What's next for HSBC yourpointofview.com?

Yesterday, I had a very good conversation with Catherine Ossemerct, Head of Media-Channels at Fortis. Catherine successfully launched Join2Grow.biz, the online community for Entrepreneurs.

During ou conversation, Catherine told me that she was inspired by yourpointofview.com, a website launched by HSBC back in October 2005 (the advertising agency was JWT).









If you traveled from London Heathrow in the last two years, you probably noticed the clever HSBC ads:




This was an excellent initiative from HSBC. The global scale and the budget of the advertising campaign made that marketing effort exceptional. The call to action (visit a micro-site) was quite uncommon too.

Engaging people is always a smart move, and this campaign was a perfect opportunity for HSBC to:
* communicate on their global presence
* demonstrate their understanding of the local markets
* communicate a positive image of the company (Corporate Responsibility): your comments matter to them and they are actively involved in good causes such as saving the Earth.
* promote their service: they display banners randomly (cf left handside). They could improve their landing pages. Many times I felt lost on a main page, even when I was invited to download the Social Responsibility Report 2005.


Please find below a few comments and suggestions.

Even though there is not much activity from HSBC, it looks like members are still reacting to old topics and posting comments.

There are four main sections: Topic of the week, Polls & Data, Commentary and eCards. You can also find a few links to the various parts of the HSBC Group, watch all the Ads, Email a Friend, and give your feedback.

Not a social network
It is not a social network, and with this site HSBC didn't create an online community: there is no community section, no "your profile"/"your account" section, you can't browse the member database, you can't see your list of posts and comments, it is not possible to rate a post or find out who the most active member or best contributor is...

I am surprised that they chose not to add such a section. It is an efficient and easy way to do some profiling, identify evangelists and sneezers, reach smaller groups, and market your services in a cost effective way.

Limited web 2.0 features
Yourpointofview.com it is a kind of limited blogging platform. It is not a social network, there is no video, no rss feeds and no tagging.

Key remarks 
* Customer journey: watch out the landing pages! You don't want your members to get lost!
* The navigation is not intuitive. They should provide more statistics on the topics and polls (date, volume of responses), and improve the display of responses and comments.
* Search doesn't work?
* Refresh your assets! Logos, banners...
* Email a friend is a good feature and it helps to spread the word. But opening outlook is outdated, it doesn't look automated, and it is not easily trackable. I would create a form, ask for a few contact details such as the email address and name of the recipient, and automatically populate my php database.

Topic of the week
There are only 17 topics, whereas HSBC launched the site in October 2005.
You always need to manage expectations: if you have limited resources allocated to a project, why would you set a demanding frequence for updates? Fresh content and regular posts is critical if you want to drive traffic to your blog and keep your members curious and engaged.

Despite heavily promoting their current topic of the week (which week?), Global Warming, on the homepage, there are only four responses and no comments. And two responses are not even relevant: "Bakster, you know i don't speak spanish!!!!!!" and "Stop illegal logging please!".

There is no date. They don't display the total nb of responses and only four responses are displayed at per page. There is no way to quickly identify the most engaging and relevant responses because the number of comments are not displayed either.

For instance, how was I supposed to know that "Do you worry about internet fraud?" generated so much interest among the members? I found 68 responses...
 
Polls and data
The most recent poll open was in April 2007, the others are usually from the end of 2006...
You can display the results by country: it is a nice feature, but it could be disappointing or difficult to use because of a potentially small number of respondents (or no respondent at all). They could display the number of respondents and comments.

Commentary
There are only 11 key topics. The content is generated by a team of editors. The members can react and share their comments.
HSBC should leverage more the Polls and Data figures and create more dynamic pages ("how the world voted" in Is a can of tomato soup or an unmade bed really art? is static)
What is their editorial policy? They could ask the members for their favourite topics.

ecards
Why would I send yourpointofview ecards? You need to urge me to send one of your ecards!
And is it the right time to push for HSBC products and services?


How bright is the future for yourpointofview.com?
It looks like there is not much activity on the website... I wonder what HSBC strategy is for yourpointofview.com:
* do they plan to spend more money and take the website to the next level (create an online community, engage their members and leverage web 2.0 technologies such as rss feeds or tagging)?
* today, it looks like they don't allocate any more resources to the website...

