You may not remember Plixi, the former media hosting/sharing site for Twitter, Facebook and other social networks, but you might recognize it under it’s new identity: Lockerz. In fact, you may already be a member.
This high school themed social networking and e-commerce community has been having a huge swarm of participation recently – possibly because anyone who ever uploaded to Plixi in the past was automatically included as Plixi was bought by Lockerz .The reason those users stay on is most likely because every single thing you do on Lockerz earns you PTZ (points) that can be used to buy items at an extreme mark down (the more PTZ, the larger the discount) and redeemed for merchandise and PayPal credit.
Earn PTZ for loggin in, answering “Dailies” (surveys that get you 2 each), uploading photos (10 PTZ), inviting friends, buying items from the Lockerz boutique, showing off those purchases in your profile, watching and sharing videos, completing sponsor offers and bonuses for buying products from the front page sponsor. The social format is called “fwb;)” (yes, literally) revolving around the looping system wherein the more you share with friends, the more PTZ you both earn. In the “Play” section of the site, users can watch videos – where a large portion is original content. Watching videos earns a varying amount of PTZ and once they’re finished they unlock one of the “Decalz” which you can activate on your profile. When your friends click on your decals, you earn more PTZ and so do they. The more interaction, the more everyone wins. Media can also be shared through other social networking sites, all of which will result in more PTZ for you.
Lockerz easily engrains itself as an all-purpose community and since the transition was so effortless for most users, it has has a tremendous spike in popularity. So much so, that many users have already found and shared ways to “game” the system and obtain PTZ in less-than-honest ways. A quick You Tube search will find a long list of ways generate tons of PTZ with minimal effort. This doesn’t seem to effect the overall success of the site. If anything it may be a sign of how well things are going. Lockerz already gives away PTZ like free candy, and the fact that users are so eager to get more they’re willing to scheme in addition to regular use actually bodes well.
The site may not be for everyone. Perhaps it’s the curmudgeon in me that finds Lockerz a bit overwhelming; the amount of gimmicky names for all it’s features, the ads upon ads (even a 30 second video has 60 secs worth of proceeding commercial time), and the overall volume of it. It is exceedingly youth-oriented, but from a marketing standpoint that’s hardly a bad thing.
