Storeboard – The Social Media Site for Business

22 thoughts on “Storeboard – The Social Media Site for Business”

1. It has a very clean design and I am draw to click on the big join button. I like that it is easy to find. The sign process looks simple to utilize but I am not a small business owner so I do not feel a need to sign up for the service even though it is free. I think the premium packages should be more out in the open so the user does not have to search for it. I also think they should show what the users get for the free package and if the free package is free or a free trial. In comparison to similar websites I like that it is simple and to the point.

2. 1) Visit https://www.storeboard.com/. What is your initial impression of what you see? Are you immediately drawn to click any of the buttons? Why or why not?

   I like what I first see when I open up the page, although my first glance at your name and picture does not give me a clue as to what you do, but the smiling face is great to have as the first impression.

   I see your Join Storeboard Now! button but I am not inclined to click it. I need reasons. The descriptions of the selling points on the left side are in gray and de-emphasized, almost hidden in a shadow. That does not attract my eyes to read it – instead it encourages me to gloss over it. That is why your join now button is not attractive for me to click it. Change your selling point font to a different color – possibly red or orange.

   2) Sign up for a free membership and tell us what you think of the sign up process and the Dashboard.

   Sign up process was easy and the security check was uniquely different than Captcha.

   3) Are you encouraged to sign up for a free account? If not, why? Can you provide feedback on the Premium Packages?

   Yes. Got the welcome email. I see the marketplace and classifieds.

   4) How do you think the site compares to other similar sites/competitors like LinkedIn, Facebook for business, and Salesspider.com?

   I don’t think you should compare yourself to Facebook and Linked in because they are social sites and your site feels more like an ebay or selling site, only less credible because you have no brand recognition.

   5) Please share any additional feedback/comments you may have.

   I clicked Coupons and see obscure offerings and products. I think you will have a huge hurdle in getting people to use your site because you simply do not offer things that giants like ebay can offer.

   It seems that you have the website process completed, but you really need to work hard to bring the business and the marketing to your website to offer real and tangible things that will draw people to use your site.

   No obvious glitches or usability errors found, other than my initial observation of the selling points in gray.
   

3. 1) Visit https://www.storeboard.com/. What is your initial impression of what you see? Are you immediately drawn to click any of the buttons? Why or why not?
   I like the interface and the colors chosen, the design is clear and I think a smile is always inviting, on the other hand it isn’t obvious at the start what exactly is  this website  about, but overall the first impression was good.
   2) Sign up for a free membership and tell us what you think of the sign up process and the Dashboard.
   The sign up process was pretty easy with original security system, but I think one correctly chosen image would be enough instead of four, however the sign up was fast and without any problems.
   3) Are you encouraged to sign up for a free account? If not, why? Can you provide feedback on the Premium Packages?
   Yes, it looks like an interesting site with pretty good content that can be useful for people, yes I’m encourage to sign up for a free account.
   4) How do you think the site compares to other similar sites/competitors like LinkedIn, Facebook for business, and Salesspider.com?
   In my opinion this site can’t be called a social site nor a selling site, it is somewhere between the two but has lots of infos, videos, and can be useful in many ways. I like the concept of the site.
   5) Please share any additional feedback/comments you may have
   My first impression was good about the site, I think the interface is pleasant and the menus are in visible places, at first I wasn’t sure what exactly the site is offering but at a second look this can be discovered, overall it is an interesting project that can be useful in the long run
   

4. 1) Visit https://www.storeboard.com/. What is your initial impression of what you see? Are you immediately drawn to click any of the buttons? Why or why not?

   My initial impression was that the site had a crisp clean attractiveness too it. The colors were very easy on the eye.  the site does make you want to click on the join now button. I like the fact that the button stand out.

   2) Sign up for a free membership and tell us what you think of the sign up process and the Dashboard.

   The signup process was very simple and easy. They make the process quick and painless without going through too much stuff.

   3) Are you encouraged to sign up for a free account? If not, why? Can you provide feedback on the Premium Packages?
   I am defineetely encouraged to sign up for a free account. It seem pretty easy to navigate through.

   4) How do you think the site compares to other similar sites/competitors like LinkedIn, Facebook for business, and Salesspider.com?
   Honestly, you can’t compare your site to Facebook where it is strictly a social media site. Where your website is more like a classifieds selling site. There should be no comparison in that respect.

5. 1) Visit https://www.storeboard.com/. What is your initial impression of what you see? Are you immediately drawn to click any of the buttons? Why or why not?

   My immediate impression of the website is that it is very professional in the webpage layout and design and the reason why I was immediately drawn to click on the buttons was due to the attractive font size and that there was more than one popup page to view as I was clicking on the different webpages of the url link: https://www.storeboard.com.
   
