post-by-post basis simply to deliver content to people who already "Like" and "Follow" them!

Commet is the solution to this all-too-real problem.

With Commet, all of the content generated by your community managers is fed into three distinct buckets: News, Events & Deals.

Imagine having all of this content, from your favorite sports teams, your child's school, your favorite music groups, your sorority or fraternity, that great coffee shop down the street, your most meaningful non-profits, or even the fast-food joint you just can't give up - all delivering you content you care about, directly into your Commet app.

This is the Commet vision: delivering quality content from the communities you most care about.

Strengthening Communities

I like what I'm hearing, but how does Commet grow communities?

Commet leverages the geolocation data from your phone to connect you with people in your communities with two pieces of funcationality:

Social Radar

Looking for a great new place to go where your fellow community members also frequent?

Maybe a new place to watch the big game with fellow fans, meet people in your professional network, or get together with people from your high school or university. That's why Commet created the Social Radar.

Simply specify which communities you'd like to find, and a few demographics that you're interested in, and Commet will show you a list of nearby places and the number of people there that matches your search criteria.

Meeteors

So you've used your social radar, and are now at a place where you know there are community members. Now what?

You need a way to announce to those people that you're interested in meeting. Enter Meeteors!

Meeteors are an alert that gets sent to all the people in your current place, matching your search criteria, letting those people know you'd like to meet up.

Meeteros display your real name and private avatar, so be sure to only use them when you're serious!

Protecting Your Privacy

Sounds great, but I don't know if I want people knowing where I am all the time.

Neither do we! That's why we've built the platform with common-sense protections of your security.

And since Commet is built to allow people to connect both within the app and in the real world, these protections are built to both protect your data security, and keep your identity safe while you are out and about.

Here's how:

No Geolocation History
Commet keeps an updated record of your current coordinates and the place that our algorithms determine you to be. Commet does not keep a history of your previous coordinates or locations.
Context-Aware Profiles
Your profile is presented differently depending on who is viewing your content. Friends see your real name and a friends-only avatar image, while others see your username and public avatar.
Geographic Anonymity
When Commet users search the social radar, search results display how many people that match search criteria are in a place, but never specifically who is there.

Create a rich community engagement platform that connects community managers and members, creating meaningful relationships between real people in the real world.