Social network for small businesses

[Qcard]

Is there a need for something like this? As a small business owner I don't find LinkedIn particularly useful and I've never found anything else that was a Facebook for small businesses which I have find strange - given how many of us there are out there. The closest things are forums like this one and Facebook groups.

 

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[Johnny boy]

any time you combine "network" with "business" on the internet you get a thing called "spam" that ruins it. How would it work?

 

[Qcard]

any time you combine "network" with "business" on the internet you get a thing called "spam" that ruins it. How would it work?

No one would be able to spam you unless you were connected with them. If you didn't want to see their updates or you were getting unwanted messages you could simply disconnect them or block them from contacting you.

Well, it would work pretty much like Facebook except your friends would be your customers and it would have specific functionality for businesses. The primary idea is to be able to market to your existing customers in a natural, organic, and free way.

 

[Andy Black]

What benefit do people get for being members?

 

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[Qcard]

What benefit do people get for being members?

A business would benefit from the following functionality:

1. An online profile/website that includes all of their products and services.
2. The ability to interact with your customers without having to pay marketing fees.
(When you create a FB page and post something on it, only if you pay FB to promote your post will all of your followers actually see it.)
3. The site will automatically notify your customers of any updates. Add a new product and your customers get automatically notified about it. Create a post, same thing. It's like an automatic marketing/email system.
4. A business database that allows you to store all of your business information in one place.
5. Context aware communication system. When a customer sends you a message about a product, service, or post you know what they are talking about. The messages are automatically linked to the object it was sent from.
6. Customers reviews, likes, comments and much more...

Benefits for customers:

1. Store all of the business information in one place, including all of their contact information.
2. Easily share information with friends and family.
3. A standardize way to interact and communicate with businesses.
4. Be updated about specials/discount from businesses they do business with.
5. A go to site for all of their business related stuff. (I don't think about business when I go to FB because I go there to interact with my friends and family. I pretty much ignore any business related ads.)
6. The ability to see reviews, likes, comments from your friends. So you know what businesses they are using and what they think about them.

 

[rsrs]

Literally everything FB does. They do not hide business posts because they only like ad money, there is too much businesses, if they show all biz posts to users, users will stop using FB at all. If users stop using, ad money goes to zero.

Social network is such a hard thing to start, and on top of that the value that you are offering to users are contact information and other biz info? Google does that too.

I would think to start in a small business niche at first, do something valluable to a local community, try to come up with a system to evaluate trust in small business in small communities (and good luck dealing with spam and fake reviews). If you can do that in 1 community successfully, maybe it can work. Try to keep very very small at first, even FB started only in a college, then other colleges….

 

[Qcard]

Literally everything FB does. They do not hide business posts because they only like ad money, there is too much businesses, if they show all biz posts to users, users will stop using FB at all. If users stop using, ad money goes to zero.

Social network is such a hard thing to start, and on top of that the value that you are offering to users are contact information and other biz info? Google does that too.

I would think to start in a small business niche at first, do something valluable to a local community, try to come up with a system to evaluate trust in small business in small communities (and good luck dealing with spam and fake reviews). If you can do that in 1 community successfully, maybe it can work. Try to keep very very small at first, even FB started only in a college, then other colleges….

Yes you right but my issue with FB is that it has never really worked for me. I have a B2B business. I can't add my clients as followers to my FB page. It may work for a B2C business that sells low price items not sure. Also, there is no easy way for me to simply list my products and services on my FB page. Also, I never really used FB for business personally. When I go on FB I go to interact with my friends and family not to do business related stuff but that could just be me. But starting with a niche is always a good idea if you can find one.

 

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[rsrs]

It's easy to list products and services in FB. You can, as well, use Linkedin (for B2B is better).

As a customer and a small business owner too, I don't want to get information all the time from countless companies I have business with. I am having a hard time seeing what value yet another social network can add in this game.

Although, as I said, I think there is a huge opportunity regarding TRUST. It's very hard to believe in stuff that are published in the internet today, we only trust our close social circle and few influencers here and there. Even bigger influencers are losing the grip and can't "influence" as some years ago.

For example Alibaba. It's like a social network, companies publish their products and services, their content, make live shopping, and all of that. You can connect, follow, talk to them. But try to send a RFQ (mass quote).... it's like hell. How do you believe in all those companies wanting your buck?

