Narrative

Elevator Speech

We want to help you acknowledge death and embrace life through a new, online community called Float.

Float provides a way to write your epitaph, in your own words. We’ll also present an easy way for family and friends to stay in touch, before and after you’re gone. Plus, we’ll have resources to keep members updated on the latest health news and issues related to death and dying.

Float facilitates communication about a difficult issue - death - in an upbeat, humorous, and respectful manner. There's no other Web site that offers social networking and service journalism, while de-stigmatizing death. Most importantly Float is a way to memorialize YOU.
(Beth)

Offering

In addition to being a way to directly address the issue of death, Float has two main offerings: a way to communicate with loved ones, and a platform for news and information about health and death-related subjects.

The first piece of Float includes all features typically found on social networking sites: a circle of friends, blog section, event calendar, contact information, pictures, friend recommendations and status updates. All elements are easy to update and provide a way to keep in touch with loved ones, young and old.

We will go one step further by offering a way for VIPs (Virtual Important Person) and friends to meet face-to-face. Through our calendar/public forum section, users can schedule social events such as potlucks, or VIPs can participate in our Float-sponsored activities and seminars. Similar to Meetup.com, this section of the site encourages interaction beyond the computer screen.

An additional feature is the ability to send post-death messages to friends and family. If interested, VIPs can schedule future email or flower deliveries that are sent long after the VIP dies. Please note: friends and family may opt-out of receiving post-death messages during the sign up process.

What makes Float unique is its second offering, which is the latest news and information that’s relevant to members. In-house journalists write articles and aggregate health and death-related news. The news component of the site also helps users plan for death with how-to articles on wills, lawyers, hospice care, etc. Some news may even inspire, such as our articles profiling fun things to do: skydiving, traveling, cooking and other activities.

Interactive tools such as quizzes and online-chats with counselors round out Float’s long list of diverse features.

Float is not affiliated with any religion, and will not express religious views in news stories. VIPs however, can add their religious affiliations to their profile in the “Personalize” section during sign up.

Float is an interactive way to receive news, and it is a more informative way to socialize with family and friends.
(Beth)

Audience

Float’s primary audience is people who want to write their own epitaphs before they die and leave their own legacy, essentially living forever. This could include anyone from people with large egos to people who simply want to tell their story.

Float’s primary audience will also include family and friends who want to stay connected to loved ones who are deceased.

Float’s secondary audience will include survivors who want to tell stories about their illnesses and how they dealt with them, as well as support networks and related foundations, like the Susan G. Komen breast cancer foundation.

Other people who may also have an interest in Float could include history buffs, genealogists, people who want to write memoirs and people who are morbidly curious.

Overall, Float’s audience will likely be Internet-savvy and curious, as well as educated, family oriented, literary, forward-thinking, empathetic and social. The audience will likely have a desire to connect with other people.
(Meredith)

Landscape

Float’s biggest competitor is people’s fear of death and fear of talking about death. However, we want to address this issue head-on by de-stigmatizing death and facilitating communication about it in an upbeat and humorous – yet respectful – manner.

Death in America used to be very public and was more of an ordeal for the community and less of a personal drama, according to Philippe Aries’ book “The Hour of Our Death.” For centuries, friends and family would gather together with a dying loved one to say their final goodbyes and share in each others’ grief. But that changed as hospitals were built and death moved from the home to those institutions, making the process much more private. Float seeks to bring back the sense of community that was once so important.

Other competition could include funeral homes. While some funeral homes have message boards on their Web sites for family and friends of the deceased to leave their condolences, there is no spot where people can do that, as well as receive bereavement support, connect with other people and receive related health and mental health news.

