Shared Needs = Leads

PROskore is an online business network that uses professional reputation scoring to organize and rank the worlds professionals.  What makes our platform more effective than any other social network in the world is our ability to generate real business opportunities for our members by matching them up with one another based on shared needs.  We call this professional matchmaking system 'PROskore Leads'.  Here's how it works:

When completing (and updating) your profile, indicate WHAT YOUR BUSINESS SELLS and WHAT YOUR BUSINESS NEEDS.  Our system will then use this information to match you up to other members based on shared needs.  In other words, for a lead to be generated in PROskore their MUST be a mutual opportunity for both people.

PRO+ members are given first access to new leads and are encouraged to respond to each opportunity through our internal messaging system.  Lead messages typically have a much higher rate of response than a typical invitation to connect due to the strong possibility of actual business being generated based on the shared needs.

Here are the Top 5 Tips for how to use PROskore as a lead generation tool for your business:

1. Complete the Profile Wizard and indicate up to five (5) categories of business that you provide.
2. Complete the Profile Wizard and indicate up to five (5) categories of business that you are in need of.
3. Increase your score. Higher scores get first crack at new leads as they're generated. Ways to improve your score include:  1). linking all of your social networks, 2). entering your professional background, 3). getting recommendations from other members, and 4). verifying your profile by becoming a PRO+ Member.
4. Login on a weekly basis, check your lead inbox, and follow up with each lead.
5. Continue updating your profile with new 'needs'.

Start using PROskore for more than just networking and reputation management... use it for what your business really needs... LEADS!

Video Series Part 1: What Is PROskore?

Last week PROskore launched our first in a series of fun videos designed to teach our members how to benefit from our innovative online business network.  To kick off the video series we thought it would make sense to begin by answering the most basic question... "What Is PROskore?"  (see below).  

Every few weeks we plan to create similar videos in order to:

1. highlight new feature announcements
2. answer common questions
3. provide updates about industry trends.  

It should be fun.  Stay tuned...

Lastly, major kudos to actor Joey Panek and the gang at Hub Studios for putting this video together on such short notice.  Joey was actually wrapping up another shoot when we sprung this little script on him as he was trying to leave the set.  Not bad, huh?

Opt-In vs. Opt-Out

There's been a lot of conversation in recent weeks concerning the responsibility of social measurement companies like PROskore and Klout with regards to privacy.  The extra attention we receive is due in large part to the fact that we're in the 'sensitive' business of rating people.  How we choose to collect and analyze data in order to quantify a person's 'worth' as a human being shouldn't be taken lightly.

Some of the biggest debates are over whether these new social platforms should be what the industry describes as 'Opt-in' or 'Opt-Out'.  For those of you unfamiliar with the lingo, here's low-down:

• Opt-In:  Having the ability to choose explicitly whether to join or permit something.
• Opt-Out:  Having the option to remove yourself from something, regardless of whether you ever chose to opt-in.

With so much public facing data available to developers these days, the ability to pull data from multiple platforms to create a profile about a person whether they like it or not is quickly becoming easier and easier.   Information once available only to the largest data centers in the world is now available through the API's of public networks like Facebook, Twitter and LinkedIn to name a few.  Much of this data can be manipulated and re-formatted in masse to create an entirely new online 'community' out of thin air.  The implications are both exciting and unnerving to many.

PROskore (which measures professional reputation) is one of those companies that has elected to pursue the Opt-In approach to building it's community.  Meaning, every person who has a profile on PROskore has chosen to create it.  Subsequently, each person is also fully aware that they have a PROskore (score) while also having the opportunity easily Opt-Out.

There are a variety of reasons why PROskore has chosen to be 100% Opt-In.  The reasons go beyond the respect we feel people (and their reputation) deserve.  They are also based on the fact that PROskore is first and foremost an online business network designed to help professionals generate business. For this to work effectively, every person on the network must be authentic and engaged.  Allowing people to decide to be a part of the network (i.e. Opt-In) is the obvious first step in making our platform work.

An example of the Opt-Out approach is to take a look at what Klout is doing. Klout, which measures social influence, creates profiles and scores people without their knowledge or permission.  Klout does this by scraping public facing data found on other networks like Twitter and Facebook. Once the data is scraped, Klout assigns a 'social influence' score to the individual based on their popularity on those particular networks regardless of whether the person is actually using those accounts.  To date, Klout claims to have scraped and scored over 100 million profiles.

Unlike PROskore, Klout is in business primarily to sell advertising.  For them, the goal is to assign a score to every human being based on the perceived influence each person has on other social networks.  Similar to Nielsen ratings, Klout sells this information to advertisers and corporations who have an interest in selling products and services.

Opt-In vs. Opt-Out.  Which do you prefer?  

On second thought... Don't bother answering that... you may not have a choice.

:)

PROskore: Keeping score for 4,000+ Business Associations

As we continue to grow, our ability to dissect and make sense of data for practical purposes continues to evolve.  Case in point, we now have over 4,000 business organizations loaded into the PROskore platform, each displaying every member of the network who claims to be a member of each organization.  Not only that but, we're now able to rank all of the members in each of those 4,000+ organizations based on their PROskore.

This has real world implications for how people network with other members in these organizations.  For example, a member of BNI (Business Networking International - the world's largest business networking referral organization), has the ability to quickly see who the top ranked BNI members are in his/her city, state or country by simply searching 'BNI' on PROskore.   The same can be said for countless other types of business organization such a chambers of commerce, leads organizations, and non-profits.

In addition to improving the efficiency of networking within these organizations, PROskore can also show you how you rank among the other members.

If you haven't already added your affiliations (organizations), make sure you do.  The more ways people can find you, the better!  Login and see how you measure up. 

Up Next:  Scoring and Ranking Alumni of every college in the world.