The key challenge is not to create a platform, but build and engage your community. Why would I visit this site on regular basis? What can I find on the platform? How useful is the content to me?
And the key question is what is your goal? Create online communities and leverage the trendy web 2.0 technologies is ok but what banks want to achieve? Which segment or group do they target?

Michael Udell - Creator’s Comments:
“Launched in October 2005, yourpointofview.com had been in formulation since the early part of the year; it changed form and structure but always stayed true to HSBC’s objectives.“
“After a number of brainstorms focusing on possible content and functionality we realized that the potential of the site was huge, we just had to remain focused. There was the risk of creating a global dating Web site, connecting people with similar points of view across a range of topics, but that wasn’t our task.“
“To develop an engaging platform that illustrates different points of view, we focused on the topics brought to life in the initial TV and print campaigns (modern art, cloning, wind farms, haute couture and gorillas) and attempted to understand how people reacted to them.“

ING's "Pick your financial advisors" blog

ING is one of the most dynamic and innovative European banks in terms of web 2.0 and buzz/viral marketing. They have a Dutch "mini-state" on Second Life, they recently launched moveoutmoveup.com a viral marketing site with its own profile on YouTube...

On regular basis, I check the ING Asia/Pacific's blog initiated by Jacques Kamp, CEO ING Asia/Pacific. A couple of weeks ago, I found out about their excellent initiative in India, the Pick Your Financial Advisor blog.

I am always very pleased to see a leading bank innovating and utilizing web 2.0 features. Even if the new platform or service is not perfect. Recently, I reviewed the phase 2 of Join2Grow.biz, the European Network for Entrepreneur launched by another innovative bank in the Benelux, Fortis Bank.

My goal is to share my comments and my suggestions to improve the service and better engage their members. The customer experience is key: nowadays, in the web 2.0 era, people want more control. Before launching a new platform, companies should aim to create and build a community. Then, they need to make sure they engage their members and urge them to post some value added content on regular basis. Companies must focus mainly on providing a comprehensive and intuitive platform, and let their members produce the content.

But most banks refrain from implementing web 2.0 technologies because of potential brand damage. They are scared of user-generated content. But an aggressive comment or complain on your blog is not a problem, as long as you respond to it!

PickURAdvisor.com is a sort of blogging platform, not a social network. It is a good initiative, I like the idea of being able to choose your advisor, know a bit more of her/his background and put a face on the advisor, and see some activities and responsiveness from her/him.

As a potential client, it should definitely urge me to use the service and get in touch with the most suitable advisor. Moreover, I have a good feeling about ING which demonstrate they want to develop a good long-term relationship with me.

But how am I supposed to choose among the advisors? How do I get to use this service if ING don't promote it on its website? What if the interface is not intuitive? How comfortable with the service should I be if I find some inappropriate content or other visitors/members personal contact numbers?...

This is a good example of potentially damaging user-generated content. The good news is that it is easily addressable, with a moderator who constantly monitor the blog.
 
Please find below my comments and my suggestions.

Interface - main menu
FIRST COMPANY TO FEATURE ITS INSURANCE ADVISORS...
It links to the media section of ING's website. You are lost, and there is no link to the original press release...
Is this link targeted to potential clients, potential employees or investors?

BASICS OF LIFE INSURANCE
I think the Font used is too small, and not suited to older people.
There are no hyperlinks on the pages and at the end there is no call to action. For instance, on page 13, I was expecting to find a link to the "Lifemaker application" info page on their website.

It is an interactive book. Why not, but it is not ideal in terms of user experience, and it could have been more interactive. As best practice, I invite you to check "the Virtual Forest" section of first direct interactive.

DOWNLOAD THIS WALLPAPER
Why would I do that? Moreover, it looks like the picture is not displayed on the website... I would be curious to find out a) the reasons why they decided to add that option... b) how many times this wallpaper has been downloaded!

GET TAX FREE INCOME ON RETIREMENT
It is merely a link to the website...