   2) Sign up for a free membership and tell us what you think of the sign up process and the Dashboard.

   I think that the signup process was very easy to start and complete and the Dashboard view is very large and selective as far as the number of website activities such as viewing messages and other activities.
   
   3) Are you encouraged to sign up for a free account? If not, why? Can you provide feedback on the Premium Packages? “Yes” I was encourage by the link that says “Join Storeboard, It’s Free”
   however, to upgrade on the premium you can choose three plans: marketing plus, marketing pro and marketing master.
   The least expensive premium is the marketing plus for $9.00 dollars monthly and $79.00 dollars annually.
   
   4) How do you think the site compares to other similar sites/competitors like LinkedIn, Facebook for business, and Salesspider.com? 
   The only comparison that I have notices is the messaging ad links and networking social links by comparison.
   
   5) Please share any additional feedback/comments you may have
   I think the website has a larger social network and activity links for its viewers and users that I have found very interesting and I am glad that I have signed up and would recommend this website to friends and family.

6. What is your initial impression of what you see? Are you immediately drawn to click any of the buttons? Why or why not?

   My very first impression is that before I even click on the site, Web of Trust tells me it has a poor reputation. That doesn’t sit well with me. I went ahead and entered your site anyway, but if I wasn’t doing a review, I would never go to a site with a poor Web of Trust rating.

   That said, once I entered the site, I thought the home page was attractive. The shaded blue and white coloring is pleasant to look at, the text is nicely sized, and the large photo of the smiling professional to the left is inviting. I’m actually drawn to look at that photo more than I am to click any buttons. Not sure if that’s a good thing or not!
    
   Sign up for a free membership and tell us what you think of the sign up process and the Dashboard.

   I was initially thrown by the “security check” since it sounds like it’s going to be something extensive. I was pleasantly surprised to see that it was just a matter of selecting a few images. Much more pleasant than trying to decipher those distorted captchas! You didn’t mention what you wanted me to sign up as, so I signed up as a professional. I didn’t love that I immediately had to fill out an extensive profile. I would’ve preferred to have the option to do that later. (And just so you know, my business category wasn’t listed. I had to make up something.)

   My impression of the dashboard was that it was too busy. I have all these category search option tabs up on my left, which constantly shove a drop-down menu in my line of vision anytime my cursor accidentally hovers over them. I have top ten videos and blogs and new members all over the place. I can barely see what’s relevant to my own profile and what’s just a distraction. The dashboard should be clean and simple, a way to access your mail, profile, friends, groups, traffic stats, account info, and that’s about it. All of this other stuff can be readily accessed from other parts of the site. It doesn’t need to clutter up the dashboard.
    
   Are you encouraged to sign up for a free account? If not, why? Can you provide feedback on the Premium Packages?

   I signed up for a free account in order to write this review. Would I under other circumstances? I might. The idea of creating an open source profile that I could upload to other social networks is appealing. However, I’ll be honest that I don’t think I’d continue to use it after seeing the dashboard. It’s so crammed full of unnecessary distractions that I would find it off-putting to use on a regular basis.

   I found the premium packages by clicking on the “Upgrade” link on the dashboard. Before this, I wasn’t aware that any part of your service wasn’t free. Now I’m not really clear on what I can do at this site without paying. You really should include a category in your chart that shows what you already get as a free member for easier comparison. Also, when I click the “Show Me!” links, the pop-ups I get are quite small and hard to see. I’d suggest full-screen pop-ups or at least substantially larger pop-ups than you have now. Finally, I have to say that I wouldn’t pay any of these prices at the moment because it doesn’t seem that you have enough of a consumer audience to make it worthwhile yet.
    
   How do you think the site compares to other similar sites/competitors like LinkedIn, Facebook for business, and Salesspider.com?

   LinkedIn and Facebook are enormous sites with enormous traffic. I wouldn’t worry about competing with them yet. However, I can tell you that those sites offer a far cleaner, less cluttered presentation than yours does at this point. However, your site purports to offer something that those sites don’t–a four-in-one social network/business directory/classified advertising/marketplace site. You also say that you allow users to easily upload profiles to a variety of social media sites, open source style. I could be wrong, but I don’t think those other sites provide for that.

   I’ve never heard of Sales Spider, so I had to look that up. A quick glance shows that their service is very similar to yours, so at this point I’m not sure what you provide that they don’t. I will say, however, that I find their entire site to be unattractive. All the pages are too long and too busy. It’s too hard to find what you’re looking for among a gazillion other things.
    
   Please share any additional feedback/comments you may have.

