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
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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)
Comments