Biznik wins Online Community Standard of Excellence Award
The winners of the 2008 Web Industry Association’s Web Award competition were announced today, and I’m thrilled to announce that Biznik was selected as a Standard of Excellence Award winner in the Online Community category.
More than 2,400 sites from 45 countries competed in 96 industry categories during this year’s competition. Entries were judged on design, copy writing, innovation, content, interactivity, navigation, and use of technology.
I want to send a heartfelt “thank you” to all active members of this community. Your participation is the secret sauce for why awards like this one keep coming in for Biznik.
This particular award does something special that I’ve not seen in other competitions: they sent us a nice little bar graph, which explicitly shows how the judges felt we stacked up against the competition. Intriguingly, the results show that we have a ways to go in improving our design. We can also improve in terms of quality of content, and the judges didn’t find Biznik to be any more innovative than the average winner. What judges most liked about Biznik: Interactivity, copywriting, and technology. Here’s the breakdown:
I have to say I’m surprised that they found Biznik’s copy to be all that. Personally, I think we need to do a MUCH better job explaining the value of this community to first-time visitors with our copy. And I’m not sure I agree that our design is quite so bad as the judges think, although I acknowledge there’s plenty of room for improvement. In fact, we’re in the middle of a redesign with Jason Levine at the moment. Look for significant design improvements by Thanksgiving!
I LOVE this behind-the-scenes snapshot of what the judges were thinking. This is truly useful in helping us identify strengths and weaknesses in the current version of the website. Thank you Web Industry Association.
So, do you agree with this assessment? If you were a judge, which of the categories would you find to be the strongest, and weakest, on Biznik?
September 20th, 2008 at 6:15 am
I don’t know too much about any of the other sites. The ones I participate in (a little) I found out about and joined because Biznik members and friends invited me to. What I have found is that they are terrible in comparison to Biznik: hard to figure out (all of them), with meaningless features (FaceBook) and no real interaction other than online. In particular, many pester you with messages about stuff they make up (FaceBook, well many of them) and then when you are on their site they force you into participating whether you want to or not: or try to.
There may be some good sites other than Biznik, but one is enough and how much better could they be?
The award is a great honor, well deserved.
DD