   Home Page
   The main problem with your home page is that you need to target two different audiences, and you’re not doing that right now. Right now, your home page is designed to draw in businesses. But you also need to draw in customers. If you don’t, businesses will see no value in signing up for your site. To make your home page more appealing to both audiences, I’d suggest that you replace your current photo with either a single photo of an employee interacting with a happy customer or two photos side by side, one showing a smiling business professional and the other showing a happy customer. Then I’d advise you to direct each audience to a separate set of selling points. You could do that by dividing the home page into a side “For Businesses” and a side “For Customers” or “For Shoppers.” Or if you’re concerned about the length of your home page, you could link “For Businesses” and “For Customers” to separate sales pages.

   Just looking at what you have now, your five selling points on the right make a good argument for what your site can do for businesses. But, as I said, you need a page or at least a section that reaches out to customers, as well. Also, I would get rid of the underlining and use standard capitalization, not just with the selling points but throughout your site. The constant unnecessary capitalization is hard on the eyes.

   Next, you have these testimonials at the bottom of the page. These have no attributions, so it’s hard to take them seriously. Also, I see that you have an actual testimonial page called “Here’s What Our Members Are Saying!” elsewhere on the site. I’d suggest that you rename this page “Testimonials” and make it accessible from your “For Businesses” destination, however you choose to set that up.

   At the upper left of the page, you have three tabs. Two are geared toward businesses (“Why Sharing Is Effective!” and “Join Today!”), and one is geared toward consumers (“Looking To Hire A Business”?). Again, this a strange mix. On the other hand, you neglect to include links to some very important pages on your site, such as “Classifieds” and “Marketplace,” which really should be accessible from the home page. So what to do? Well, if you divide your home page into a section “For Businesses” and a section “For Customers,” it would make sense to have a main tab for each of these audiences with a drop-down menu featuring links to the pages that would be most appropriate for each. For example, under “For Businesses,” you could have “Why Storeboarding Works,” “Testimonials,” and so on, and under “For Customers,” you could have “Directory,” “Classifieds,” “Marketplace,” etc.

   Why Sharing Is Effective!
   Moving on to your current sales page, which I would rename “Why Storeboarding Works,” since you want to brand your site as a completely different one-stop location for a lot more than just “sharing,” I notice that you have four selling points and then a link to a benefits chart. Since this page is so short, why not just put the benefits chart right below the selling points? No need to make people click another link to access it.

   Looking To Hire A Business?
   Now let’s talk about your directory. There aren’t too many businesses listed yet, so it’s hard to comment on the business profiles, but I can say that they look neat and clean. I hope businesses will take advantage of the opportunity to post videos, coupons, blogs and so on to improve the customer’s experience on the site. I also notice that instead of creating a dedicated search page, you have a bunch of advanced search options as tabs at the upper left of the directory. Not sure I like this layout. It’s kind of redundant and a little overwhelming. I’d replace all these tabs with a single “Search” tab that takes people to a search page with advanced directory search options.

   Your classifieds don’t look too great at the moment. (Maybe it’s just my computer?) There are a number of category links that overlap each other or aren’t vertically aligned, making this section look rather unprofessional. I was a little irked that when I tried to select a classified category, I got a message that I had to select a state and region first. If I need to select a state and region first, I should be directed to do that before I see the category page. (Think of how Craigslist is set up, and you’ll know what I mean.)  I was pleasantly surprised to see that there were already quite a few listings in my region’s section.

   Moving on to the marketplace, I’m not sure I like how the default display is a hodgepodge of all current product listings. I’d just display the categories and let people go from there. I tried the search feature, but it didn’t always display appropriate results. However, individual product ads looked okay. Images could’ve been bigger perhaps. Also, it would’ve been nice to see a seller rating system. A lot of people are hesitant to buy online without that.

   Bottom Line
   I like your idea to help businesses create a sort of open source profile. I also like the one-stop social network/directory/classified/marketplace idea. I think what you need to work on at this point is just your site’s presentation. The home page should be divided to target two different audiences–the business audience and the consumer audience. Little glitches such as the sloppy category layout in the classifieds and the inconsistent marketplace search feature need to be fixed. And the dashboard really needs to be trimmed down so that it’s neatly organized for users. If you can take care of those things, you’ll have a good shot at attracting both businesses and customers, and when you start attracting customers, businesses may be willing to pay for some of those premium services.
    

