Jelly: I'm not talking about the wobbly dessert dish - I'm talking about the latest social network to get people really talking about it.
Created by Twitter co-founder Biz Stone, the app was launched on iOS and Android this week. It's basically Yahoo Answers meets Google meets Instagram. Confused? I'll let the experts explain.
In the the Jelly launch blog post, they said: "Say you're walking along and you spot something unusual. You want to know what it is so you launch Jelly, take a picture, circle it with your finger, and type, "What's this?" That query is submitted to some people in your network who also have Jelly. Jelly notifies you when you have answers."
These visual questions are sent to anyone else using Jelly on your Twitter and Facebook accounts. You can also send these queries via text message or e-mail.
The great thing about Jelly is that it gives real life experiences as answers rather than some random website you find yourself on. Be honest, how many times have you diagnosed yourself with a life threatening illness because of something you read on Google?
Your question reach isn't just limited to your immediate contacts either. They also get sent out to your extended network, giving you more of a chance of getting a helpful answer. Also, as a bit of an ego boost, when you answer a question, you're awarded a thank-you card. Nice, huh?
But there are issues with Jelly - are people going to choose its limited network to ask a question instead of posting it on Twitter or Facebook and reaching their entire audience rather than the limited few who have signed up for Jelly? That remains to be seen...
So how can you use Jelly for your business, and more importantly, can you?
There are ways to use Jelly as part of your marketing strategy. If you set up an account on Jelly and link it to your company's Twitter and Facebook accounts you can answer questions relevant to your area of expertise. Ideally, your followers and fans and their connections will ask questions that you are able to answer as a brand, and this will increase your credibility and position yourselves as experts within that area.
But (there's always a "but" isn't there? Sorry!) something that limits the ability to use Jelly professionally is that you can't monitor mentions of your brand or impressions/engagement with your answers besides receiving thank-you cards from the question asker, so this limits your ability to analyse the effectiveness of the app as a marketing tool.
So, for the time being, Jelly isn't the greatest app for businesses. While answering questions that are relevant to you will up your credibility and visibility, the time spent scanning through questions in the hope there's one relevant to you could be better spent focusing on other platforms.
Jelly could be one for the future, though. You never know, Jelly 2.0 could include a search function to allow you to search for brand mentions, and maybe even Jelly 3.0 will include analytics! With investors like Jack Dorsey, Bono and Al Gore, they won't be short of funds to make Jelly bigger and better - fingers crossed!
What do you think? Is Jelly a viable marketing tool or do we have to wait for it to develop before incorporating it into our social media strategies?