2009 October, 16th

Mihaela Lica

Launched in September 2008 in partnership with LinkedIn and Federated Media, BusinessWeek’s Business Exchange (BX) looked then, like a very promising platform. Initial reviews described the new service as a business social network, and in March 2009 the site even received the min “Best of the Web” award for Best New Site. As BusinessWeek sold to Bloomberg, what will the future bring for the magazine and for Business Exchange, and more importantly, is the service a viable business proposition as it stands now?

This was BusinessWeek’s attempt to “step into the future of the media industry,” as Keith Fox declared back in 2008, but Business Exchange did not “break the traditional media mold” as he hoped. As a matter of fact, BX still has a long way to go to become a valuable resource for business people around the world. Please don’t get this wrong – there is a lot of potential for this service. The idea of bringing together BusinessWeek’s users, readers, writers and editors to “draw on their collective wisdom” is visionary, but the mise en place needs refinement.

Not a Social Network, but a Social-Powered News Aggregator

As it stands now, Business Exchange is not a social network. The site allows users to “follow” each other and to “react” to content shares (120 characters reactions which are automatically published on the author’s LinkedIn and Twitter profiles if desired). These reactions are not a form of dialogue between users, but tidbits of opinion made tweet-able (share-able), useful to drive Twitter traffic to BX – a minor feature already present on every self-respected site (at least in the form of a “tweet this” button).

BX is nothing more than a social bookmarking tool (like Digg) – a content aggregator at best. Describing it as a social network is overreaching. A social network where people have no real dialogue with each other, and virtually no possibility to interact, is a facade, a pointless venture in my view. One of the basic rules of generating user engagement is giving them the possibility to get in touch, to communicate on a personal level. Online, this type of communication has generally two facets: private and public, and Twitter is the best example of how this works. Twitter users share links with their followers, re-tweet interesting updates from  other users, send each other public messages and are even offered the possibility to send each other private messages (in the form of direct tweets). If any service can be called a news aggregator and a social network, Twitter is it – and more importantly, Twitter is self-sufficient.

A Grownup User Base of CEOs and Business Professionals

Business Exchange fails to engage its users in a meaningful dialogue. The shared reactions are disjunctive, lacking continuity (click on the thumbnail on the left to enlarge the image and see an example of “reactions and saves”). Digg had to discontinue the “shouts” to avoid spam (a problem generated by allowing anonymous user accounts and trying to reach a too broad audience), but BX has no reason on earth to block user interactions.

Business Exchange has a “grownup” user base. If this user base could be converted into a community, by allowing the users to interact, the site will reach its full value and potential. By allowing only business professionals in the network, and taking the “verified account” approach, BX can avoid most instances of spam, trolling, etc.

This should be a network for the elite, with premium accounts (a possible idea to monetize – personally I would pay to be part of such a social network, provided that the term is not just hype), zero tolerance for spam and shameless self-promotion. I see Business Week’s BX as a true knowledge share base, where business owners from all industries can communicate, share links, opinions and advice. I see this site as a platform for journalists and PRs to communicate in a meaningful climate, generating personal relationships based on reciprocity and respect. If we talk about new media, BX has the potential to “break the traditional mold,” but not by becoming yet another news aggregator. I see the “exchange” here in its “act of giving something in return for something received” definition. So far the users who submit content to Business Exchange don’t receive much in return for their contribution.

The Future Could Be Brighter…

Two brands will power this community in the future : Business Week, and Bloomberg – which recently announced that it acquired the magazine with all its possessions (plus the assumption of liabilities). Among these possessions Business Exchange stands as the one with the greatest potential of generating revenue online, but they’ll have to move fast. One year after the launch there are not significant improvements to the site. A beautiful design doesn’t mean as much as value for the users, which should be the “network’s” main concern. I hope that the “Company BX” recently announced on the Business Exchange blog will translate into something meaningful.

I see BX going somewhere, with just a little effort. The beginning is great: the user base is homogeneous, the social news aggregator aspect is a plus. What is missing is the Xing business networking for professionals aspect.

I cannot tell how many active users are currently involved in the network, but based on the frequency of the real time public activity updates, the site is not too popular, and the users are not that active – only 7 updates from “Everyone” in one hour (click on the thumbnail on the left to view a screenshot). What the network needs now is to stimulate user-engagement – and giving each day a random user the honor of being “featured user” for 24 hours is not the way. When BX reaches maturity, having a featured profile on its front page will actually mean something: branding, recognition, respect from colleagues, traffic, new business opportunities, etc. Now, with a site with such low user engagement, being a featured user or not doesn’t make any difference. A better idea might be to award some prize with meaning for these selected users? Some type of awards schema to get things going until the user base is up?

I hope the readers understand the intent here: giving BX at least some ideas on how to become the one-stop destination for business professionals. Increasing user engagement is the first and main priority, and this cannot happen just by encouraging people to submit/ share links. BX should remember that “exchange” goes both ways and so far the network offers a one-way narrow street.

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About the Author

Mihaela Lica is senior partner at Pamil Visions PR and editor at Everything PR. She is a widely cited authority on search engine optimization and public relations issues (BBC News, Force for Good, Reuters and others), with an experience of over 7 years in online PR and SEO. Mihaela writes for SitePoint, Search Engine Journal, and other online publications. She also maintains a personal blog called eWritings. Follow Mig on Twitter or send her an email at mig [at] pamil-visions [dot] com.

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