Friends Reunited continues to add new features to its social networking site following the successful uptake of its recently launched Groups section. The latest site release, which went live this week, sees the addition of a chat function and photo tagging, enriching the experience for its 21m members.
The instant chat function enables members to converse about their passions and interests with like-minded individuals, contributing to a 135% increase in usage of these interest based Groups since the beginning of the year. While photo tagging is helping Friends Reunited open up the millions of photos that have been added to the site to new audiences.
Jonathan Clark, Head of Friends Reunited, said: “We’re continuing to make the site more sociable; Photo tagging is just one of the ways we are improving the visibility of what members are doing on the website. We have millions of visitors every month and hundreds of thousands of profile updates and photos added, but we used to make it pretty difficult to see all this great stuff.
“In just a few days we’ve had 30,000 photos tagged; people are now able to share their photos with their friends more easily, but they’re also discovering photos of themselves which have been on the site for years.”
The Groups, launched in October last year, allow members to create their own communities or join an existing group setup by Friends Reunited. They can upload images, start topics and now join in conversations with members of the group. Each group is added to one of 26 categories which include groups like Sports, Films and Family and Relationships.
Craig Nayman, Commercial Director of Friends Reunited, says: “It’s great to see members finding others they can share their interests with, from motoring to travel. It’s also proving interesting to advertisers, who see value in tapping into the passion and context these communities have created. This alongside our growing lifestage and interest based database is letting us deliver some really interesting adverting solutions”.
~Ends~
NOTES TO THE EDITOR
About Friends Reunited
Friends Reunited is the original social network with 20.6 million members, of which 2.9 million were added in 2008. It was launched in 2000 as a back-bedroom hobby to put old school friends back in touch with each other and swiftly became a British media phenomenon. In 2005 Friends Reunited was acquired by ITV and in April 2008 dropped its subscription charge and evolved into an interactive social networking site for grown-ups.
For more information contact Carolynne Bull-Edwards
on: 01883 717468 or email press@friendsreunited.co.uk
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