SympathyTree.com allows users to create an online memorial, but it costs to use the site and doesn't appear to use social networking tools. UnendingLegacy.com is similar to Sympathy Tree, but also lets users upload photos and videos. It is also a paid site. VirtualMemorials.com partners with GriefNet.org to offer bereavement support, but simply directs users to that site and doesn't offer all of the information in one spot. It also is predominantly a paid site. After 14 days, users either pay $55 or the site will convert their memorial page to its free offering, which is very simple. None of these sites offer social networking. They allow users to e-mail their creations to friends and family, but don't have the "status updates" Float will have, or the options to basically have a manufactured two-way conversation with the dead. These sites also don't have news components.

Other sites that could be competition for Float include www.caringbridge.com, www.legacy.com and www.legacylocker.com. All of these sites offer components of what Float would offer, like access to resources and memorial walls. Legacy.com has obituaries and features people who have recently died. LegacyLocker.com allows administrators access to the deceased passwords for e-mail and social networking sites. However, none of the sites offer all of the components Float will include.

There's no site quite like Float that brings together social networking, service journalism, and the memorializing and de-stigmatizing of death.
(Meredith)

Brand

Float’s motto is “Live forever…” and that’s the promise we’re making to the public. With Float, you CAN live forever in virtual reality.

We want to be a Facebook for the dead, but make our site much more than a posthumous social networking. Most of us are addicted to keeping in touch with loved ones via social networking sites. Imagine it continuing after you’ve passed on. The people you love most will never forget you.

When you find out that someone died, the first question is often, “How’d it happen?”. After our launch, we want one of the next questions to always be, “are they on Float?”

We’re not taking death too seriously, but we’re respectful. Our goal is to create a platform for expression with the ability to raise awareness of health issues.

Is the American public ready to Float? We think so… with our almost tongue-in-cheek approach to a very sensitive subject. That approach has proved popular in the past. Just to mention some of the popular television shows dealing with death: Lost, Pushing Daisies, Six Feet Under, and The Ghost Whisperer. In movies, who can forget blockbuster dealing with the afterlife: Ghost Town, The Nightmare Before Christmas, P.S. I Love You, and Away From Her, just to name a few.

It’s clear: the American public digs death.
(Michael)

Economic Model and Rationale

Float selected a hybrid economic model in order to prepare for launch and eventually turn a profit. Since social networks cannot rely on ad revenue alone, this model will provide the Float team with flexibility to provide members with a consistent, positive user experience.



Foundations and groups: 30 percent
Float will feature certain spaces on the site for news articles about particular topics about health. Float will feature forums on specific topics from diseases to causes. Float will have targeted advertising on these pages, providing foundations with the opportunity to reach individuals interested in dialogue about these topics.

The types of organizations that Float plans to solicit include:

The Annie E. Kasey Foundation, whose primary mission is to foster public policies, human-service reforms, and community supports that more effectively meet the needs of today’s vulnerable children and families. Float VIPs may be in a vulnerable stage of life, when they are most needing the good care or an opportunity to chat with someone about their issues.

The Kresge Foundation, an organization that seeks to influence the quality of life for future generations through its support of nonprofit organizations in six fields of interest: health, the environment, community development, arts and culture, education and human services. Float members are seeking personal growth in these categories.

The Annenberg Foundation exists to advance the public well-being through improved communication. As the principal means of achieving its goal, the Foundation encourages the development of more effective ways to share ideas and knowledge. Float aims to generate conversations of great sensitivity among family members and the public. Through knowledge, Float members will learn not to fear death and embrace their lives.

Advertising: 20 percent
Float will have non-obtrusive ads, fed by the content on the page. Float will solicit advertising from businesses in every industry, including retail, travel and entertainment.

Business Partnerships and sponsorships: 20 percent
In order to provide services at a discount for our membership, we will partner with businesses that are willing to offer packages and blanket discounts to our membership. Float will promote businesses by the member’s locality.

Businesses will vie for sponsorship of the annual Float-a-Thon, raising money for the philanthropic cause selected by Float users through online polling. Float users will complete a marathon. The sponsorship will fund the event and the advertising and staff support from Float. 100 percent of profits will go to the cause. Tommie Farley, a Tennessee woman in her early 40s suffering with Lou Gehrig’s disease, completed her first marathon as part of a bucket list this week. A marathon can inspire VIPs to enjoy life to its fullest.

