SocialYell is a new community website for people who are interested in discussing, promoting and discovering ‘good’ organizations, meaning companies that are “socially responsible, environmentally progressive and globally aware”, business or non-profits alike. The website is launching sometime today, but you can already access it using the passcode ‘techcrunch’ if you’re interested in trying it out yourself.
From a technical or feature standpoint, SocialYell doesn’t bring anything new to the table, and simply borrows techniques from other popular social sites like Digg and Yelp to try and turn the website into a real community of engaged users (i.e. giving them the ability to rate, vote, share on other social networks, etc.). The main differentiator with other services, according to founder David Rostan, is that SocialYell users engage in ratings and votings not just for the sake of determining which organizations are more popular, but zooms in on specific company actions and initiatives to eventually surface which companies are on the right track (from a social viewpoint) and which ones aren’t.
To avoid putting too much emphasis on the green aspect of being a non-evil company, the site is subdivided into 5 categories: environment, health, social equity, consumer advocacy and charity. SocialYell aims to become a place where users come together to add, discuss and rate organizations and possibly even individuals (i.e. politicians), but that’s not the whole story: representatives from companies are also invited to participate in the online conversation. From what I could gather, most organizations that want to do that will need to pay for membership, unless they’re a non-profit, and the ultimate goal for SocialYell is to give some of its profits back to charities.
Rostan hopes to “make organizations and business better global citizens” by rewarding social and environmental responsibility and hold companies accountable for their actions, which in turn should make the world a better place for everyone. It’s an admirable goal without question, but I can’t help but smile every time someone thinks a lone web service can have such a big social impact that it would benefit everyone, from consumers to businesses to the entire society, as the news release purports.
Hope springs eternal, of course, although I just don’t think it works that way, and I also think there are far better, more extensive tools on the web today that can leverage the power of crowds to bring about changes in society.
Your thoughts?
I hope it works…good lucky.
Here’s wishing David and the crew all the best in SocialYell’s life. A worthy idea, for sure.
Robin: What other sorts of “far better, more extensive tools” are you thinking of?
Facebook, for example.
It’s funny you mention Facebook, because as I read the part where you say “I can’t help but smile every time someone thinks a lone web service can have such a big social impact that it would benefit everyone, from consumers to businesses to the entire society, as the news release purports.” I think of every time I hear a Facebook exec talk about their product in the same way.
Yet another vote up vote down system that is super simple to game and get the results that you want for your company and the bad results you wish upon your competitors…
ProTwit, thanks for taking time to voice your concern. That is certainly a concern of ours. As well as taking steps to monitor that kind of activity, we will work with companies to include them in an authentic way – to ensure that they don’t game the system. I think there are plenty of ways to have a voting system that works and we are trying hard to make ours one of those.
Of course, we love suggestions and feedback on how to make that happen!
And we really love it when the community voice is loud enough to make sure it gets heard above those that would game the system, so we hope TechCrunch readers try our SocialYell and raise their voices.
This is the first time you’ve thought about the gaming problem, isn’t it?
Let me hit the nail on the top. This is just one of those sites which thinks that it can bring about a sea change in the society. I really liked Robin’s honest opinion in these lines:
“…I can’t help but smile every time someone thinks a lone web service can have such a big social impact that it would benefit everyone, from consumers to businesses to the entire society, as the news release purports.”
And friends, just look at the very logo of the site. Nothing more than a drab-looking site with little twists here and there. It sports a Digg+Yelp look and nothing more than that (of course, except for a few changes).
Above all, how can one believe in the ratings of an organization if the organization is a paid member of the site? Sorry, this projection of change/rating etc. does not seem to make sense.
Lets wait and watch
Hey now, this has nothing to do with Yelp! Nothing whatsoever! What could possibly give you that idea?
Interesting, but that biz model comes off as social extortion forcing companies to pay to be involved.
yep i’m feelin that too. i want to have free interaction with my customers
people that like companies dont “yell” about them. if the site was for complaints it would probably gain more traction.
GoodLocator.com – find better
Mostly you are right.. it is because anger comes easier to people. And it is emotion which causes us to act. Which makes me wonder if that is why yelp went with red which causes is an emotional color..
Still maybe it is time we did yell about good companies… maybe it is time we fight the crap by highlighting the gold..
That ist a good idea! Bravo, wish you the best!
All the best Social Yell!!
Best Meta Search Engine
http://search.m...;sa=Search#1054
anyone have a invitation code for social yell???
Try: techcrunch
Thanks for your interest!
Well the site seems to have a decent idea and good intentions but I’m not sure it will always be used to benefit people. As ProTwit mentioned above the system is really easy to cheat and get good results for yourself and bad results for your competitors.
Another thing I don’t like is how companies have to pay to be included in the community. With the way the site is set up more often than not people are going to use it to bash companies. Happy people are less likely to go on the internet and talk about how great a company is but pissed off people will have no problem going on the web and bashing a company. At the very least when this occurs the business should have the opportunity to defend itself without having to pay a fee.
All in all though if some things were re-thought and few more things were added the site could be big.
I keep promising myself that I won’t reply anymore, but your last comment got my attention. If you are interested in providing your thoughts, please let me know! I would love your input.
Also, we had the same thought on pay for companies and here is what we considered: the pay will not be much (for a small company, a nominal amount under $10/month) and it is mainly used, not as a big revenue source, but as an authentication process. So, readers can be sure it is the real company and so that people can’t claim a company persona that isn’t theirs. There isn’t anything preventing a company from commenting without paying, it just may not be seen as credible.
Why would you ever waste your time defending yourself.. all you will do is look petty to your users and give the comment traction. If multiple people are saying something bad about your company then likely you did something wrong.