7. 1)Visit https://www.storeboard.com/. What is your initial impression of what you see? Are you immediately drawn to click any of the buttons? Why or why not?
   Nice design and elegant! I love the view and color. Yes I was drawn to click the buttons. The buttons are well placed and can be easily located. The Homepage establish the basic navigation methods.
   The site has a consistent feel and appearance.
   2) Sign up for a free membership and tell us what you think of the sign up process and the Dashboard.
   Nice, easy and unique! Has an option of remembering password. Now after signing up, you gave an option for choosing the type of membership. This should be clear from the beginning as I don’t know the difference between the two. What type of membership is for business? Do I have to pay a certain amount or is it for free. Do you have an option for trial?
   The dashboard is user friendly. It has a substantial amount of significant, interesting text and visual content for its target audience
   3) Are you encouraged to sign up for a free account? If not, why? Can you provide feedback on the Premium Packages?
   Yes of course! It’s interesting to see how useful it will be. For the premium package, Its nice that you have different packages and you encourage the annual subscription with reduced fee.

   4) How do you think the site compares to other similar sites/competitors like LinkedIn, Facebook for business, and Salesspider.com?
   This site is far from a social or professional site. It’s arguably not comparable with the competitors you mentioned. But the dash board and symbols style can be compared to Facebook.
   It’s somehow in between but far from both. Unlike LinkedIn, is a pretty networking and marketing site for businesses!
   5) Please share any additional feedback/comments you may have.
   You homepage is nice but it does not have a substantial amount of significant, interesting text and visual content for its target audience? So you should consider improving on it.
   You should also initially and clearly differentiate the different between the business and community users.
   You have a nice site some little touch will make it better and appealing.

8. 1) Visit https://www.storeboard.com/. What is your initial impression of what you see? Are you immediately drawn to click any of the buttons? Why or why not?
   My Initial thoughts of this site when I visited was that it is geared towards business owners.  I was definitely drawn to click buttons because I wanted to learn how everything works.  I understand that to promote your business you only need to go through this one site which would make it easier to get the word out but I am struggling with the how.2) Sign up for a free membership and tell us what you think of the sign up process and the Dashboard.
   The sign up process is extremely easy.  There are areas in the process that allows you to tailor your page around who you want to  reach out to which I found clever.  Once I was all signed up I really didn’t know where to go or what to do. There was an inbox with a welcome letter that encouraged to upload pictures and provide coupons to get customers back to my site.  The Dashboard for me was confusing to me.  I guess its just like updates on facebook but I don’t understand the connection here on how it helps your business.3) Are you encouraged to sign up for a free account? If not, why? Can you provide feedback on the Premium Packages? 
   I am not sure why signing up for a free account would hurt your business.  I am guessing that the free accounts puts your name out there because with the premium packages you are paying for the same thing but having the message be more aggressive. The cheapest package is 79 a year which is a small price to pay for additional business your way.  The most expensive package is 2000 annually which is pretty steep and a let down if you don’t receive the additional business.  4) How do you think the site compares to other similar sites/competitors like LinkedIn, Facebook for business, and Salesspider.com?
   I don’t really think that you can compare this site to the other social sites because its strictly for business owners.  Unless I am not fully understanding the setup of the site all customers will not be on this site checking you out.  It would have to be available for all users to get maximum exposure.

9. I wolsit https://www.storeboard.com/. What is your initial impression of what you see? Are you immediately drawn to click any of the buttons? Why or why not?
   I had a couple of thoughts when I got to your sites homepage. Initially I thought that the first picture was the opening page of your site until I saw it scroll by. I think that each picture has way to much information for a scrolling page and for a user to read. Each picture was crisp, clear and vibrant and they highlighted many aspects of what your sight has to offer. Even though your site has a scrolling page I like that you can pause the page but I still feel that as I user I would not like to stop and read each pictures long listing captions. I would like to see a drop down menu to see more information as to why each facet of the public would benefit your website. I am not immediatley drawn to click on any page because there is so much information to read that I need to pause the page and click on something that would be relevant to me. I like that you  kept your homepage short but there needs to be separates pages keeping the homepage to the most concise information of your site.

   2) Sign up for a free membership and tell us what you think of the sign up process and the Dashboard.
   I thought that the security check would be long and lengthy but I was surprised to see how easy it was. I can say it was unlike any security check that I had seen before. Signing up was easy to do and I like that I could set your page to best fit your needs and likes. After the sign up I got to the dashboard I felt like I was swamped with information. When I think of a personal dashboard I expect to see only information that was relevant to me and my page. I think that the page is consuming with information that would work better not attached to each personal user. Again just looking around the page I feel overwhelmed with stuff to look at that I can’t even focus on my own store board. I really liked that when I scrolled over the boards tabs and control panel that the information just dropped down for me allowing for easy viewing without having to click on each one and then close each one.