Interface - poor navigability
The interface is not intuitive and a bit messy: a lot of info or features are below the fold, the home button is at the bottom of the page... The user experience is critical if you want to drive traffic to your service, and urge your members to login frequently, be more active and contribute.
* A fair proportion of "communty blogs" are useless: you can only see the standard "Please enter your message here". Also, it is easy to duplicate your message by mistake... Before submitting the post, they should launch a script which controls the body of the message.
* Browsing the communty blogs is not user friendly, and it takes for ever to find a message which is relevant to you.
   
One of the key misses is the absence of categories or taggs. Tagging is the base of pretty much all the web 2.0 websites and communities. It is a very efficient way to find all the relevant info about a specific topic, share that info between members and urge them to contribute.

Registration & User Profile
Early in the registration process, they ask you to choose my advisor. But how are you supposed to choose your prefered advisor at that stage?

* Add testimonial: it is good to urge your members to leave a testimonial. But here, it looks like there is only one online! Does it mean that: no one ever left a testimonial? They received many testimonials but they were that bad? They receive many testimonials, but they don't bother checking and publishing them?
* Blog rating: this is an interesting feature. Now, I feel like I am in control. But am I rating each post? Or the whole private blog with my personal advisor? What is the impact of my vote? There is no point sending my feedback if no action is taken.
* Reminders: it is a basic reminder/alarm service. I couldn't find the list of reminders on my personal homepage.
* Face-to-Face meeting: when you click on the link, another page appear saying that you will be contacted shortly. That is it!

The Advisor profiles
* The way advisors introduce themselves is diversed but there is no consistency.
Is the goal of the blog to recruit more advisors OR to develop warmer, more personal, relationships with clients? As a potential client, do I really want to hear about "growth potential"? Nope.
* I was surprised to find some personal email addresses?
* I would challenge the value of displaying personal photos. Moreover, most of the time the advisors forgot to add a description. There is no checking: "Upload family photo and enter a caption".
* They introduce their personal background.

Fine, but I need to better understand what their approach is and find out about their key skills which could help me as a client. I need to understand how successful and popular my advisor is: it would be benefitial to have access to the nb of community blogs, private blogs, face 2 face meetings, and blog ratings by advisor.
 
No control? It means a higher risk of brand damage
No "moderator"? Visitors promote pharmacy, viagra, ringtones, porn...
It looks like the advisors themselves don't check their community blogs!

It does not communicate a positive image of the company. A visitor may well think: "OK it is a good service, but ING don't care. They don't even read the content of the posts..."


No promotion on ING Vysya Life Insurance website?
I briefly browsed the ING V.L.I. website. I may have missed them, but I couldn't find any references or links to pickuradvisor.com.

When companies launch such an innovative service they should: a) be proud, b) communicate and send press releases to early adopters and sneezers, c) promote the new service on their website.

Stats - 31 July 07
* 6 cities & 27 advisors: Bangalore (5), Chennai (5), Delhi (5), Hyderabad (4), Mumbai (4) and Pune (4).
* It looks like there are just 490 posts for over 20 advisors since the launch. 

Terms and conditions
I rarely go trough all the T&Cs, but this time I wanted to find out more about ING's policy in terms of control and moderation on the blog.

Messages
This site hosts message boards, and chat services for both public and private forums. The Users may please note that any information that is disclosed in public forums becomes public information. Users should exercise caution when deciding to disclose their personal information on such forums.
Fair enough, but what if the advisors are asking for those contact details in the community blogs... Should they do it? On many occasions, I found some personal contact details in public posts.
 
Editing
IVL reserves the right to edit/delete the content contributed by Users in its blog forums, if the same in the opinion of IVL is against law, morality and IVL’s Business Principles.
Cf my "No control?" section...

Join2Grow - Phase 2

Yesterday, I received an email from Join2Grow, the social network for European Entrepreneurs launched by Fortis in February 2007.

Today, they will launch the phase 2 of Join2Grow.


 
I joined the network back in March 2007 to review the interface.

Please find below my initial conclusions:
First, I want to salute this initiative again: it is great to see a bank having a go at social networking! But Fortis need to do it right. If they want their new venture to be a success, they need to:
1. market their online community
2. reach a critical mass of members
3. engage their members, encourage them to post
4. involve them, ask for suggestions
5. enhance the platform accordingly, differentiate themselves
6. become one of the most valuable resources for european entrepreneurs

Fortis had some good ideas, but they need to improve the platform, organize all the valuable information, urge their members to contribute, and especially create more value for them!