These services help you get better. They help highlight what you do well and what you need to improve on. This is a good thing.
When someone flogs you in a public place copy down the comment, and then fix the problem and do a positive blog post showing users that you do care… cause that is the biggest problem.. a user gets frustrated and thinks it is hopeless to contact the actual company based on past experiences.. and thus will public rip you instead of going through traditional forms…
This is not just a good company, it is a GREAT company. This company LHN is for the moderate to average person to succeed, without jumping thru hoops and hurdles and without all of the hype and hoopla. I can literally challenge anyone to doubt what I am saying. Feel free to contact at my email of compensationpsychiatrist@gmail.com
Look me up as well on Facebook.
Ouch…!!! Please get someone to look at the the color scheme!!
Apart from that – Digg meets Yelp. But the first list of companies had no percieved connectivity between them – Albania News and Intel. What is that about?
I don’t think the premise is clear enough to be honest. The world doesn’t care too much for social equity.
I gave it 30 seconds and it frankly didn’t say anything to me, but good luck with it and I hope you succeed.
Very interesting post
If thats the case that money is not the core object but just an authentication then just take .10 cents from their card and refund the rest…….
oh it looks like it was built in 1 day from a cookie cutter script of some kind…….you see these on sitepoint for a few hundred dollars and the coloring is awful,it looks like somebody has sneezed o the screen LOL
Is this a one man band ? it must be no one would fund this surely ?
I hope that this site succeeds. Unlike a previous poster, I do think the world cares about social equity.
But I’m not sure what need this is supposed to fulfill for the user. The groupings of companies is random – a restaurant here, a law firm there, a shoe retailer. Just not sure how people would use it. If I come to look for socially responsible companies, it’s tough for me to sort through to find one I’d be interested in.
you can smile, but it will happen one day
however, the website willl need to deliver something more to its users than just green
Coming soon: SocialTurd
Sounds interesting but I feel like it will just be another one of these sites out there. I dont think it is anything to unique. But maybe I am wrong with how green crazy everyone is right now.
Robin,
Thanks for the overview and the critical analysis. It is great to see balanced reporting.
That said, some of the criticism may be a touch harsh. Every organization needs some aspirational vision and purpose to be successful. Their goal to change the world may be a stretch, but that’s what a vision should be. Also, they may have some challenges with the design and processes, but the best way to improve is to get the product in the market. Collect feedback, observe usage and then iterate and improve.
They can’t be doing all that poorly…they have coverage here.
Mike
Good luck. This ultimately is a Whuffie Factor play (Tara Hunt’s social reputation currency concept). It is a tight rope balance between maintaining your integrity and becoming something akin to a Yelp! where you inadvertently extort businesses and in this case, people, for money. I’d suggest beyond anything retain your integrity and never ever compromise on it. Its the only real currency you can trade on when talking about reputation. For example, you may want to divorce the concept of charging people and businesses and find affiliate opportunities which promote the businesses which do good. That is basically what Carrotmob.org from Virgance is about, so you’ll have to find another layer of abstraction and value add. I however am sure it is out there. When you do, talk to Virgance who is funded and growing like mad.
Good luck.
The site is asking for an invitation code. How to get one?
Don’t let the bad comments get you down. Learn from them and make the site better! Or just realize some just never learned “If you don’t have anything nice to say… ” Good Luck!
David, i may be too much of a skeptic but what motivates people to do this in the first place? Take me through the user experience. For example, the topic of companies being “good” drops in and out of every day person-person conversation ie in context to what you’re doing. What incentives do you give people to take time out of their day to critique companies especially with a very small community in place now?
Reminds me of Digg and Getsatifaction.
Who designed this site? The layout is terrible and the color scheme is horrendous.
Everyone knows this, but just to reiterate: there are two components to a starting a business. First, is the idea. Second, is the execution of the idea. The idea for this business is good (but not great). The execution is not good at all. Your users are not going to show you respect (i.e. frequent your site) unless you show them respect with a SIMPLE and POLISHED final product. This site is neither.
Some suggestions: change the god-awful color scheme, drop the cluttered tags, do not have the logos on the front page if they are a.) not going to be there or b.) be all kinds of shapes and sizes, and finally, stop trying to copy digg (and all of these other voting sites)–they all look the same.
Tarleton,
The site is in BETA, it isn’t a final product. Few websites worth anything start out simple and polished. Plus, there is an advantage to making their site look like everyone else’s–it makes it easy to use.
It’s not the web design that is horrendous, it is the idea. It’s awful, pure and simple. I hope they didn’t invest too much in this project. Easy to game if it is even worth their while to bother, no content to speak of, very unlikely to make any difference. Sorry, I speak the truth.
With that said, how did this company get featured on Techcrunch?
The power of social media – I think if SocialYell is able to gain a respectable following and earn a reputation for being a trusted source of information, it could actually motivate more companies and organisations to clean up their act and get themselves listed. It does seem like a lofty goal for one site to do it all, but I respect their vision and goal; to even have it in the first place is laudable.
Looks like the whirlwind of comments is about over. I want to thank you all for being so passionate about it – some of you about the design, some about the tech, some about the functionality and some about the idea and mission. Most of all, I want to thank Robin for giving the conversation a great and fair start!
This is what SocialYell is about – discussion and better decisions. I encourage you all to email me any input you have about SocialYell. I hope you follow your comments with (constructive) suggestions, but if not, that’s fine, too.
I am truly happy and honored by the attention that social and environmental responsibility is getting out of this discussion.
David Rostan
Founder, SocialYell
david@socialyell.com