   As I look around the site there is so many different types of videos on the dashboard. You have: storeboard member videos, weekly top 10 videos and latest videos. You even have a short section at the bottom where you can play short videos. I feel this area needs to be limited to just one spot of videos and not 4 different areas.

   I will have to say that I was least interested in the storeboard images. I was also not interested into seeing the newest members or those who were online especially when I hav a friends tabs so that I could see those whom I most interested in seeing. You even have a friends tabs on the control panel.

   There seems to be to much repition on your dashboard page making it to congested. Alot of little things can add up visually to a user making viewing uneasy. You have marketplace and classifieds on the main bar of tabs and in the control panel.

   I woul like to see a dashboard where I could chose what I wanted to see having the ability to pick and chose making more personal to the user. I feel bombared with info some that I would rather not see making viewing the dashboard a headache.

   Under the videos on the storeboard today there seems to be a missing tab. You have: all, friends a blank space and then yours. Was that done intentially or was that a site error?

   3) Are you encouraged to sign up for a free account? If not, why? Can you provide feedback on the Premium Packages?
   I would be encouraged to sign up for a free account just to feel things out with a site. Alot of users like to that a site may offer a free account allowing them the freedom to see if something is worth them sinking money into.

   I must say the gentleman on the this pages seems so uncessary to the content of the page, it seemed more like a distraction than a purposeful usage of space. I think there only needs to be 3 packages instead of four. The Plus and the Pro don’t have much difference in them and they vary in price by 10 dollars. I feel these two needs to be merged into one . The text under the optional certified business was hard to read and the font was way to small.

   Side note: Looking at the packages “show me” made me understand why some of the content is featured the way it is. Bascially your buying exposure on the site’s dashboard.

   From the master and conceriage there is such a price difference that it might make users leary jumping from on 29 per month all they way to 199 per month. I would want to see a more thorogh displaying of why 199 would be a fair pricing for this package and the benefits are. I tried to pull up the info on the concierge service but I was unable to do so.

   I do like that you display some of the features giving user a real feel of where there store board is going to be displayed based on which package they choose. I also like tha they information can be seen on the same page and that I was not directed to another page making it more seemless to view.

   Under the plus plan where you have s1-s6 and s11-s16 rotaing, does that mean that it will only featured in one spot roating through one of those space on the top or one the bottom?

   4) How do you think the site compares to other similar sites/competitors like LinkedIn, Facebook for business, and Salesspider.com?
   After looking at sales spider I like how they display a large amount of information in such a way that it looks more organized. They also have a scrolling screen  but it only display the most important information. I think that some of my visual frustration is that much of text on your dashboard is alot of pictures. I really enjoyed the facebook for business page. It looked really professional, fun and easy to use. it had a nice break up in color and the content was not overwhelming. they had a really simple plans page and there prices seems as though they could fit the average user. I like how they displayed there free price plan so that users could see exactly what was offered undered that compared to what they would get for a paid plan. I was not impressed with Linkedin’s homepage. It was very washed out and and didn’t featured much at all. That being said they must be doing something right because they sitei is wildly popoular.

   5) Please share any additional feedback/comments you may have.
   I would like to see more organization to your site and no repition of information. The price variances and the difference in features needs to scrutinzed making sure your are truly giving user a fair price and enough changes to to really call it a different package. I think there also needs to be some explaining as to why your page is setup the way it is. A quick walk through of your page would be great and it make also entice users to sign up for a higher priced packges. I also feel the blue on the page is a little to much once you view the site so many times. I want to ge engaged more a user with simple and easy to read content and a storeboard that is pruposeful and easy to use.
   