If you want to focus in B2B talk with a many small business owners and identify what are their problems (but don't ask directly). What do they complain about? I think MJ book talks about this: whenever someone is complaining about something, there is an opportunity there. Once you can identify a small thing you can solve for a group of biz owners, and solve it, that's it. Grow from that.

But please, not another social network, business owners are having a hard time staying afloat, they don't have time to see 100 posts from other companies.

 

[Qcard]

It's easy to list products and services in FB. You can, as well, use Linkedin (for B2B is better).

As a customer and a small business owner too, I don't want to get information all the time from countless companies I have business with. I am having a hard time seeing what value yet another social network can add in this game.

Although, as I said, I think there is a huge opportunity regarding TRUST. It's very hard to believe in stuff that are published in the internet today, we only trust our close social circle and few influencers here and there. Even bigger influencers are losing the grip and can't "influence" as some years ago.

For example Alibaba. It's like a social network, companies publish their products and services, their content, make live shopping, and all of that. You can connect, follow, talk to them. But try to send a RFQ (mass quote).... it's like hell. How do you believe in all those companies wanting your buck?

If you want to focus in B2B talk with a many small business owners and identify what are their problems (but don't ask directly). What do they complain about? I think MJ book talks about this: whenever someone is complaining about something, there is an opportunity there. Once you can identify a small thing you can solve for a group of biz owners, and solve it, that's it. Grow from that.

But please, not another social network, business owners are having a hard time staying afloat, they don't have time to see 100 posts from other companies.

Good points and suggestions but...

1. You don't see stuff from businesses who you are not a customer of or they are not a contact of yours.

2. TRUST: how do we trust businesses? We look at their reviews and associations. If we can see, for example, a friend is already a customer of a business, that creates trust because we can then go to that friend and ask them about the business.

3. But I am thinking of my own needs as a small business owner. What's my biggest problem? Marketing. How can I automate this? This is also why most small businesses fail or never grow - lack of marketing. (It's certainly our biggest problem.) The best way I can think of marketing my business is to be able to interact with my existing clients and their friends in a natural and organic way. I can't do that on FB.

4. Also right now our business information is stored all over the place. We have some in Google drive, some on our local drives, some in spreadsheets, and others in various apps. Before I can find what I am looking for I have to first remember where it's stored. It would really help for us to have a centralized information directory.

 

[Miketing]

What's my biggest problem? Marketing. How can I automate this?

Email? SMS? WhatsApp? FB Messenger bot? That's what most companies do when they want to notify customers of updates or offers.

I still don't see any benefit for the customer though. The "benefits" you listed above are all just features, not benefits. Why would they want to sign up and check up on marketing promotions from all these businesses? If they want to know more about a business, they can just enter the name into Google and check their reviews there or on Yelp or something.

Also right now our business information is stored all over the place.

What do you mean by "business information"? How would you provide a better solution than Google Drive + Google Sheets?

Also, there is no easy way for me to simply list my products and services on my FB page.

Is this not simple enough?

 

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[Qcard]

Thanks to everyone for your feedback. I can definitely sense some strong resenting to just the idea and that's never a good start. In fact, no one seems to think it even has any value. It's interesting to see that everyone seems perfect fine doing things the way they are currently being done even if it may seem overly complicated and inefficient to me. But, I forgot who said this, your market is always right

 

[Miketing]

Thanks to everyone for your feedback. I can definitely sense some strong resenting to just the idea and that's never a good start. In fact, no one seems to think it even has any value. It's interesting to see that everyone seems perfect fine doing things the way they are currently being done even if it may seem overly complicated and inefficient to me. But, I forgot who said this, your market is always right

Maybe there is some value in it, but you're up against the likes of Facebook, Google, Yelp, and LinkedIn. You'd need to come up with some clear advantage to using your solution over theirs.

If you're already giving up after some basic questions and critiques then you don't stand a chance.

 

[Qcard]

Maybe there is some value in it, but you're up against the likes of Facebook, Google, Yelp, and LinkedIn. You'd need to come up with some clear advantage to using your solution over theirs.

If you're already giving up after some basic questions and critiques then you don't stand a chance.

The advantages seems clear to me but then again, what I may find to be a benefit others may not which seems to be the case here. I am currently using a bunch of different apps to run my business. If I could find one that did a lot of these things on some basic level I would find that to be very beneficial but others don't seem to think that way. Again, it doesn't matter what I find useful, if you are building something for people to use, it's what they believe will be useful to them.