I also shared my suggestions and ideas.

I must admit I haven´t been using the service since then.
Yesterday, I checked their Entrepreneur magazine section to find out that at the end of June they posted an article to introduce their phase 2 and ask their members for feedback and suggestions.


This is a good initiative: if you really want to improve your platform or your services, ask your members and your clients! The more involved they are, the more successful your redesign.

Key remarks
* First, I didn´t receive any notification: no email push to my personal address, not even an email to my mailbox on Join2Grow... How can they receive enough feedback if their members are not aware of their initiative?
* "we are asking all our visitors for feedback"... I assume they meant members, not visitors.
* Did they have only 1700 members after 4 months of service? ("now 1700 strong and rising") I would love to better understand Fortis key goal and expectations for their platform (nb of active members? Key milestones with timeframe?)
* They will launch the new service today, Tuesday 24th July. It took them less than a month to gather customer feedback, use those feedback, implement the best ideas, and release the improved platform?

New features and my comments to the Join2Grow team
They claim that "they have updated the layout and design, and they are in the process of adding a host of new features". It is 11:11pm in France and the platform hasn't changed yet...

New features:
* LIVE VIDEO CONFERENCES with well-known entrepreneurs
You seem very proud with that live video service. Did your member identify live video as the main feature missing on your platform? I would be quite surprised...
* ON-LINE CHAT
* IMPROVED NETWORK SEARCH OPTIONS that allow you to search according to a variety of categories, including location, type of business, interests
* E-MAIL NOTIFICATIONS of the latest content about he subjects that interest you
That's good news. It is critical to notify your members via email. And please, insist on the "call to action": urge them to share their comments or post some new content on your platform.
* ENHANCED COMPANY PROFILE that presents much more detailed information, giving you the opportunity to effectively promote your business
* NEWSLETTER summarizing recently-posted articles and alerting you to what's new on the site

We'll also be introducing more improvements and new features, such as member-created forums, in the near future. Great, at least some kind of web 2.0 features and user generated content! Which kind of technology do you plan to implement? What is your timeframe?

We are committed to building the Join2Grow community and making it the most powerful and effective networking tool available for entrepreneurs in Europe. This is a big challenge. A lot of European entrepreneurs already joined very successful, international, online business networks such as Linkedin and Xing (formally openbc)...

online_banking_summit_2007: a success!

First, I must congratulate the Royal Media Group: JJ Hornblass and his dynamic team have done a tremendous job! It is particulary impressive as it was their first online banking event.

A good mix of panels & presentations, and an excellent alchemy on stage 
I have attended a lot of conferences in various countries, on various topics, and as far as I remember, it is the first time there was such a consensus from the delegates: they all found the sessions very valuable, and they agreed the format worked extremely well.

Most sessions were organized in panels of three or four experts: during the sessions, someone from Royal Media Group came to collect the questions from the audience. Then, the moderator asked most of those questions to the panel.
The discussions were relaxed, and very valuable as the speakers got on extremely well together. They shared not only their thoughts but also their own experiences, good or bad.

The presentations were very interesting and contained a lot of useful facts and figures. My congratulations to:
* Robin Nakamura, Senior VP, eBusiness, First National Bank
* Theo Moumtzidis, Managing VP, First Manhattan Consulting Group