Events: 20 percent
Float will offer VIPs opportunities to connect with each other in real life. Sponsors will offer services for free and VIPs will pay a flat fee to participate with 100 percent of the profits returning to Float.com. VIPs will be encouraged to journal about their experiences for freebies.

Float Food
VIPs will feast at the finest restaurants in the U.S. in the ultimate dining experience.

Float Tours
Float will partner with travel agencies, hotels and airlines to provide VIPs with a chance to fulfill common items on the Life To-Do List determined by Float users through online polling. VIPs can swim with dolphins, sky dive or bungee jump, ski, learn a language, snorkel with sharks, fly in a helicopter, hot air balloon, bull run, get a tattoo, safari, make a pilgrimage or any other combination of activities.

Float Boat
Float will partner with travel agencies, hotels and airlines to offer VIPs an opportunity to experience other cultures and localities via a cruise.

Pro Membership: 10 percent
VIPs can pay a one-year or forever fee to add an expanded photo pack or video to their profiles.
(Jackie)

Marketing/Outreach/Search Strategy

Our marketing campaign includes commercials and web advertising. The commercials will have a slight tongue-in-cheek humorous edge to them. We hope that humor will make the videos interesting enough that people will want to share them, opening the possibility that they could go viral. We’ll post the commericials on Youtube and other video sharing sites.

Because of Float’s large social networking component, we’ll target other social networking sites in our outreach. That will include building pages on Facebook and Myspace. We’re hoping that will also contribute to growth via word of mouth. We intend to make death a more open topic of discussion on the Web.

We’ll also partner with other sites that might, at first glance, be considered competition. However, these established companies and non-profits could attract the kind of attention that would help a start-up like Float. So, partnerships with Legacy.com and non-profits like the National Alliance for Mental Health and Illness could be significant traffic drivers.

We’ll also attract traffic using search engine optimization. We’ll use metadata with keywords such as “death” and “family” to prompt organic hits on search engines. Also, we’ll purchase Google Adwords to target those same keywords with small advertisements on that engine.
(Michael)

Analytics

Key measures of success will be the engagement of our users (repeat visits), time spent on site and the utilization of our various offerings. Members should be visiting often (3-4 times weekly) and for longer period of times than typical websites (5+ minutes, similar to Facebook).

Float will use Google analytics or a similar tool to closely track performance. Since Float pages provide the user with a lot of opportunities to click and interact, analytics for time spent on site should be fairly accurate.

Bounce rate is of great importance due to the nature of this social network. Users may visit simply from curiosity and leave. The number of conversions (from users to members and members to VIPs) is a key figure that will impact Float’s bottom line and capabilities to create and support the community. Membership is essentially the creation of fresh content and engagement. A growing membership is key to success.

Float will monitor traffic from news articles and search engines. Many may enter Float.com by typing the word in a search engine after hearing about Float from a news report or friend.

Float administrators will pay particular attention to the timing of the television commercial campaign and see if the site experiences spikes of traffic. In addition to tracking attendance at Float events, Float staffers will survey VIPs after events to improve the event.

The opt-out rate for requests sent from VIPs to their contacts is also an area of focus. Contacts can decide whether to permit a VIP to contact them after their passing. An opt-out rate of 50 percent or greater will force Float to rethink the communication strategy for VIPs with their relatives and friends. Connecting to others enhances the experience on Float and without connections a VIP Is unable to fully utilize some of the Float offerings.

The health report that Float administrators will generate after six months will determine which strategies are most efficient, in terms of engagement as well as clicks. At that time Float staff will use strategies that are working and implement other areas of the site and revise those strategies that need improvement. For example, if commercials piqued the viewer’s curiosity and they visited the site but bounced to a different site, Float staff would revisit the design and layout of the homepage.
(Jackie)