Bragshare.com: Why the World Needed Another Social Media Site

Partial disclosure. I am a Co-Founder of Bragshare.com. I am an average Joe, a relative “nobody” living in Utah. I am not a writer, nor a technologist. I am a strategic sales and marketing guy. I didn’t get my business degree from Harvard, but I did attain an MBA. I am a pretty pragmatic person, learning from my own experiences and that of everyone around me. Human interaction and studying the lives, motivations, and experiences of others is an obsessive passion of mine. Which I guess explains why I fell in love with social media and pretty much everything about it years ago.

In the past decade, I have thoughtfully embraced and leveraged the social media world we have been given, and it works for me, for the most part. But I will be completely honest, in 2010, I realized it was lacking in some critical areas. Still to this day, there are gaping holes I still feel exist. Like any other business, I believe innovation and advancement is inevitable, and so it is with social media. The technology we have for social could be one of the most powerful tools this world has ever known to bring people together. Very exciting.

Since 2010, I have continued to use social media (predominantly Linkedin and Facebook), while creating my own social concept and website. I have been pointedly questioned by many asking, “Why do you think we need another social site”? They think we have enough and cannot be improved upon. Really? So..we are at the pinnacle of social media innovation? Not a chance. It will continue to improve, evolve, and accelerate over and over again in my opinion in the upcoming decade and beyond. We are just scratching the surface.

My fellow Co-Founder, Daniel Coburn (a technologist) and I bootstrapped and launched a new social media site in Beta called "Bragshare.com", tagline (Where Everyone Is Someone), April 4th, 2016. It was developed in 5 months by a global technology company in Mumbai, India named "Brainvire Infotech". They ironically were the ones who created "myyearbook.com" way back when. Awesome team to work with to say the least. 

https://www.bragshare.com/

Our social site was not designed to compete per se with other social sites, but to augment them. Why do we all have to fight and compete? We can get along quite nicely together. After all, their are billions of social users in the world and that will continue to grow. Together, we can provide a more organized, streamlined, and meaningful view of ones life and identity. Bragshare not only provides a total life view, but a place for people to tell about why they are great by sharing their achievements (for both the living and the dead..more about his below). Here is an article published in the Huffington Post on April 5th, 2016, written by a prolific entrepreneurial voice, Karthik Rajan about the core purpose of Bragshare and the importance of understanding the impact of ones “identity”.

https://www.huffingtonpost.com/karthik-rajan/the-best-use-of-the-inter_b_9610306.html

In my opinion, social media struggles with 4 important items: 1) "Life data" or user "stories" or "achievements" are fragmented and exist in silos. Packets of information is scattered all across the table and lacks a tie together. 2) Lacks discovery boards and engines that allow users to truly post to the world so that others can learn about each others comprehensive stories/achievements and connect with them. People want to have a earth shattering voice and we give them a tiny microphone to only share to their friends or make a post public so that only those who search for that person can see that post. 3) Permanence. What I post in social today gets lost in endless feeds. Not allowing the user to pull out and designate the posts that are most important and defining to them. So what do we have? Frankly, an ugly never ending feed full of the trivial, the semi important, the pathetic, and the very important. But the viewing user has no idea how to know the difference. Therefore, nothing is important. 4) Display of an incomplete user story. A true user story must reflect where a user came from (roots), what they achieve in life, and where they are going (aspirations). Everywhere we go, we hear the theme "tell your story" etc. Surely that story begins before birth and must consist of where you plan to go. Present "social" focuses on the present moment and grossly neglects the total picture. That isn't a true representation of a story. Seems logical enough to me. 

Fragmentation? All I have to say is Facebook, Twitter, Google+, Pinterest, Linkedin, Instagram, MySpace, SnapChat, and on and on and on…

All of these serve a purpose and are good. Each focuses on a different aspect and a way of communicating diverse components and time frames/moments of user’s lives. Segmented out by the personal, creative ideas, professional, levels of privacy, photo’s, interests, spontaneous thoughts, and any other way of slicing and dicing things. With each new social site comes another piece of our lives to be concentrated on. But do you see the problem? We are encumbering our lives by having an additional silo (place) to share components of our life. The total picture of ones life achievements, nuances, and thoughts can be found ALL OVER THE PLACE. It’s messy. And requires all kinds of assumptive guesswork in attempting to tie the pieces of life data together to learn of the story behind the person or organization. It doesn't have to be this way...

To fully learn about a person, you must go and research the user’s posts across all the social sites, dig up old documents in their attic, question family and friends, research ancestral documents, and Google any record that can be found. And even then, you still have a fairly incomplete picture because much of that data was obtained by third party sources. Don't even tell me to go look at their "resume". That record is extremely incomplete. One dimensional. Just ask hiring managers. 

You know as well as I do, that you are more than your professional achievements, more than the things you say about your personal life, more than the creative things you like, more than the pictures you post, and much more than the 140 characters you voice periodically. In fact, you are even more than what you have done or will do.