 

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[Qcard]

We actually built a prototype of this AFTER we went around and spoke to a couple of small businesses. When we told them what we had in mind they all seemed excited about it and said let me know when it's ready! Once the prototype was ready we sent it to them and most of them didn't even sign up on it and the ones that did, didn't really use it. When we spoke to them they just said that they didn't have time to use it. It's was just another app they would have to learn to use and the potential benefits weren't critical enough to devote that time to it. It's difficult to continue working on something without any positive feedback or traction...

 

[rsrs]

You say about having business information in one place. That’s an entirely different business than the social network idea. I think you have a too broad idea right now.

You need to refine and do just one little thing well.

As you said: business owners didn’t had the time to use your solution. And that’s because it isn’t a solution in the first place, because you see the root problem here is that business owners don’t have any time to spare in something that MAYBE solves something.

I’ve rearranged my company last year with “EOS system” from “Traction” book from Geno Wickman. He provided me with great value because his system really helped me organize my small business. And it’s a book. And now I talk to every biz owner I know about it.

You need to solve problems for ONE person. And this person will talk to others about the solution and it will grow from that. And that’s why social networks are REALLY hard because it’s benefits only shows up when a LOT of users are in the network.

We’re never trying to make you give up, we’re asking questions how will you come up with solutions to real problems. I really hope you all the best on this search.

 

[Qcard]

You say about having business information in one place. That’s an entirely different business than the social network idea. I think you have a too broad idea right now.

You need to refine and do just one little thing well.

As you said: business owners didn’t had the time to use your solution. And that’s because it isn’t a solution in the first place, because you see the root problem here is that business owners don’t have any time to spare in something that MAYBE solves something.

I’ve rearranged my company last year with “EOS system” from “Traction” book from Geno Wickman. He provided me with great value because his system really helped me organize my small business. And it’s a book. And now I talk to every biz owner I know about it.

You need to solve problems for ONE person. And this person will talk to others about the solution and it will grow from that. And that’s why social networks are REALLY hard because it’s benefits only shows up when a LOT of users are in the network.

We’re never trying to make you give up, we’re asking questions how will you come up with solutions to real problems. I really hope you all the best on this search.

I agree. We are trying to do too many things in one app but we don't know which particular functionality to focus on as we haven't gotten any feedback about anything in particular. I don't have a problem giving up. In my mind this was a doomed product because we didn't validate the idea properly. I am now reading The Right It and I wished I had read it years ago.

 

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[rsrs]

If there is one thing I follow is: never give up.

You can change this ideia, you can change your business, you can change things in your life. But if you want to create something you just keep trying and trying and trying.

I don’t even know if I will achieve something great, but with this mindset I have some chance!

 

[biophase]

Good points and suggestions but...

1. You don't see stuff from businesses who you are not a customer of or they are not a contact of yours.

2. TRUST: how do we trust businesses? We look at their reviews and associations. If we can see, for example, a friend is already a customer of a business, that creates trust because we can then go to that friend and ask them about the business.

3. But I am thinking of my own needs as a small business owner. What's my biggest problem? Marketing. How can I automate this? This is also why most small businesses fail or never grow - lack of marketing. (It's certainly our biggest problem.) The best way I can think of marketing my business is to be able to interact with my existing clients and their friends in a natural and organic way. I can't do that on FB.

4. Also right now our business information is stored all over the place. We have some in Google drive, some on our local drives, some in spreadsheets, and others in various apps. Before I can find what I am looking for I have to first remember where it's stored. It would really help for us to have a centralized information directory.

You can create a Facebook group and invite them all to join.

 

[Qcard]

If there is one thing I follow is: never give up.

You can change this ideia, you can change your business, you can change things in your life. But if you want to create something you just keep trying and trying and trying.

I don’t even know if I will achieve something great, but with this mindset I have some chance!

Well, there is nothing wrong with persistence but if the market doesn't want or need your idea then no amount of persistence will make it succeed. I am going to validate the idea based on the method in The Right It AND if it passes the validation I will continue to pursue it. I know that I am not presenting/explaining it as best as it could be done.

 

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[Andy Black]

I’m reminded of this thread:

• HOT! - MINDSET - Stop Building Stuff

 

[Qcard]

I’m reminded of this thread:

• HOT! - MINDSET - Stop Building Stuff

Good point. Thanks!

 

[Qcard]

You guys are welcome to take a look at the prototype site. We definitely need to improve how the site is marketed and explained.

www.qcardme.com

 

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