Vybee.com

Vybee.com gets a shout out in The Atlantic alongside Tumblr, Merge Records, and other innovative companies rocking the southeast.

The Atlantic tech reporters breezed through our Stampede offices in Durham on their whirlwind tour of ‘Start-Up Nation’, a special report on start-up innovation in the southeast.

(They made Jeff look all smart and stuff) : )

Check out the complete article…

http://www.theatlantic.com/technology/archive/2011/11/what-we-learned-driving-2-000-miles-through-the-souths-startup-landscape/247671/#slide2

And the Special Report on ‘Start Up Nation’…

http://www.theatlantic.com/special-report/start-up-nation/

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There are some exciting updates coming together at Vybee.com that you guys should know about.

Vybee.com is evolving with how people like to use the platform.

We’re becoming much more like a community bulletin board or people-powered source for local news, events, discussions, and more.

As such, after some serious thought and consideration, we’ve decided to consolidate our group efforts to focus on building up major local interest communities.

The idea is…

Instead of working on numerous groups (which often overlap) with various group admins working on their own accords, we consolidate efforts through major interest groups where everyone can participate with posts and the growth of these major interest communities.

This will ease the confusion of ‘where to post’ and make it easier to participate across interests simply by selecting an appropriate major interest group to make your post.

Now, Admins, Mods, and Members alike can participate collectively with the growth of these major interest communities at Vybee.com – even across interests.

Through these major interest bulletins, we can also aggregate relevant info and syndicate content from local blogs and sources of information.

What this means…

In the coming weeks we will be consolidating smaller groups into major interest groups so we can collectively participate in the growth of these major interest communities.

We are aiming to minimize the number of groups to ease the confusion of ‘where to post info’.

So for example, groups like ‘Lovers of Jazz’ will get consolidated into ‘Music NC’; ‘RTP New Tech’ will get consolidated into ‘Triangle Business’; etc.

Soon, we will have a tagging and search system in place across the site so members can hone in on specific interests and posts.

Here is a list of active major interest communities we can collectively focus on building up at Vybee.com…

Music NC

Fashion NC

Triangle Nightlife (Raleigh Nightlife)

Triangle Dining

Triangle Health & Wellness

Triangle Business

Triangle Non-Profit

NC Literary

Triangle Social Media (The Social Edge)

Triangle Latin Social

Triangle International

Here’s a few we’d like to add in the coming weeks…

Triangle Arts

Triangle News & Opinons

Triangle Sports & Recreation

NC Philosophy & Spirituality

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Groups not mentioned here may be getting consolidated into these major interest communities.

If there is an interest group you feel should be kept around or created and would like to participate with it’s growth on Vybee.com, please contact us and let us know: Groups@Vybee.com

To find out how to syndicate and automate your local blog or info through a Vybee.com interest group, simply contact us and we can get started: Solutions@Vybee.com

We are looking for sponsors for these major interest communities. And will still consider building new sponsored communities. Contact us to find out some savvy things we can do for social engagement with your brand and business: Solutions@Vybee.com

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Get Involved…

Get more involved with the evolution of this project for local engagement by joining the exciting missions in our collaborators group: http://www.vybee.com/groups/vybee-collaborators

We are also looking for partners that would like to work with us on this platform going through some exciting growth and evolutions. We are especially looking for key leaders in development, PR, marketing, and sales. Contact us now and let us know about your interests. Collaborate@Vybee.com

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Kickstarting 2011 with Vybee.com

2010 saw a lot of cool experiments, growth,
and good collaborators coming through Vybee.com.
And we got a lot of great feedback and ideas on how we can create
a truly useful platform for local community engagement.

Check out some of the highlights
we were able to bring together through our communities…
Raleigh NYE, Hopscotch Music Festival, SPARKcon 2010,
Music NC, and Raleigh Nightlife.

We’re kickstarting 2011 diving into a redesign and upgrade of our service,
with a mission to create a platform that’s super easy and fun to use,
bring together quality, people-powered local info, and reconnect people
to strong communities in the Triangle, NC areas and beyond.