My Top 5 speakers
All the speakers were chosen carefully, and I liked them all. They were enthusiatic, and they knew how to share their experience with an audience.
Nevertheless, I would like to share my Top 5 speakers with you.
* Bruce Hobbs, Fifth Third Bank: according to me, Bruce has to be the top speaker. He did a great job on stage, and shared a lot of information about his success but also his shortcomings. He made a very valuable contribution. Moreover, I had the chance to have dinner with him twice this week. Bruce is a great guy, extremely knowledgeable, and he has worked on many projects all over the world.
* Alan Lyon, Wachovia Corp.: a bit like Bruce, Alan shared a lot of information on stage. Both were part of the same panel, and I found the interaction between them perfect during their discussion on "Overcoming Internal & Technology Challenges". Unfortunately, I didn't have the pleasure to talk to Alan...
* Drew Sievers, mFoundry: Drew has an extensive experience in mobile banking, not only in the US but he and his company are also working on many international projects in countries such as India or Japan. Drew was capable of addressing many topics and issues from the banks, the telcos and the regulatory angles. He is a very good speaker, very knowledgeable, and he successfully uses a good mix of specific examples and good jokes.
* Theo Moumtzidis, First Manhattan Consulting Group: Theo is an excellent consultant. He shared a new presentation about the impact of Online Banking in Retail Banking. Theo demonstrated a great knowledge of the industry, shared a lot of valuable info and facts about the current and future trends in Retail Banking, and he is an excellent speaker who uses the right jokes (or pictures ;-)) at the right time. His presentation, the last of the day, was very entertaining.
* Rob Klapper, Prosper.com: Rob and I were participating to the same panel on web 2.0. Rob is a great guy, and even though he joined Prosper.com (a really exciting company, in an exciting space!) only 3 months ago, Rob showed a lot of enthusiasm and passion for Peer-to-Peer and their Social Lending market place!

You can find all the biographies of the speakers here.

Our session on web 2.0 and Peer-to-Peer
I was really thrilled and honored to be the only speaker who came from Europe.
I believe the attendees showed interest in our session: web 2.0 is mainly a marketing name, and people are still a bit confused and don't know if banks should use "technologies" such as social networking, blogging, RSS, Podcasts, Videos...

The main fear is about brand damage. Fortunately, we still see some promising web 2.0 initiatives from banks such as Wells Fargo and its blogs, or Fortis Bank and its new social network for entrepreneurs, Join2Grow.

The key messages from Vince, Ed, Rob and myself were:
* web 2.0 is all about giving the power & more control to the people
* it has an impact on people's expectations: they express themselves, and they expect companies to listen and show they care
* complaints are good, they give you the opportunity to win a faithful base of clients
* before using one/several of those technologies, think carafully about your goals
* you need to create value to the members of your community, you need to engage them and urge them to contribute

At the end of our session, we advised the audience to check out the following websites: netvibes, ning, Linkedin, wesabe... and of course Prosper, BillHighway and Visible Banking! ;-)

Excellent networking opportunity
Everybody was impressed not only by the quality of the speakers, but also by the attendees. Because of its size (around 100 people), this conference was one of my very best networking experiences. I met a lot of very knowledgeable, approchable and friendly people. They all came to the conference not only to get something out of it, but also to share their experience.

In two days, I have met people from the following companies:
1st Bank, Aite, AnchorBank, Banco Popular, Bank of America, Bharosa, BillHighway.com, Capstrat, CheckFree, Cibernet, ClairMail, DataQuick, Edgar Dunn & Company, E-Loan, EquiFirst, Fifth Third Bank, First American Title Insurance Company, First Manhattan Consulting Group, First National Bank, iGobanking.com, Keane, MarkMonitor, Marshall & Ilsley Corporation (M&I), Medianet, Mellon, mFoundry, PayStream, Prosper, RBC Centura, RSA Security, Scarborough Research, Secora, Silanis, Spectrum Message, Stax, the Royal Media Group, TowerGroup, United Commercial Bank, Wachovia, Wells Fargo, Wescom Resources Group.

They came mainly from the US, but also from Canada and Puerto Rico.
 
a few pictures


JJ, I will definitely recommend your conference and it would be a pleasure to be invited to speak next year. Keep up the good work!
... and you should think of organizing the equivalent in Europe too!

Review - Join2Grow.biz (Part 4)

Review - Join2Grow.biz (Fortis)
Review - Join2Grow.biz (Part 2): Registration, Profile, Contacts
Review - Join2Grow.biz (Part 3): RSS, Channels, Podcasts, Polls
Review - Join2Grow.biz (Part 4): Conclusion
___________________________________________________________________________________

GOALS & INTERESTS
* For Fortis: their goal is to be seen as the prefered financial partner for entepreneurs. This network is a fantastic source of info on their target market, and they leverage it correctly, it is an excellent (and cost-effective!) way to create new products, or enhance the way they do business and support the entrepreneurs.
* For Entrepreneurs: their goal is not as obvious as Fortis... Indeed, time is money, and I see a problem:
-> What if I am already a member of the excellent Linkedin or Xing, two bigger and more international networks, with members from all industries and backgrounds where I can find potential clients, business partners, suppliers, distributors, prospects, where I can recruit my future managers...
-> What it I also belong to some local and very active business associations such as NBI...
Why would I invest (again) my precious time on this new platform?
What would made me visit the website on regular basis? (quality of the members?, Useful resources?, Rich content?, Business opportunities?, Fame?...)

