AUSTIN, Texas — June 16, 2009 —Pluck® Corporation, a subsidiary of Demand Media and the industry-leading provider of social media capabilities to publishers, brands and retailers, today announced that Boston.com, the Boston Globe’s online editionread by nearly 2.5 million people each day, has selected Pluck’s SiteLife® platform to power social media interactions throughout its website. Boston.com is using social media to engage the community and encourage a dialogue so that readers can communicate and interact with one another through comments, blogs and forums.
“Pluck’s social networking platform has helped us to harness the passion that our readers feel about everything we cover, from global crises to Boston sports to neighborhood personalities, and channel that passion into a dynamic and thriving online community,” said Robert Kempf, vice president of product, Boston.com. “Pluck lets us combine our own editorial content, our readers’ comments on that content, and their own original contributions, including text and photographs, on one page. Our readers have made it clear that they appreciate the ease-of-use and performance of our new social media deployment.”
Boston.com is also using Pluck’s social media solutions to power the user-generated elements of its “communities of interest” product and Your Town – a growing network of hyper local sites. The positive response around the initial launch of the SiteLife platform resulted in Boston.com’s recent roll out of additional SiteLife functionality, including Community Personas to facilitate additional discussion, and enhanced photo galleries organized by topics such as, “Kids at Play” and “Mother and Child.”
“We’re very pleased to be associated with one of the most respected publications in the country. It’s no surprise to us that the Boston Globe has rolled out such an innovative social media strategy,” said Steve Semelsberger, senior vice president and general manager of Pluck, a division of Demand Media. “Online destinations like Boston.com are demonstrating to media properties the value of feature-rich on-domain social experiences.”
Pluck SiteLife offers comprehensive social media capabilities and is broadly deployed on more than 350 leading digital destinations. Pluck capabilities are seamlessly integrated via easy-to-install widgets and a robust set of platform-level APIs that allow site publishers to tailor social media experiences to the needs of their distinct audiences.
About Demand Media
As the leader in distributed social media, Demand Media™ makes possible more than 3 billion conversations every month. Demand Media’s Pluck enterprise group delivers world-class platform technology and services for integrated social media and currently powers community for leading digital destinations including BSkyB, Condé Nast, Discovery Communications, Kraft, the NFL, RealNetworks, Whole Foods Market, and The Washington Post. The privately held company was founded in May 2006 and is based in Santa Monica, CA, with offices in Bellevue, WA, Austin, TX, New York, NY and London, UK.