On that note, we’re recruiting solid collaborators and contributors
as we grow into an exciting new year.

If you haven’t already, sign up to keep up
and participate with your local interests on Vybee.com.

Reach your local audience with our one click posting
through Vybee.com, Facebook, and Twitter.

Contact us to build your local interest community,
bring together local updates, local friends, as well as
sponsors within your local interests.

At this time we are also looking for development and marketing partners
to join us in creating cutting edge solutions for aggregating quality local content
and fun to use local engagement.

Email us to continue this discussion…

Collaborate@Vybee.com

And look forward to rockin’ some exciting things in the New Year with Vybee.com.

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Sending a warm Thanks to all those who have graced Vybee.com as it’s been hatching and to those who get a glimmer of this vision to build a better way to engage with our own local communities. At Vybee.com it is an exciting journey to grow and evolve with such a vibrant and diverse local network coming together.

Roger from RTP New Tech just recently asked me, “what keeps you going?” My quick reply was, “I don’t know, maybe I’m crazy… but everyday I wake up thinking, man, we’re just getting started… there’s so much to do.” As I thought about it more, what really keeps me focused, is our core sense of purpose… re-connecting people back to their local communities in a more meaningful and engaging way.  With this mission clearly in mind, we can take on the challenges of evolving this project.

And we sincerely appreciate all the friends, feedback, ideas, collaborations, and down right participation that comes together to realize and sustain this vision. After all it takes a community to build a community. This is a Thanks on Thanksgiving to our vibrant community coming together on Vybee.com. Hope you’ll join us in good ways as we delve into the next phases and evolutions of this project.

- Jeff – (Avatar) -

www.Vybee.com

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Special Thanks to family & friends who have been putting up with this construction zone, to our dedicated development team at Instancy.com, to Cal & Poetry Seven who have been here from the beginnings of Vybee.com, to our newest members and community leaders growing their networks through this platform, and all the great advisers and collaborators guiding and assisting with the evolution of this project.

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Vybee.com brought together Live Updates
from the Hopscotch Music Festival in Raleigh.

We created a group to capture all the buzz and community
happening around the Hopscotch Music Festival in Raleigh NC,
(September 9th, 10th, and 11th 2010)…

http://www.vybee.com/groups/hopscotch/

Join this group to Keep up with all the Hopscotch buzz
still coming together from Twitter, Facebook, Flickr, and more.

Easily post your stories about Hopscotch to the Vybee.com group
as well as send your messages out to Facebook and Twitter all with one click.

As with all of our groups you can get updates
through more manageable email in daily digests, weekly digests,
or just through the web and RSS.

Look forward to participating with the Hopscotch group now
as well as the other local music communities coming together
on Vybee.com.

- The Vybee Team -

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PS: if you’d like to start up a local music or interest group,
make sure to contact us now while we’re offering Free Group Set Ups for a limited time.
And find out how we can help you bring together a proper community.

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Now you can get started even quicker on Vybee.com with Facebook Connect.

Facebook Connect automagically creates a new Vybee.com account based on your Facebook account. It will use the same user name and profile picture you have on Facebook.

Simply click the Facebook Connect button found below the Login / Sign up buttons and make sure to Allow access through the following Facebook prompts. Then you’ll be re-directed to your new account on Vybee.com.

Once signed in, you can click your profile picture in the right sidebar to access your page, where you can update your profile, check your messages, and settings. To update your profile, from your page, simply click the ‘Profile’ tab and ‘Edit Profile’.

If you already have a Vybee.com account and you’d like to use Facebook Connect to sign in, please read this carefully to avoid creating a new account…

- First login with your existing Vybee.com account.

- Make sure your Vybee.com ‘Account Email’ matches the one you’re using with your Facebook account.

– To check or change your email address on Vybee.com, click your avatar in the right sidebar to go to your page. — In your page, click the ‘Settings’ Tab where you can change your ‘Account Email’ under General Settings.

– To check or change the email associated with your Facebook account, login to Facebook. — In the top right corner, click ‘Account’ > ‘Account Settings’ to visit and modify your account.

