Biznik Blog

We launched a major upgrade to the Biznik website this afternoon, the most significant round of improvements we’ve made to the site since July. Our major goal with this update is to enhance the member profiles with new information that is constantly fresh, and to give paying members even more perks and tools to help them actively promote their business.

Here’s a taste of what the new member profile looks like (to the profile’s owner):

OK, let me jump in and outline what’s new:

Enhanced member profiles. Gone from the front page of your profile is the static information about you. It’s been replaced by an activity log that shows, at a glance, what a member has been doing on Biznik.com. You’ll also see immediately whether a member is attending any upcoming events, and what they need right now has been added into a sidebar under a new feature, member promotions (more about that in moment). Your most recent posts - in Biz Talk or comments on events - are now called out onto the front of your profile, which allows someone to see what you’re saying at once without having to hunt for it. Compliments have been truncated, allowing more to fit into the bottom of your profile.

Paying members get even better profiles. Active and Supporting members can now add a logo to their profile. Also, paying members can list up to 5 associations on their profile. Finally, Active members can now have up to 2 urls, and Supporting members can have up to 3. Basic members are limited to one URL.

New Promotions tool. If you have a promotion to share with the Biznik community, you can now post it on Biznik. Promotions are displayed on a new page under the member directory, along with a single place to find all of the most recently posted member needs. By default, you see promotions from members near you (just like the member directory) - you can control which promotions you see by setting the radius from your location, or view all using the search controls. Important: Promotions are displayed by date, but all paying members’ promotions will outrank free member promotions in the directory. What that means is that paying members will have their promotions much more visibile than free members. It’s a great reason to upgrade your membership if you haven’t yet!

Enhanced network. We’ve pulled the most recenty added 12 members to your business network out onto the left sidebar of your profile, and added a new feature that shows which mutual connections you share with a member. And the network page itself is hugely improved, with each member now displayed on a single line, allowing us to include a link showing their recent activity from within the network page. Here’s a peek:

Enhanced bookmarks. We’ve made bookmarks much more useful by including them under the tab for, respectively, Network, Events and Posts. Each section now has subnavigation that allows you to instantly access all of your bookmarks. And, on the bookmarks page, each note is in yellow, like sticky notes. It looks like this:

Design enhancements. Gone are the big clunky edit and delete buttons, replaced by light grey buttons that are much less obtrusive and distracting. We’ve also added a consistent subnavigation style, that features simple links, which is applied throughout the site.

Account settings streamlined. All of your account information is now accessible under a single tab, called “Your Account.” Under that, you’ll now find two sections, one for your personal information, and one for upgrading, downgrading, or closing your account.

Searchable Member Needs. What members need near you is now collected in a single page, under the member directory. Searching on this page restricts the search to just the needs field, which means you’ll be able to find matches for what you’re offering in the blink of an eye. Here’s what it looks like:

I’d like to say a big thank you to John Adair, Biznik’s Ruby on Rails guru, who has been busting butt for the past few weeks to bring these to life for all of us in code. We’re thrilled with how the new profiles feel so much more alive, are easier to maintain, and provide additional value to paying members.

Finally, if you find bugs, please let us know by posting them in the bug reports forum. I’ll be blogging about how to get the most out of each of these new features soon, but for now, I just want to say have at ‘em!

This entry was posted on Thursday, November 1st, 2007 at 4:29 pm and is filed under News. You can leave a response, or trackback from your own site.