Yappem Launches, You Earn Rewards for Talking about Brands

Kira M. Newman Mar 7, 2013 Tweet

The latest social media currency you’ll want to get your hands on is Yappem coins.

Launching today, Yappem is a social network where customers get rewards for talking about brands (and brands get priceless feedback). Posting earns you Yappem coins, and those coins can buy gift cards at places like Target and Gap.

To start racking up the gold, you can compare products, share an experience – even a negative one – or ask for suggestions or support from your network on Yappem. If you share the post to Facebook or Twitter, you’ll get even more coins. You can also complete “missions,” like posting a great deal you found or taking a photo of a Big Mac using Yappem’s iOS or Android apps. To share the love, you can post a question with a “bounty,” so people who respond get some extra coins.

Cofounders Dave Sachse and Justin Webb believe this kind of product deserves its own platform, rather than being directly linked to Twitter or Facebook.

“Yappem provides users the ability to separate their customer experiences with businesses, brands, and products from their personal moments with friends and family on existing social platforms,” says Webb, who helped the company raise $2.5 million.

Products like AdByMe and Ambassador reward users for posting about brands on traditional social media, so less sharing equals fewer rewards. But with Yappem, you can still accumulate coins without doing that – with posts only visible to Yappem users who are expecting to see branded content. And you can feel free to post about products you might not want to advertise on Twitter, like a perfectly fitting bra.

Behind the scenes, Sheboygan, Wisconsin-based Yappem is earning commissions on clicks from your links, and passing that reward along via gift cards.

Yappem will be on the ground at SXSW; find them at the Tech Cocktail SXSW Celebration, the Yappem Rewards Party, and in booths #1439 and #1441 at the trade show.

Yappem is the title sponsor of Tech Cocktail’s special SXSW video series.