You are the product of your heritage passed down to you. What do I mean by that? Most of us have a natural desire and interest to learn about who our family is and where we came from. It helps each of us piece together who and what we are. I certainly am more than my simple life up to this point. I join a chain of my ancestors who achieved great things and influenced my life in one way or another. Learning about and sharing this past of ours, is vital to sharing who we really are. Bragshare works with FamilySearch.org, the world's largest online genealogical database to help users find their ancestors and brag/post/share about them. Call it what you want. We also are partnered with Brigham Young Universities "RelativeFinder.org". A site dedicated to utilizing the massive FamilySearch database to show users how they are directly related to anyone and what influential and famous people they are related to distantly.

David McCullough, the famed historical author of "1776" said:

“There really is no such thing as the past. No one really lived in the past, they lived in the present, their present.”

Trust me, taking a few moments to find your great great great grandfather etc, and learn what he did stirs something within. Posting that info is a rewarding experience. Through this I learned about a relative of mine that helped start and fund one of my favorite local Universities. How cool is that? I shared that to the world, my friends, and placed it on my timeline. 

Below is an image of the Bragshare/FamilySearch integration. With a few clicks, one can search for and bring over their ancestral data and add their own pictures/content to then post to the world, their friends, their timeline, or any combination of the three. And by the way, I can back date the post to any year I want, I am not limited to dates from my birth date forward. Makes more sense right?

You are also more than your ancestry, and your past and current achievements. What about your hopes, dreams, and aspirations? Does that not give another vital insight into who you are? But why would someone want to post aspirations you ask? The answer is that you already do. They are in the form of quotes, achievements of others, and content/comments you post in the social world. The issue is, these aspirational nuggets are not organized and are literally sprayed around everywhere you go, mixed in with the mundane and meaningful. Bragshare now gives the user the ability to label and organize them. 

But some say, why would I want to share this total life data of myself in the form of my past, present, and future? My response again: you are doing it anyway, but it is scattered and can be a mystery for others as they try to piece it all together. And if you aren't presently doing it, you should, as it is tremendously fulfilling. There is no disputing it, most of us like to tell people who we are, why we are, what we are doing, and what we plan to be. Bragshare.com takes these precious nuggets and organizes, stores, displays, and offers us the ability to share them to the world, our friends, and to our own unique dynamic Bragline timeline.

Everything I post on Bragshare can be shared to other social sites. It can act as a hub of sorts. Through this living and breathing timeline, individuals and organizations can adequately represent themselves, starting from the beginning (not just birth and inception), but the true beginning, share their achievements, and future aspirations. All of which can be searched if made public in the brags.

Some social core needs of humans are:

• To be Appreciated
• To be Loved
• To be Understood
• To be Recognized
• To be Trusted 

All of these basic human needs can be met by providing a place for individuals to share their unique contributions. There is much to be learned from every single person (living or deceased). Each person has/had greatness in them and that greatness should be made available and put in proper organization and context. Think about it for minute: A graphical and text rich database full of life data of the living and the dead! And that data can all be inputed by those who it is relevant to. It will be more personal than a boring obituary, stale timeline, or raw database of info. That data can now be searched, learned from, shared, and enjoyed. The past is brought to the present. And this past/present data can be more meaningful and organized, and be discovered more effectively. 

A word about “BragShare”. By placing brag in front of share elevates the share. There is no shame in bragging. After all, isn’t a post on Facebook equivalent to a brag? Why not call it what it is? We are sharing meaningful things about our life so that everyone can be recognized and indeed, “Be Someone”. Bragshare accommodates any kind of post whether it be trivial, meaningful, or ridiculous. Some people like to brag, some people like to share, and some people just like to "BS". We even offer a classifieds and jobs posting section for those who like to sell/buy things and search for the right job that fits their skill set better. 

A favorite quote of mine by Thomas Edison:

“There is a way to do it better—go find it”

Below are a couple articles about us in the media recently that describe Bragshare in more detail:

Yahoo Finance: (May 4th, 2016)

UtahBusiness.com (May 5th, 2016)

https://www.utahbusiness.com/bragshare-launches-to-give-social-media-users-more-control/  

KSL.com in Salt Lake City (April 20th, 2016)

https://www.ksl.com/?sid=39429048&nid=148&title=utahns-new-social-media-platform-aims-to-tie-stories-together

Screenshots of our "Bragline" timeline, Import from other social sites page, and Export page. Keep in mind that we are integrated with Facebook, Twitter, and Google+. Any posts made on those sites, can be seamlessly imported to Bragshare to populate your Bragline or share to the world/friends. Bragshare also allows users to export any data they populate on their Braglines to save to a pdf file to store/share or print off. No other mainstream social site allows users to actually print off "their" data anytime they want, we do. Why? Because the Bragline contains the most meaningful, life defining data. You are literally journaling your life in a fun, untraditional way with Bragshare.

BeehiveStartups.com in Provo (April 19th, 2016)

https://beehivestartups.com/blog/we-all-brag-we-all-share-we-all-bragshare/

Screenshot of our home page: Bragboard

Try it out, start bragging or sharing. Invite all your friends.. For now, our bootstrapped products include a desktop and mobile version. An App will be built when/if we get investors. I can be contacted at [email protected]. 

Screenshot of the "Bragfeed"