10. 1) Visit https://www.storeboard.com/. What is your initial impression of what you see? Are you immediately drawn to click any of the buttons? Why or why not?
    I think the layout is great and simple enough to keep you watching. The slider works well and kept my attention long enough to make a good first impression. To get pass the first 25 seconds on a new site for a new visitor is very difficult as most internet surfers has info overload. Yours got me well pass 25 seconds and I even started pressing bottoms just out of curiosity. I realized the site is about getting better exposure for businesses. The colors and layout that you use is really good and how you put it together makes it easy to follow.
    2) Sign up for a free membership and tell us what you think of the sign up process and the Dashboard.
    The sign up process I found a bit long and dragged out. I know you need all info to get the right profile, but was not sure if i would give you all my info that you would not sell it to other businesses as a possible lead. I would suggest you make it shorter and don’t squeeze out too much right from the start. The green astrix is a nice touch and does not seem that intimidating as red or orange. However I would do away with them and give new customers to chance to fill it in on a later stage. The password criteria is a bit odd * characters is a bit long and not to allow symbols is a drag as all other places these days require Capital letters, Lowers case letters, numbers and symbols. I usually have a short password for all signups I am new to and later change it. With yours I could not use my old time favorite password and had to think up a new one. This leaves me with that horrible feeling that if I start to really like your site I am going to forget my new password and this leaves me with one of those dreaded security process to get into my profile again. Yeah google chrome can remember but still would be nice to give first time users as much freedom as possibly
    Your dashboard is very impressive. I like the idea that is so condensed and has a automatic scroll that will give you fast access to anywhere you would like to go. Because it is so small it does not give the feeling that you should spend hours figuring he whole thing out. After the initial sign up this a a breath of fresh air Also nice to see a welcome email to ensure that the right choice was made to sign up
    3) Are you encouraged to sign up for a free account? If not, why? Can you provide feedback on the Premium Packages?
    I guess i just created a free account with a profile and a password. I do have a MLM business and by scrolling around I do find your site a great help to get the word out there. As a marketer in South Africa I guess it will be quite different. Starting to pay dollars for posting on your website is still not appealing enough. I briefly read a couple of testimonials and was still not convinced as all of them in based in the states. Just because you are open to have profiles from other countries suit my kind of business as the company I use is international. With a little more time and relationship of trust i guess i will sign up for one of your packages. They are well laid out nicely on one page. I do find it a bit difficult to decide which one would suit me best. Could not immediately make up my mind. Was for a moment tempted to sign up for he dollar option that will leave you no choice but to take the Master plan. If one month with your website leads to great traffic and sales $29 dollars is a small price to pay. if not it as always possible to change to a smaller less pricy package
    4) How do you think the site compares to other similar sites/competitors like LinkedIn, Facebook for business, and Salesspider.com?
    I do not see your site as Facebook or Linkedin and Salesspider I really never have heard about. I more see your site as a plus to all social sites using your profile to get your message across. I would much rather use what you have here a a partner to the mentioned sites and aim to work more closely with them. These days it is all about simplifying your life. If your sit can be used as a bridge and connect facebook twitter and youtube in order to do one entry and see them on multiple social sites. I guess you have that future however it is not used as a sales factor and should be. That would make my choice to pay money to simplify life much easier.
    5) Please share any additional feedback/comments you may have.
    All in all I believe you are providing good value to businesses and looks like a much better source as newspapers. However I do not know how many people is involved to keep this site up to date and how much is done in order to keep up with all tat is happening on the net. Would be interesting to see how many people you have on payroll and exactly how is every dollar send. Would strongly suggest you send most of your money to get your site as an industry leader. Only then does history gets made and do you have monopoly in this very competitive internet. See very little video bring used to promote yourself. Always comforting to see the creators of great websites not being shy to come to the light and confidently share their vision and drive. Also would be an idea to be more focuses on a certain segment of the market and not just all industry and all business. With time you should be able to tell who joins and who pays money. Would highly recommend you stick to only o few industries or create another website to more specifically drive the marketing for the industry where business spend most of their money.
    Hope my inputs have helped a little 🙂

11. Visit https://www.storeboard.com/. What is your initial impression of what you see? Are you immediately drawn to click any of the buttons? Why or why not?
    I liked the pictures on the front page of the site. I did not fully understand the concept, however after reading further, I understood.

    2) Sign up for a free membership and tell us what you think of the sign up process and the Dashboard.
    I was unable to sign up for membership as I could not get past the security image. I tried seveal times.

    3) Are you encouraged to sign up for a free account? If not, why? Can you provide feedback on the Premium Packages?
    After the experience of the sign up/security image, I did not continue to sign up after trying several times. Regarding the Premium packages, what exactly does one get with this package? It seems expensive; how much advertising does one get with this package?

    4) How do you think the site compares to other similar sites/competitors like LinkedIn, Facebook for business, and Salesspider.com?
    This site did not seem as robust as Facebook LinkedIn or Salesspider ( I have not heard of Salesspider.com). I see this site as one which is a voice to other businesses and for people looking for information.

    5) Please share any additional feedback/comments you may have.
    Why is this site different than Angie’s List? Additionally, there was too much verbiage on this site; too much reading – someone may not pay attention to all the script on the site.

12. 1) Visit https://www.storeboard.com/. What is your initial impression of what you see? Are you immediately drawn to click any of the buttons? Why or why not?

    My initial impression is that it is all professional looking, but that I am overwhelmed with all the info on that page. I honestly was not sure what to look at/read first. And then when I decided to stop and read something, the screen changed too quickly! I know I could go back to click on any of the screens to look longer, but I think it is frustrating for users to be trying to see what you are about and then have the screen keep changing. I would find a way to condense all the info about your company and what you do down, and play it slower, so the person can read it! Also, condensing it down to the most important things will give the person a chance to decide if they want to join your site or not, without confusing them due to so much info to try and process.

