I've always found it difficult to describe what my flatmate and good friend Scott Rutherford does day-to-day. He has the same problem. When people ask him, he stumbles over terms such as internet entrepreneur, code builder, ambitious web developer and CEO. Well, finally I'm proud to be able to announce what Scott does for a living.On 31 March, he launched RecommendBox with co-founder Robert Loch.
The site allows friends to make recommendations and request recommendations in categories such as books, movies, places, clothing, music, restaurants, websites and services. The idea is that while review sites may exist, what people actually recommend to their private social network is different to what they would just review on a public site.
Scott and Rob believe recommendations and reviews are different - when you write a review you give your view on something to a wider audience. When you make a recommendation you are suggesting to an individual that they will like something. RecommendBox recommendations are presented by one party to the privacy of another user's personal home-page. This encourages honesty and makes this start-up unique.
From my experience with the site, when you receive a recommendation, it feels personal and has value. The fact that someone has hand-picked (or mouse-picked) you because they felt you'd benefit from the recommendation generates the emotion of receiving a gift. You instantly want to return the gesture - and that's what can turn this new site into a marketing and social success. Check it out and recommend it to a friend.
No comments:
Post a Comment