When people think of social news sites they tend to think of Digg. However there are also several great social news sites out there beyond the Digg demographic.
Introducing Smaknews, a local startup providing social news voting for women. I had a chance to talk with the Smaknews Editrix, Gina Mom, about the site. Here’s what she had to tell us.
What is smaknews?
SmakNews is a social news voting site focused mainly on hot topics evolving around celebrities, fashion and lifestyle news. Users can report their news of choice in three easy ways: either submitting any interesting links found on the web, writing their own news, or by asking a question from the community. Once posted, it’s basically just waiting to be found, followed, and smaked on by other users.
We made our talking smak feature a lot more flexible and in a way, a lot more fun than simply voting up/down for something. Users are able to choose from a wide range of emotions like: HOT, clever, good tip, LOL… etc.
Why did you start Smaknews?
I started SmakNews because I wanted a place to make a name for myself, a huge name – like “Chief Editrix” and force people to conform to calling me that. Clearly “Princess” and “Your Majesty” didn’t somehow come off as easy titles to pass off, but this one sure did.
Developing a social news site targeting women meant that it had to be something that shows off the voice of the modern female online today, a voice to me that is edgy, sophisticated, and very well-read in anything including entertainment, lifestyle, and fashion.
What has been the biggest challenge so far, and how are you dealing it?
Once we took a short little trip to Santa Barbara and discovered (through tweets of our friends and fans) that our server was down for a bit. Something about it being unable to handle the traffic and crashing on us when we needed it most. There’s also bugs that pop up and need rapid extermination. Luckily we have very attractive CTO (my boyfriend).
Whats the craziest story you’ve seen come through the site so far?
There have been many, I’d have to admit. But the craziest stories are the truest stories. Probably somewhere ranging from Jordan Chandler (might be fake),” to “John Peter” asking me to show him physically sexual positions, to 45 lessons you will never learn in school
Where do you want Smaknews to be in 1 year?
In one year I’d like SmakNews to be the destination for women bloggers to promote their content. I want women to come feeling as if their time on the Internet is spent supporting the talents of such amazing fellow women writers and on talking ‘smak’ about interesting topics.
Thanks for taking the time to chat with us Gina. You can follow Smaknews on Twitter and of course through their website.
