Ray’s web 2.0 business minitests: Ecademy.com

Every now and then I am getting questions or request concerning Ecademy.

So I tried it over and over again, partially to see if anything has changed or improved over the months. Between the lines you might already read what I think about it, and yes you are right, I think it has a lot of room for improvements…

So what is it? Its’ a networking portal just like LinkedIn and OpenBC where people can add their profiles and find other people to network with. In fact it was the first portal covering the marketplace with this idea. Its’ name suggests that you have to have an Academic background to join, but that isn’t true, anyone can join.

Similarities between functionality on Ecademy and OpenBC are great, but there it stops.

Sure on both portals you can add and write your profile, but Ecademy is very very commercially focused. Surely that’s not a bad thing in itself, but would you spam your members every day with a multitude in emails? That is exactly what happens because Ecademy is very keen, sorry aggressive on ‘luring’ you aboard and to stimulate you to upgrade to a paid membership. The whole concept is based around it. It is also an instant put-off. Frankly, I am not really surprised that Ecademy isn’t growing very fast. I believe they have around 150.000 members. Mainly people I already know from LinkedIn or OpenBC.

So why are they there, and why are there so many enthusiastic stories about Ecademy from members?

I found out for the faithful Profy.com readers when I went to an Ecademy meeting in Amsterdam for which I was invited. Over there I met with about 20 people and spoke with Thomas Power, one of the founders. I knew most of them, they were all big networkers like myself and yet there were only about 20 people attending this meeting.

Then it occurred to me and I asked the 64.000 dollar question: ‘..So, if I decide to join, what is it worth to Ecademy that I also will invite my network to it…? After 2 minutes of discrete bargaining I got the offer that I would get 40% of the entrance fees of all the newly invited members.
So there it was, out in the open. If you have a lot of contacts, you’ll batch invite them to Ecademy and get 40% of whatever membership fees they will pay to Ecademy. That would have been perfectly splendid to me but to be honest to you, the whole Ecademy experience was too commercial to me, too little value for too much money.
If it had a real business purpose and no email-spam I might decide differently. But then, a lot has to chance to honestly recommend as a usefull tool to my contacts.

Summary

Ecademy boasts a very good Alexa-rating of your profile because it sends information about its members to Google every 20 minutes. That is certainly true, but there are good alternatives like Soflow.com which is simpler and does the same trick.

For now I am getting the impression that it is too much about getting paid for introducing you contacts and not about true business networking.

Got any ideas for tests or do you want strategic / consulting advise? email me: bel3bel@yahoo.com Have a look at my profile Regards, Ray