Nb: Launching a new social network to create a community around its key market, or around its products is a very good idea, and if successful, it could lead to a significant increase of market share.
But it is hard work, especially with big, well-known, generalists networks such as MySpace... For example, Google helped Nike design its soccer community site, called Joga.com, but it does not appear to have significantly attracted users.

CONCLUSION
First, I want to salute this initiative again: it is great to see a bank having a go at social networking! But Fortis need to do it right. If they want their new venture to be a success, they need to:
1. market their online community
2. reach a critical mass of members
3. engage their members, encourage them to post
4. involve them, ask for suggestions
5. enhance the platform accordingly, differentiate themselves
6. become one of the most valuable resources for european entrepreneurs

Fortis had some good ideas, but they need to improve the platform, organize all the valuable information, urge their members to contribute, and especially create more value for them!

SUGGESTIONS
1. market their online community
I would create a blog, and have a resource dedicated to monitor the blogosphere and create some buzz (comment other posts, make sure to appear on Google, Technorati and the blog directories...)
Moreover, I couldn't find no logo or link for Join2Grow on Fortis Merchant Banking's homepage: did I miss it?

2. reach a critical mass of members
You are not really urged to invite more people. Contrary to Linkedin, there is no ranking in terms of nb of connexions, no incentive to grow your network.
Fortis could think of special offers/incentives to identify the best champions: they could to promote a company or a service, or broadcast a commercial.
Also, they should promote the members with the more contacts and display a ranking of the "top networkers".

3. engage their members, encourage them to post
They should organize frequent competitions (entrepreneurs like competing) to post the most useful article on a topic, or the best advice.
They should proactively look for members willing to be interviewed.

4. involve them, ask for suggestions
They should ask their memberfor suggestions (new section, better display, new channel, missing communication feature...)
Again, they could organize a competition to reward the most useful/most creative idea.

5. enhance the platform accordingly, differentiate themselves
Create a financial advisory section: "Ask Fortis experts a question?" to create trust, confidence, and build profitable long term relationships.
Organize offline meetings, recruit moderators, identify a few champions... Follow Xing example!

Nb: Online networking is a fantastic creator of opportunities, but nothing will ever replace a good handshake, and face to face meetings!

6. become one of the most valuable resources for european entrepreneurs
They should create a link/resource section like a directory of useful resources for entrepreneurs. (a public page with limited info, which could be referred on del.icio.us, and urging you to register to access the full info)

Other remarks & ideas
Fortis obviously want their members to use their proprietary interface to communicate (like the old AOL walled garden) They don't give access to the contact details.
They should catagorize and differentiate comments and questions, and ask their members to rate how useful the comments/questions are (like online communities do, such as ebay or tripadvisor...)
Categorize your surveys, add some content from specialized websites. Add an event section, a calendar.
   
Fine tune the profiles: find the right balance between social & business
I think they put too much focus on hobbies and personal info. It looks "too social", and the search features aren't satisfying.

Review - Join2Grow.biz (Part 3)

Review - Join2Grow.biz (Fortis)
Review - Join2Grow.biz (Part 2): Registration, Profile, Contacts
Review - Join2Grow.biz (Part 3): RSS, Channels, Podcasts, Polls
Review - Join2Grow.biz (Part 4): Conclusion
___________________________________________________________________________________

RSS Feeds
Excellent: most info is available in RSS feeds! It enables you to be kept posted of any changes directly in your feeds reader, without having to visit the website.

