socialmedian introduces "The Mood" -- this is how product development is supposed to work (we think)

Here at team socialmedian, we think that this is how product development is supposed to work.

Just last week we surveyed a sample of socialmedian users on a range of topics including potential new socialmedian features.

Based on a user's suggestion, we included in the survey the potential new feature of enabling our users to express their "mood" on a story by noting whether they "like" or "dislike" the story.  Quite frankly, we had not spent much time on this before and we were not sure how it would perform in the survey.

As you see from the survey results below, "The Mood" scored highest on the survey of potential new features.

Which of the following features would you most like to see us add next to socialmedian? (please select up to 3) [Back to top]
	iphone application	132	28.03%
	Private News Networks for teams, companies, workgroups, etc.	157	33.33%
	An easy way to show that I "like" or "don't like" a story	210	44.59%
	Blackberry application	72	15.29%
	The ability to easily search news on socialmedian	201	42.68%
	News alerts on any topic/keywords	204	43.31%
	Browser toolbar	55	11.68%
	Facebook integration	128	27.18%
	Blog widgets	162	34.39%
	Enable me to customize my socialmedian page with colors, even put on my own url	131	27.81%
	# of people who answered question	471

So, fast forward a few days, and today we are launching "The Mood" on socialmedian.

Next to each story on socialmedian you will now find a mood bar.  Click "like" and we register that you like the story.  Click "dislike" and we register that you dislike the story. 



Clicking on the "mood" button displays some stats on the story and who has liked or disliked the story.

Each like / dislike is also record as an activity, which is displayed/broadcasted in your news feed.  Here, for instance, you see that 3 people recently disliked this story.

As we just put this together and launched it in only a few days time, we'll be carefully monitoring how our users take to it and adjusting and modifying how it works as we learn.  So, please also pass along your feedback as your try it, as usual.

Next up:  Tomorrow we'll show you how to connect your Facebook to socialmedian, and to instantly let your Facebook friends know when you like or dislike a story in the news.