What do you get if you take a social networking site like Facebook, but then, instead of endless 25 Things lists and Scrabulous games, build in a way for members to post and bid on all sorts of jobs in categories that range from accounting to graphic design to translation services? You get VOIS.com, a social networking site for business commerce.
Membership at VOIS is free, but participating in the site’s online commerce system — such as posting and bidding on jobs — costs “points.” Thankfully, you get these points by participating in the site. I got over 700 points just for completing a comprehensive profile on the site, and it only took a handful of them to bid on my first project (helping someone rewrite blog posts for a site about to launch — a contract which I did not win, in case you care).
It’s an interesting idea, but the implementation is a horrific mix of professional and creepy. Several people pinged me out of the blue to comment on my profile photo. Your status options include “is in love” and “is pretending to work.” And the other day I received this automated email: “Aren’t you proud of yourself? A buyer saw your Profile on VOIS and invited you to submit a bid.” Really? Was this site designed by a 4th grader?
I recently ranted about VOIS in Guy Vs. Guy: Is Social Networking Good for Business?, but I wanted to pose the question directly to you fine readers. Am I missing something here? VOIS seems to have leveraged all of the worst aspects of social networking and built it into a site no respectable business would go anywhere near. Your thoughts?
