Tuesday, July 5, 2011

A review of the Beknown app

Well...as promised I did try out Beknown, Monster's professional networking Facebook app.  I'm sorry to say I was underwhelmed. 


I started building my profile by giving permission for Beknown to access my personal Facebook profile.  The app used data from the employment, name, location, education, and contact fields to begin building the professional profile.  The result was sketchy but I wasn't concerned yet.

COMPLETING THE PROFILE
Beknown supposedly allows you to import data from your Linkedin and Monster profiles.  I was unable to import any data from Linkedin.  The error message I received was that Linkedin had blocked access.  It seems to me this would have been worked out before launch.  I signed on to Monster,com.  I was able to access that profile but not all of the data came over.  The Beknown profile was still incomplete.


I then tried to update the profile manually.  I like using bullet points in my resume.  I think they help with readability.  For many online applications I use asterisks as bullets.  I usually don't have a lot of trouble getting bulleted lists lined up.  I did with the Beknown application.

JOB SEARCHING
Once your profile is complete the Beknown app suggests jobs that you may be interested in.  Most of the jobs are ones that are listed on Monster.com.  I have had little success with this job site.  When I have applied to jobs I never heard from the potential employers.  I did hear from scammers and insurance companies.

FINAL THOUGHTS
When job hunting it is important to have an online presence.  Some time has to be put in maintaining a professional social profile.  But it shouldn't be the main online activity.  Linkedin is a good site for professional networking.  Use that site and forget about Beknown.

2 comments:

  1. Hi Carolyn! I'm Shell & I'm a community manager with BeKnown. I just wanted to let you know that I've heard your feedback and will be bringing it to Monster directly. I also wanted to let you know that the importing from LinkedIn issue is a result of LinkedIn cutting off access to its API a few days after we launched. You can read more about that from Monster here:

    http://www.monsterthinking.com/2011/07/01/monster-response-to-linkedin-api-shut-down/

    Again, thanks for your feedback- it's early users & testers like you that will shape the future of this app!

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  2. Hello Shell. Thanks for taking my review seriously. I'll make a post with a link to the article about Linkedin cutting off access. I do believe in fairness. Have a great day.

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