    2) Sign up for a free membership and tell us what you think of the sign up process and the Dashboard.

    I think the sign-up process was just fine. I could easily figure out what to do, and it wasn’t too much. I have never had to do the selection of pictures before, but it was easy to figure out. I think your sign up process was fairly easy and painless! However, once I got onto the dashboard, my computer kicked it off saying that it appeared something was trying to hack into my system and so it closed it down. I was able to get back on, but getting a message like that about a site I have not heard of is concerning. If I hadn’t been looking it up because of this project, I would have seriously questioned the safety of your site. Not sure what the problem was, but you may want to look into that. Once I got to the dashboard, I really didn’t know what to do. It was an overwhelming amount of info and I wasn’t sure what to do first. It feels very cluttered and confusing. I think it should be more streamlined and give more help on what to do.

    3) Are you encouraged to sign up for a free account? If not, why? Can you provide feedback on the Premium Packages?

    I think that I would need more streamlined info to want to get the free account. I would need more to show me why it is in by best interest and what all the site does before I would want to sign up for the account. As far as the premium packages are concerned, it seems you are reasonably priced, and if I was looking for something like this, I might consider it, but again, I need to know more of what being on your site will really do for me. Actual statistics or something like that. 

    4) How do you think the site compares to other similar sites/competitors like LinkedIn, Facebook for business, and Salesspider.com?

    I think it is a tough comparison. But first, I think your site is more confusing than those. It is hard to tell what to do, how to do it, or why to do it. Since your name is not well known yet, I would think some more statistics on who you are and what you have to offer would be good. If you can get that down, then I think you might be on to something!

    5) Please share any additional feedback/comments you may have.

    Overall, I think this looks very professional. It is cute and easy to register with. However, there is simply too much going on overall. It is hard to focus on any one thing or figure out what you will really do for my business. Correcting those things would go a long way towards making your site more popular.

13. Visit https://www.storeboard.com/. What is your initial impression of what you see? Are you immediately drawn to click any of the buttons? Why or why not?
    1)  When the site first opened up to me I found myself feeling calm and relaxed.  The colours and fonts used are easy on the eye and produce a tranquil setting.  The front page is also simple in design which allows a person to understand the website easily and to be able to find your way around without any complications.  And yes, because we are small business owners, I found myself immediately drawn to click on the buttons to find out more, which is the point of the whole web site.
    2) Sign up for a free membership and tell us what you think of the sign up process and the Dashboard.

    The sign up process was quick and simple, what I thought was brilliant, was giving people a category to sign up under which certainly quickens communication processes.  The dashboard is clear and easy to use and I like the fact that you can manage all photo’s, video’s etc easily, it really is user friendly.3) Are you encouraged to sign up for a free account? If not, why? Can you provide feedback on the Premium Packages?
    Yes I am encouraged to sign up for a free account, I find the site simple  and think that at this point it could only be beneficial for our small business.  Having a look at the premium packages I think that  the prices are competitive with Linkedin and or similar sites.  I personally wouldn’t sign up for a premium account until I had time to assess whether or not the contacts and activity I found through the basic account were viable enough for an upgrade.4) How do you think the site compares to other similar sites/competitors like LinkedIn, Facebook for business, and Salesspider.com?
    I think that time is going to determine the popularity of your site, Facebook is so vast in connections and communications and is one of the first places a person advertises their business.  Linkedin is also fantastic, it’s been around for a while and offers more in the line of live brochures through behance.  

    5) Please share any additional feedback/comments you may have.

    I think that like any new business it takes time, planning, good management and consistency to succeed, if your business has enough background staff to manage it efficiently I don’t see why it can’t become one of “The” sites to advertise your business on.

