Why Do Business Social Networking Sites Suck So Bad?
(This applies to pretty much every site except for LinkedIn.)
In the last few months I have spent a lot of time reviewing, cataloging, and participating on various social networking sites. I can honestly say the one niche that has across the board some of the worst sites is business. Either they are all copying each other but with lower quality than the leaders in this space or make absolutely no sense from a design, interface, or business perspective. Away from the poor design or illogical navigation here are the main points that really drive me nuts about this niche.
-I get solicited within seconds of joining- This is one of the prevalent features of any business social networking site based outside the United States. As soon as you join in the vultures come and you get a ton of requests within the first few hours. Of course these people have businesses that aren’t even tangentially related to anything you do. If I owned an ice cream stand and joined one of these networks a Serbian asbestos remover would immediately solicit me.
There is a fine line between networking with the goal of expanding your horizons and spamming the crap out of someone.
-Every group is overrun with self-promotional garbage- You run into this a bit on LinkedIn if the group moderator doesn’t pay attention. The self-promotional issues on these other sites though are through the roof. Nine times out of ten they are MLM marketers or someone pushing an e-book I don’t remotely care about.
I know this is off subject but why does every e-book page look the same? Horrible caps, really poor looking endorsements, and the worst color selection known to man… how will any of this convince me to sign up and give you my information if you can’t design a webpage that doesn’t look like it is from 1993?
-Rethink the idea of charging me at every turn- I realize that business; specifically sales people are going to pay for a business social network. This is one of the few niches where you can logically have a business model where you can charge new users. However when a blog I just started a few months ago has a higher Alexa ranking you may want to reconsider asking me to pay $49.99 for a year’s subscription every time I try and do anything on your site.
-Random feature that shouldn’t be on a business social networking site- I don’t want to share music with other CEOs, I don’t care what my horoscope is, and nor do I want to see funny videos. Some business social networking sites have features that logically make no sense in this niche. Don’t try to be everything when you aren’t anything. Make features that set you apart from competitors not copy sites like MySpace. Give me a repository of convention presentations or something informative.
Enough venting, I just don’t understand why the one niche that should be a slam dunk is done so poorly overall?
Why do you think that is?
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http://www.twitter.com/nickilaycoax
THANK YOU, THANK YOU, THANK YOU for posting this ! HOW TRUE! I just hate the fact that most of these so called “business” social networks are nothing more than sites created with the only goal in mind and that is MAKING PROFITS. I look at these poorly designed copy-cats and want to scream. And YES, whats with the constant harassment of “upgrade now”, it drives me nuts. One site, who I wish I could post here, will only allow you a few emails before you have to upgrade?? Whats with that? So once I join, and I get oh…25 people emailing me welcoming me to the site and I want to respond, and I can only respond to a third of them because in order to send more I need to upgrade???
Others want you to pay a fee anywhere from $45 and up to send out a “mass” email to all their members, and its not even targeted to those who may actually want to buy from you, its mostly competitors also sending you this same mass email. They want to charge you advertising dollars for a new site that has only 100 members and only 25 have actually filled out their profiles, and two have actually logged in in the last month.
I too hate the charge you for everything scheme, or should I say SCAM. Want to post a blog, CHARGE, want to email all your friends, CHARGE, want to place a link in your signature, BIG CHARGE! Its ridiculous.
Many turn out to have members who are just looking for a date, come on, on a business social site? They post all these “get rich quick” bulletins and its just non-sense. I hate it.
InCompany.com is a social networking site for businesses and professionals that avoids many of the pitfalls that you expressed. It has features that are free, relevant, and pertinent to businesses such as being able to sell products online, post classifieds, Include a map, create blogs, post photos, and, of course, network.
InCompany.com is worth checking out and reviewing in my opinion.