You have access to the following RSS Feeds:

Based on an Interest:
* Most recent Comments
* Most active users (how does it work?)
* Related interests

Based on the Entrepreneur magazine (everything or per channel)
* Entrepreneur magazine: New Trends
* Entrepreneur magazine: Travel
* Entrepreneur magazine: Profile
* Entrepreneur magazine: Enterprise

Based on your private messages
* New messages in your mailbox - Your Private Messages

Based on the survey
* You can keep track of discussions related to a specifc survey.

Channels
Web 2.0 is all about user experience and sharing info: files, movies, songs...
The peer-to-peer technology revolutionnized the way we communicate (skype), we buy music (napster), we get rid of second hand goods (ebay)...

Nowadays, the term channel is very popular. Mainly because of the fantastic success of websites dedicated to video sharing: the YouTube phenomenon is huge, and many other companies would like to gain precious market share in that space (dailymotion, buzznet, pod.tv...)

Videos are catagorized using tags, and could be regrouped as part of specific channels.


 

 
With the channels, Fortis wants to create a spirit, a community: they expect the members to share their experience, their advice. They started with the Travel channel, which makes sens: most european entrepreneurs travel, and are happy to find out about good hotels, good restaurants and good deals!

Podcasts
In the Entrepreneur magazine section, you have access to podcasts (text, voice or video)
I like the video interviews: quality is good, and you can access directly a specific question which saves you time.

You are invited to start a discussion and leave a comment/question.
When you leave a comment on an interview, is it also linked to an interest? How can you be aware of that comment without the specific RSS Feed?

Nb: Again comments or questions are good: it creates traffic and generates activities on your site. But members need to know they exist!
They need more channels (probably a resources/links section), and I am not sure of the way existing articles are categorized: the Have you read article is currently in the Entreprise section, which contains mainly interviews of Entrepreneurs... The difference between Profile & Entreprise is not obvious to me.

News
I don't find the BBC World Business news feed useful. It just look like they wanted to fill up the screen. They could have used that place for more useful links for instance, or to better promote an article based on the tags of the contact in context.

Polls
Excellent tool for Fortis. And I like the fact that it is visually nice, quick, and you can comment. Again, it is messy and you need to check every single message to make sure there is something appealing... Or if you don't want to say something again.
 
And you have to check a couple of different pages if there are more than 5/7 comments... Waste of time. Other people that have responded -> displaying the title of the comment would be more useful. Here, I will click randomly...

Nb: Categorize your questions, and display all the categories on the first page.

NEXT: Review - Join2Grow.biz (Conclusion)

Review - Join2Grow.biz (Part 2)

Review - Join2Grow.biz (Fortis)
Review - Join2Grow.biz (Part 2): Registration, Profile, Contacts
Review - Join2Grow.biz (Part 3): RSS, Channels, Podcasts and Polls
Review - Join2Grow.biz (Part 4): Conclusion
___________________________________________________________________________________

Entrepreneur survey

Entrepreneur magazine

Entrepreneur network

REGISTRATION
From my laptop at home, I had some strange problems when I tried to register. I filled in all the fields, making sure my ID was unique and my email not registered, but I couldn't go to the next stage of the process.
I stayed on the same page, with the following error messages:
* This nickname is already taken, please choose another one
* This email is already associated with another account
* You have to accept our terms of use

I decided to try again from an internet cafe, and it worked perfectly well! How Weird...

EDIT YOUR PROFILE
Please find below a slideshow of the main screens you have to go through to create a good profile.

Nb: again, that is one of my key messages when I talk about social networking and online visiblity: your goal is to be visible! People must be in a position to find you! Be as specific as possible, and use efficient key words.

SOCIAL or BUSINESS?
I have nothing else to add about the profile, except that I find the positionning of this platform quite unclear: is it a social network? a business network? a hybrid network?

Nb: Sharing a hobby or a passion is a good way to create strong relationships quicker, but in that case I think quite a lot of questions are too personal (but you can choose to make your answers available to everyone or not)

GROW YOUR NETWORK
There are three different status for your Contacts: incoming, outgoing, and yourcontacts.

There are two ways to grow your network: either invite your personal contacts, or contact existing members. When you add an existing member to your contacts, you send an outgoing contact request, pending member approval.

Leaving a private message ("Leave a message" box) or adding someone as a contact are two different things here.

