

Ask HN: Review New Social Network - prospectvista.com - leftnode

Hi Hacker News,<p>I'm the lead developer of a new social network - Prospect Vista - that is launching today. I'd like you to review it.<p>Prospect Vista is a business social network. It allows for businesses to advertise for free with image, sound, or video advertisements. It has many of the networking features you'd expect a social networking site to have - businesses can network with each other, comment to each other, have a public forum, etc.<p>However, it is also useful for consumers. A consumer can create a request for proposal. For example, if a person needed a lawyer, they could send out a request to all lawyers in the community. From there, lawyers could respond and the consumer could select the best response and go from there. Businesses can also create requests.<p>We built it to be monitized from the start. For $10 a month or $100 a year, businesses can upload many more commercials, have longer/better quality commercials, have a public forum, have requests delivered straight into their account, and see some statistics on their profile (who's viewing their profile, by gender, by industry, and more).<p>For now, the first 100 or so people to register will get all of the premium services for free, for life, because we want to help spread the word.<p>We started building this in June of this year, and are officially launching it today. As the lead developer, I'd love for you to tear it apart and find issues. You won't hurt my feelings, I'm more interested in making a good community.<p>Thanks in advance!<p>http://www.prospectvista.com
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DanielStraight
Based just on your profile on there, I don't get it. First of all, the profile
is hard for me to visually parse. I don't know what's important aside from the
big image in the center.

Second and more importantly, there is little on this profile that I couldn't
find in a phone book or a phone book website, both of which I consider almost
completely useless. If I want your phone number, address, email address, or
URL, I already know where to find it: Google. What I want to know is who you
are, what you've done, what you can do, and why I would want to pick you among
my other options. Basically, what's on your website. Your website is useful to
me. Your profile here is not.

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leftnode
Gotcha, I'll pass it along.

Is the profile with the video in it any more compelling?

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DanielStraight
Not especially, no.

The issue wasn't that the picture in the middle didn't move. It was that the
picture in the middle was the only thing on the page I could see myself
possibly caring about. Nothing else on the page helps me make a decision
between competitors.

I would look at companies like Fog Creek and 37 Signals to get an idea of what
a profile should look like. Here's the thing. I don't know anything about your
experience, but I bet you recognize both of those names, and I bet you
recognize both of them because of their popular blogs. In fact, I can't even
tell you what 37 Signals does, but I know about them anyway. I have no first
hand experience with anyone at Fog Creek, but I feel like it would be an
awesome company to work with.

Profiles need to have something personal. You aren't going to hook people with
an address and a promise to offer "strategic solutions" (a phrases that as far
as I can tell means nothing to anyone). I don't care who your business
contacts are. I don't care what your "third industry" is. I definitely need
more than one big ad to get me to choose you. I think if you take just 5
minutes to look through 37 Signals home page, you will see how it is at least
100 times better than what any profile on there could be.

Above the fold of 37 Signals home page, I learn that they develop web apps,
that they offer 4 main products, and what those products do. If I scroll down
a page, I hear their pitch of their best strengths, see that I have access to
video customer testimonials (awesome!) and learn that they have two regularly
updated blogs (awesome, that means they didn't just throw up a website and
leave it there hoping something would come from it). I also learn that they
have a book and some more smaller apps. At the bottom of the page, I learn
some cool stuff not directly related to their business. They developed Ruby on
Rails, they have an affiliate program, etc. I also see that people care about
their business and are talking about it.

If I compare a Prospect Vista profile... I see an update at the top, pushing
down the main content of the page to give me information I don't care about. I
see a quick profile with nothing that I care about in it. I see a list of
contacts that I don't care about. In the middle, I see a big banner ad that I
may or may not care about depending on how talented the person who made it
was. I see comments and a discussion board, both of which are likely to be
quiet and therefore not worth caring about. Finally, I see a huge amount of
contact information which I have no reason to care about because nothing has
hooked me.

I don't mean to be harsh. I think I can sum up everything by saying that your
profiles are too much like MySpace pages and not enough like compelling
business websites.

~~~
leftnode
Thats incredibly insightful and thoughtful advice. You're right, I do know
about 37signals and Fog Creek (and do read their blogs).

To be honest, I didn't originally come up with the idea for the website, I was
just asked to write it because the two people who did don't know how to
program.

I think what it really needs is a way for businesses to make their profiles
personal so when a prospective consumer/customer sees them, they're drawn in.

Again, thanks for your comments. I'll pass them along.

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leftnode
Clickable links -

<http://www.prospectvista.com>

<http://www.prospectvista.com/profile/view/4> \- My businesses profile

<http://www.prospectvista.com/profile/view/2> \- A profile with a video

Thanks!

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chikendinner
I thought the profiles looked pretty good. It does draw me in. What I see when
I watch the video profile is I see the person and get to see what they're all
about as opposed to having to wait to meet the person face to face before I
can size them up. Just my .02.

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mimpossible
i find this interesting. this looks like a good site that could be useful. if
i was called by someone trying to sell me something and they sent me their
link to this website i could size them up. it would draw me in. further, if i
was in the market for a lawyer or something and i went to this site i could
see them and select one to call. i am currently in the need of selling a
condo, so i would love it if there were some real estate agents on this site
(i know it's new so probably not built up enough yet) so i could pick out a
hot chica to help me move the condo quickly.

