BranchOut is a Facebook application designed for finding jobs, networking professionally, and recruiting employees. Some points during presentation impressed me a lot.
First is the idea of this app. Actually I think it is a common idea when developing a Facebook app or on other social network apps. We add the power of social network on existing applications. Like BranchOut, the main function about jobs finding is just an interface of Totaljobs.com. Users can do simple search and click apply to redirect to Totaljobs website. That website is a good functional job matching platform. BranchOut moves that function on a social network platform to allow user share their working information with their friends. This fully use the feature of social network: large user base. User can know more about the companies` requirement without applying the interview. This will bring social communication to simple job finding.
Next, one good feature about this app is that you can know your friends` working history, and people can endorse others through this app. The main purpose of building stuffs should be benefits the users. I
think this is a good feature which can help some users get useful information about their desired jobs.
Also this is the power of social network. On the other hand, companies also can get benefits from this app. Based on users CV or profile, they can get all people who match their requirement. It is much easier to find people on social network platform.
Then commercial
potential is quite weak for the app, since various business models for social
apps do not apply. It does
not have in-app
purchases. Also lack
of distinguishing features is causing a loss of users. Since the main function is from other source, users actually can choose that source to get their purpose. I go through Totaljobs and find there are more feature than BranchOut. More professional people may use that one. Social network has good advantage of large user base but it also needs lots of users. So if not much people use BranchOut, it will keep losing users. So BranchOut needs to retain its user base. Some advices are getting more detailed jobs and detailed user information. Also it needs someway to ensure the reliability of information and user`s` privacy.
In my opinion, this kind of app is quite popular since it is hard to find a good job now. It is easy for user to know all his/her friends working history and lists of jobs company offered through this kind of apps. For branchOut since it is an interface of Totaljobs by huilding social network on it, it should build entire key function of Totaljobs. Compared to Totaljobs it lacks a function for find the correct person who match their requirement most. So why not user direct use Totaljobs which has more function than branchOut. However to let more people use this app, some evidences of reliability of information and keep users privacy safe must be added.
Anyway, we can learn this kind of idea when we are building stuff. Since people are main concern we can add social network in our applications to get more user base and communication between users. Of course, this is not enough for an app to be successful. It must support entire functions to ensure good user experience and reasonable commercial benefit.
Haha it's so coincidental, you're reviewing my app and I'm reviewing yours!
ReplyDeleteAgree that Branchout is one of those apps that have a strong potential, but its execution is just plain flawed. It has some awesome things that my groupmates talked about, like the data-mining of friends' profiles. But sadly the user experience is rather bad.
Of course, the viability of the app in general is in question. With nothing obvious that is characteristic, it'll probably fall into the realms of the forgotten apps. (we may end up referring to it in the future as "the FB app that tried to be LinkedIn") The value that it poses to most users are very little.
So, we must have that distinctive feature that makes our app stand out from the crowd, and not just be another of many similar apps.
Yeah, building a stuff correct is not so hard, what matters is building a correct stuff. It is important to us since we need to build many apps after this. We need figure out what user really want and how to improve user experience.
DeleteI will play the role of devil's advocate here. I personally feel that I will never want to use Branchout. Professional profile should never mix with social profile. The things you do while you are with friends are just not things i want to share with my colleague, boss and clients. Even with a good user interface, I think that the potential of Branchout would be limited by their greatest asset, "being on facebook"
DeleteJay
Want to be geek - http://wtbg.blogspot.sg/
Yeah, that`s a big problem about this kind of app. There should be a more professional platform for their use like TotalJobs. That may be the reason of branchOut is not so popular now...
DeleteI think you are right that the idea of utilizing social network in job searching is of great potential. BranchOut did find the correct question to solve, but it just didn't do the right thing.
ReplyDeleteAlso, It was really annoying that the app forces users to send requests to all their friends. I got lot's of requests when it was released and many of my friends started using it.
Agree with you, it is hard to do the right thing sometimes. Also the sending request part, they may just think how to attract more users but not focus on the user experience...
DeleteThanks for your review. One thing we didn't mention in the presentation is the conflict between Facebook and BranchOut caused on the user side. People like to post anything they want to say on Facebook without much thinking, yet they become very cautious when presenting themselves to their employers. Hence if people seriously take BranchOut as a formal job application portal, they need to be careful with every post on their timeline. This inevitably hinders the original freedom of Facebook.
ReplyDeleteNo idea how they are going to sort it out. Facebook is largely for entertainment and social networking. Problems always arise when people want to take it as a formal platform.
DeleteYeah, maybe this kind of app should have its own system. But it is hard to get so many users in few time. Maybe a standalone app will seem better than iframe one.
DeleteIn my opinion, BranchOut may not be useful. It may have greater potential as a standalone application. It is because users usually don't like to provide correct or formal information to Facebook. LinkedIn is more attractive for headhunters and jobseekers.
ReplyDeleteReading your statement that "BranchOut moves that function on a social network platform to allow user share their working information with their friends. This fully use the feature of social network: large user base."
ReplyDeleteWhen times are hard, don't we naturally rely on each other's contact or network to introduce jobs or even contracts?! There's opportunities in this direction via Facebook too. Perhaps BranchOut is still evolving it's business model, and we can join in the evolution too with some app idea along this direction : ))