Nb: I think Fortis don't urge you to develop your network. On Linkedin, the more direct contacts you have, the more members you can reach. It is a smart way to make you want to grow your network!

There is a limitation here as there is no notion of degrees of separation. It looks like now the only way for members to differentiate themselves is to be "active", which means to post a lot of comments or questions!
 
SEARCH CRITERIA: THE INTERESTS
The main "search criteria" is the interests: an interest is like a tag. So far, they have based their search methodology solely on those tags: currently, you don't have access to an advanced search page with selection criteria such as country, city or industry...

I hope it is going to be part of the next release. You select one or several interests -> you find all the members who have the same interests.

LEAVE A COMMENT OR A QUESTION?
Then, you are invited to leave a comment or a question? They are both identified as Comment.
The "Answers service" is quite popular (companies like Yahoo! or Linkedin are using it to urge their members to use the website and create more traffic)

But here, I find it messy: the comment/question is linked with an interest. How can you easily identify the questions, and take part of a discussion if you don't have a proper title, and just rely on a tag which is quite generic?

Nb: I am really surprised they used the same categorisation for a comment or a question!
Comments should be linked with a question which should be linked with a tag.

MOST ACTIVE MEMBERS
The notion of "Most active entepreneurs" is interesting: what does it mean? Are they the people who posted more comments/questions? Couldn't it be the people who sent the most invitations? People with the more contact?
I believe it is the members who posted the more comments/questions for a specific tag/interest.

Nb: then, they should display the number of comments per interest per user, it would be useful.

NEXT: Review - Join2Grow.biz (Part 3)

Review - Join2Grow.biz (Fortis)

Review - Join2Grow.biz (Fortis)
Review - Join2Grow.biz (Part 2): Registration, Profile, Contacts
Review - Join2Grow.biz (Part 3): RSS, Channels, Podcasts and Polls
Review - Join2Grow.biz (Part 4): Conclusion
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I wonder why banks in Benelux seem to lead the way in the european banking industry in terms of innovation and web 2.0.

If we already met, you know how passionate I am about social/business networking and web 2.0! I am extremely pleased to see banks like Fortis or ING overcome the concerns about brand damage that usually prevent banks for implementing web 2.0 technologies!

I will review Join2Grow.biz, the social network for European entrepreneurs launched by Fortis in February 2007, from a user point of view and from the view of an expert in social networking.

I am curious to understand how Fortis plan to fully utilize and leverage this network in the future... But first, they need to market it, significantly grow the number of members, and make sure their members are using it! Now, they need to MAKE IT HAPPEN!

It is an excellent, and clever, way for Fortis Merchant Bank to gather info and statistics about entrepreneurs. They can profile their members, and better understand what their expectations and concerns are.
Their key goal is probably to build credibility, trust, and position themselves as the favourite financial partner for entrepreneurs in Europe. If they do it well, they could use the input from members to enhance their marketing campaigns, or launch new offers/financial products.

ABOUT
From the website.
Join2Grow.biz is an on-line networking community for European entrepreneurs.

Initiated by Fortis Merchant & Private banking, and conducted in partnership with TNS Sofres and McKinsey, it is the first survey to focus specifically on entrepreneurs in order to develop a complete and accurate picture of who they are and what drives them.

Their survey is one of the reasons for the launch of this network: Fortis wants entrepreneurs to access the results, start discussions & share comments, and respond to new surveys on a regular basis. Very clever... If it works.

HOMEPAGE
The homepage is clear and very pleasant. There is a good mix of flash animation (insisting on Fortis survey) and text.

Moreover, you understand fairly quickly that the website is divided into three main sections:
 
* Entrepreneur survey
* Entrepreneur magazine
* Entrepreneur network

The emphasis is on the registration: Fortis wants you to register! (and I am not blaming them)

This homepage really "feels" web 2.0, it is dynamic: you see a Flash animation, several RSS Feeds, and more importantly some Tags (called "Interests" on this platform). When you scroll down, you also see some articles/posts with comments.

On the negative side, I admit that I am not a huge fan of long web pages where you need to scroll down to find extra features or options (like the Entrepreneur magazine's Channels or the "most active entrepreneurs")

NEXT: Review - Join2Grow.biz (Part 2)