ZingZag! For Rich Media Fan Pages

Jen Consalvo April 4, 2011 Tweet

Continuing our focus on Champaign, IL startups, today we’re looking at ZingZag!, a software download that enables anyone to create a rich media Facebook Fan page (or other sites). The majority of Fan pages out there don’t take full advantage of the opportunity (we’re including ourselves in that bucket), using the standard options that Facebook provides. But if you look at Fan pages such as this one, you can see the amazing potential they have as a business marketing tool.

ZingZag! has patent-pending software that provides simple tools to create a rich page with viral hooks and commerce opportunities – without knowing how to write code. I downloaded the trial software to give it a try – the tools were all drag and drop and it’s easy to insert images, videos, rss feeds, music clips, etc. Just like any website, though, it can be easy to get things on the page – much harder to make it look professionally designed. So in the end, if you want a beautiful page, you’d still want someone with some design sensibilities to be involved (although they do offer webinars to help you out with tips and tricks).

You can then export your page(s) to Facebook, MySpace and other sites or as a webpage, flash file or image. At the time I tested, the registration process was having some hiccups and they have some design issues to work through (and presumably the ads are only on the free version…) but if they can nail that, they could have a sizable opportunity ahead of them.

Screenshot of ZingZag Pro

Screenshot of free ZingZag editor

From the team:

Our ZingZag! Pro software allows any business to easily create and distribute via popular social media channels, vibrant and engaging content that consumers will want to share with others.  The tools to allow those consumers – with the click of a mouse – to virally share that content are automatically embedded in the content.  And the content can include live elements allowing the business to remotely refresh the content and to deliver a complete shopping experience – including order processing – directly to the consumer wherever and whenever she chooses.  In short:  frictionless commerce.

They offer 2 options: ZingZag Pro for $29.95 per month or $285 per year with additional options for more storage/bandwidth, and ZingZag Creative, a free option for personal use with a limit of 25MB storage/bandwidth, with options to purchase additional space (prices range from $47.50 -118 per year).

You can come meet the team at Monday night’s Tech Cocktail Champaign mixer event.