14. 1) Visit https://www.storeboard.com/. What is your initial impression of what you see? Are you immediately drawn to click any of the buttons? Why or why not?
    I like it for the most part.  I didn’t like the transitions (not sure what to call them) on the top middle area.  However, I read through everything and thought immediately that my business should sign up for this (I have a startup business).  I think the footer could use some work though, it’s really not attractive.
    2) Sign up for a free membership and tell us what you think of the sign up process and the Dashboard.
    So it’s fairly easy to do, and asks for the typical information.  When selecting what type of business though, I found that the sub category for my business was not there.  Also, the sub categories were laid out rather odd (Landscaping->Landscape, & Industrial) so that needs to be addressed.  Lawn fertilization also should be there, and perhaps a way to suggest categories.
    3) Are you encouraged to sign up for a free account? If not, why? Can you provide feedback on the Premium Packages?  Yes, I signed up because it said it was free.  My business is so small right now that I don’t have any extra money in the budget for the premium package.  However, I’m not sure that even if we did have the money we would sign up.  The $9 price point is perhaps a bit higher than what I’d pay per month.  Perhaps a one time fee option would be good too.
    4) How do you think the site compares to other similar sites/competitors like LinkedIn, Facebook for business, and Salesspider.com?  It appears that there is much more going on on this site.  However, I think that the site looks very disheveled and unorganized.  I’m not sure what I should be doing, other that updating my status at the top.  I really don’t have any desire to watch any of the videos or click on the other links.  Also, there’s a video for Breast Augmentation that shows full frontal with only a slight blur.  I don’t think this is appropriate.
    5) Please share any additional feedback/comments you may have.  While I like the idea of being listed in the free directory, I don’t really see the need to visit this site for any other purpose.  I cannot see customers coming here to try and find my business either, at least not right now.  One more thing, many of the company’s images are rendering at pretty bad quality.  The resize instructions “When You Get To The Next Page, Click on “Resize” and Enter 120px by 120px and Uncheck “Constrain Proportions.” are not helpful because when you click “Save” it takes you to your main page, not a page where you can adjust the size of the image.

15. The site is seems a little over crowded. Navigation seems easy enough, it has a facebook feel to it. Registration was easy to find and fill out.  The package option was difficult to see at first. However, once it did pop out at me the pricing guide made it easy to for a potential purchaser to understand. The site colors are clear and easy on the eyes. Links are easy to find. If I had a need for this site I would definitely be interested in an account.  As I mentioned before the site seems a little crowded with the side ads. That takes away the main focus of the page. Over all I had a good experience.

16.  
    1) Visit https://www.storeboard.com/. What is your initial impression of what you see? Are you immediately drawn to click any of the buttons? Why or why not?
    Yes, kinda. The frontpage is not bad but can be improved. I like the testimonials, and I think those should be live and changing rather than the existing main panel which scrolls through the targeted audience. You should display all your targeted audiences at the same time so that the visitor will not click on thinking he is not within your target group. I can always click on a target audience tag to find out more about why storeboard is good for me.

    The top menu is a bit confusing. It can be simpler, like: Why Storeboard, Search Storeboard, Join Now, Login. I’ve always hated how they put login into some space that I have to go look for. The top right hand corner is often used so that’s all right. But if you want to put in another option for login, do it in the same menu.
    2) Sign up for a free membership and tell us what you think of the sign up process and the Dashboard.
    Too complicated. I prefer to just join and then, if I like the service, I can always update my profile. I don’t like giving so much information in the first place.
    3) Are you encouraged to sign up for a free account? If not, why? Can you provide feedback on the Premium Packages?
    I think you need a free account. This will encourage those people with a small or home business to try out your service. Then, if they want more, they can go for the premium packages. Also, professionals like myself will prefer a free account since I don’t expect to get my main business from this service. Also, there are other services like LinkedIn that will allow me to do roughly the same thing.
    4) How do you think the site compares to other similar sites/competitors like LinkedIn, Facebook for business, and Salesspider.com?
    Not different enough. I would like to be able to create a more professional looking homepage for myself. After all, this is about business and I’d want to look more professional. I am unlikely to be able to spend so much time on it but what I will use this service for is to make information about myself available on the Internet in case people want to use my specialty or service.
    5) Please share any additional feedback/comments you may have.
    I think you should look at how academic staff, for example, in universities have their own website and how their expertise is presented, e.g. https://environment.yale.edu/profile/kellert/. It will be nice if I can easily set myself up like this and when people visit my profile, this is what they see. When I click on one of the members of your service, for example, https://www.storeboard.com/luciabonsante, what I get is not very professional. Why would I want to share personal interests like Friends? Raves are actually commendations from other clients. I think you should use the word Commendations rather than Raves. This is a professional service after all. The webpage is also too cluttered and look like a social profile rather than the more professional looking website of Stephen Kellert.

    The problem with professional social networks like LinkedIn and Facebook is that they are too difficult to set up, and in most instances, not very professional or businesslike. Pagemodo, for example, simplifies the setting up of your business webpage once you’ve started a page in Facebook. But this takes too long. And how many Facebook members know about Pagemodo? If I can join your service and set up my website like Pagemodo, then I have a real professional website up in no time and at the same time enjoy the other advantages that social networks bring. 

    In short, a good idea but needs some work to make it really attractive.
     

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