Once your Vybee.com and Facebook emails match, you will be able to use Facebook Connect
to sign in to your existing Vybee.com account.

If you have any questions, concerns, or feedback,
please post them in the support section…

http://www.Support.Vybee.com

And look forward to good participations on Vybee.com

- The Vybee Team -

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We now have a new and improved notification system in place.

After some glitches from our last system, this is a much appreciated improvement.

We now have better options for adjusting your notifications from each group you’re a part of – from all emails for groups you’d like to be more involved with, to daily digests or weekly summaries to keep up with active groups in a more manageable way, to no emails from groups you’d like to join, but just keep up with on the web.

You can find links to adjust notification settings for each group you’ve joined from the main Groups Directory, quick links below the description of each group you’ve joined, as well as the ‘Notifications’ tab in each group you’ve joined.

You can also adjust settings for each group forum topic from following topics of interest
to mute any topic you’d just rather not hear about.

And you can always change your notification options from groups you’ve joined at any time.

Hopefully this will improve your experience with Vybee.com
and offers a better way to tailor your experience here.

For any questions, feedback, or ideas, please post them up in our support site…

http://Support.Vybee.com

Look forward to your continued participation
with this evolving site dedicated to improve local community engagement.

- The Vybee Team -

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Now you can post to Vybee.com Groups + Facebook + Twitter with just one click.

To get started, log into Vybee.com and follow the links below your status update box.

- Click ‘facestream settings’ to configure posting to Facebook.
- Click ‘tweetstream settings’ to configure posting to Twitter.

You can also find these in your profile
(click your name or image anywhere on the site to get to your profile)
and look under the ‘Settings’ Tab > Facestream & Tweetstream

Click Facestream, and Click ‘Authorize with facebook’
and simply follow the prompts through Facebook.

- Login with the Facebook account you want to post to.
- Make Sure you Click ‘Allow’ permission for this Facebook sync.

Then you should get redirected back to the site where you can
select your options and save your settings.

Click Tweetstream, and Click ‘Authorize with twitter’
and simply follow the prompts through Twitter.

- Login with the Twitter account you want to post to.
- Make Sure you Click ‘Allow’ permission for this Twitter sync.

Then you should get redirected back to the site where you can
select your options and save your settings.

After setting up your accounts, you’ll see check boxes below your status update box
where you can select to send your Vybee.com posts to Facebook and Twitter.

Please post any questions and feedback at: http://Support.Vybee.com

And happy social media posting.

- The Vybee Team -

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Welcome to the All New Vybee.com.

I think you’ll really dig the cool new look
and exciting new ways to use the site.

Please have a good look around the latest
design, navigation, and features…

http://www.Vybee.com

And check out the Quick Start Guide to get a good overview
of the new layout and ways to use the site…

http://www.Vybee.com/Quick-Start

We also have a new Support Community set up
for any questions and answers about using Vybee.com…

http://www.Support.Vybee.com

We’re continuing to add helpful new features.

Keep up and participate with the latest developments
through this ‘Backstage’ Blog as well as the Vybee Community…

http://www.Vybee.com/Groups/Vybee

http://www.Vybee.com/Backstage

Thanks for your patience during any discrepancies through this update.

It is an exciting time as we continue to evolve Vybee.com
as a great place to actively engage with your interests and communities.

Please do not hesitate to contact us about any questions, feedback, and ideas.
That is what helps shape and keep this site growing in such a useful way.

Sincerely,

- Jeff -

www.Vybee.com

www.Support.Vybee.com

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Unleashing our first Live Group and Community Blogs.

These Blogs are actually more like Group or Community Bulletins, providing
a Group Posting / MicroBloging environment where multiple authors can participate,
depending on how open to the public the Admins and Moderators would like things to be.

For even more live power and energy, we’ve created a system of bringing in
Twitter, TwitPic, and Flickr posts based on specific group tags and interests
- aggregating into one focused environment.

This enables Live mobile or web posting from events using existing accounts,
+ the ability to find and share with a community based around the same interest.

We hope to create more of these for our groups, communities, and events,
and continue to bring in more power features to these environments.

You saw it here first : )

www.Vybee.com

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