Whether you're planning a shindig, a get-together, a roast or a rager, the web is chock full of tools to make sure your party is off the proverbial hook.
Socializr is a new venture into this realm from Friendster founder Jonathan Abrams. After writing one of Web 2.0's earliest success stories, Abrams left Friendster in 2005. The site was quickly on its way to becoming a has-been, but Abrams soldiered on. When he started his new party planning site, he took the social networking rulebook – the book he helped write – with him.
Along with social networking's astronomical rise, a handful of players have been mounting a collective offensive against Evite, the reigning king of the online party planners. Scott Gilbertson recently reviewed Renkoo and MyPunchBowl here on Monkey Bites. There's also a strong player called Skobee which we've played around with but haven't covered in-depth.
Socializr stands above the rest of these party invitation tools for two main reasons. First is its fluid integration with other social networking services, and second is its drop-dead-simple ease of use.
When you set up a profile in Socializr, you are given the option to import your personal profile data from a slew of other social networks. You're only required to give Socializr one main email address to manage all of your invitations and requests. If you give it a few of your other email addresses, it will seek out the profiles you've built at other social networks. Socializr can automatically import photos, video and biographical data from Flickr, YouTube, Friendster, MySpace, Facebook, Hi5, Bebo, Digg, Tagged, Yelp... the list goes on. You can also add a blog or a company to your profile if you want to associate any of that data with your party planning activities. In just a few minutes, I set up a profile and imported some photos and videos. The best part is that I didn't have to really do anything. I just plugged in one email address and Socializr took care of the rest. (Check out screenshots below).
That aesthetic carries over to the party planning workflow, too. The options and templates are similar to Evite, as expected. After adding all of your details and creating an page that others can use to RSVP, you can trick out your party invite with rich media. Socializr lets you add songs from iMeem or any MP3 file on the web. You can also add videos and widgets of your choosing. There's a list of deluxe fonts, slots for custom images and several visual customization options.
Socializr has support for email, IM and SMS invitations and communications. Also, the guest lists and comments sections use Ajax and are quite responsive. Guests don't need to be site members to RSVP or to comment, which is a plus.
At this point, there really aren't that many new features or doo-dads that companies can bring to the party planning game. Evite works, and it has the deepest user base since it's been around so long.
So, it's not a new approach to party planning that makes me think Socializr will succeed. It's that the site mashes so easily with the social networks that everyone's already using. There's close to zero work involved in setting up a profile, filling it up and making it look good. The fact that it's easy to make your Socializr page look like your MySpace page or your Flickr profile is going to be a huge plus for fans of those services.
There's Socializr's hook, and it's obvious to see Abrams's knowledge of the tastes of the social networking crowd at play here. This wasn't designed by people eager to get in on the game. It was designed by a crew of people who have been playing the game since the beginning. And it shows.
