{Replica} Will New Features Save the Business Network? Xing makes on Facebook

During the triumphant advance of Facebook continues uninterrupted - there are already over 500 million members - the German loses Business-Network Xing clear on ground. Apparently you are now trying to save what you can and want Facebook become more similar. But the shot could backfire - there are already first cancellations.

Rowing back to pick up members

The Xing against Facebook does not arrive, not only the membership numbers show numbers - a comparison of user numbers from the year shows, for example, that Xing ended up far behind in 9th place - but also the Strategy from Xing:

Only certain features like the message function and the status messages were also usable for non-premium members.

Keep members at all costs?

The books on the subject (advertising)

A clear sign that you want to keep members at all costs. Now Xing has a comment function, as it is from Facebook is known, built in. It should save the dormant network. But does that still help?

Evil Honestly: I was never really able to do much with Xing. Sure, you can accumulate contacts, I even moderated a group. But I was never able to find really good contacts, exciting people or interesting jobs there. The Sinn from social networks I have only with Facebook and later discovered with Twitter:

uniebook is more communicative, Xing is clearer

“Are you at Facebook?” I ask today when I want to stay in touch with someone. And people who are more concerned with that Internet to do, I ask "What's your name on Twitter?" I find Twitter much more useful for professional purposes because you can communicate there much faster and more precisely than in the sluggish Xing groups.

But maybe I'm just not the right target group for Xing. more conservative Industries probably appreciate this slower style of communication. And they probably appreciate one thing above all: the clearer operation and the Privacy, who is with Facebook can be very questionable.

“A reason to finally cancel my premium membership”

Discounts for your success (advertising)!

And it is precisely this advantage that Xing could now squander with the new comment function. Because obviously feel some users are overwhelmed with the new ad. Some may even be bothered by the fact that they now have the status reports right on their platter, while others may find it irritating that they are now under constant pressure to communicate.

Because it was precisely the quieter slowness and data protection that made Xing more attractive to many than Facebook. And so the first complaints and threats to leave “… a reason to finally cancel my premium membership” did not go away.

Xing shouldn't have a second Facebook breast

The anti-maintenance has surprised me, but shows just why the people are on Xing. On the other hand, I was also quite confused when I opened Xing yesterday and discovered the new function.

When I faced Facebook discovered, I asked myself why this ingenious pinboard function isn't also available on Xing. Now that they are on Xing, I think they are simply superfluous. ME that comes years too late: Facebook, and also Twitter for sworns, established as an exchange medium.

Xing, on the other hand, is the quiet address book backup, with which you can conveniently export contacts and appointments and which is the number 1 page for many when you come across one Curriculum vitae wants to inform. And now that!

The end for Xing?

The attempt to contact Facebook aligning is just another strategic mistake Xing is making: after the IPO, with which the Companys early on even in growth braked. And after the failed international expansion, in which, for example, cultural customs in Asia were simply overlooked and where you simply look old next to competitors like LinkedIn. So it's no wonder that Gründerszene Xing is one of the German companies that will no longer exist in 2015 in this form.

Still, there are setbacks. So the business network gave up its “Themes” feature again. This is also associated with a social signal: the users apparently did not want to use another feature. There was a modest message from Xing, which billed itself as Germany's most popular business and Recruiting- Portal called. They wrote succinctly:

The area of ​​XING topics is below our expectations, so we have decided that End beta phase of XING topics and no longer offer this function.

What's behind it?

I found Xing Themes one of the platform's more innovative new tools. A kind of blog in the social network with extensive tagging function. And one on which I noticed real interactivity on Xing for the first time when I looked at the reactions to my postings.

But that was exactly it Problem: I only ever used Xing topics because initially you could still import blog posts via RSS feed. A handy autoblogging feature that goes far beyond the capabilities of Facebook went out.

The goal of “as many clicks as possible” was not achieved

Xing apparently did not want his users to simply simply download their blog posts; it wanted interaction, activity and as many clicks on the page as possible. Like all social networks.

The RSS import function was soon closed again. "That doesn't make Xing more attractive for bloggers," someone said at the time. He should be right. Apparently the users just don't have any Lust, one more feature to use.

Social signal

Saying goodbye to Xing topics is also a sign of general social media fatigue, especially among business networks - a social signal, so to speak, that the social media hype is losing a lot of water.

Time for the subject to be steered more calmly instead of being constantly chased from one gadget to the next, which we think we have to try.

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