Myspace is a great place for teenagers to gossip about MTV shows and share YouTube videos of Jon Stewart but does it help you, the young professional, generate strong business contacts? Learn about health? Hell– did Myspace even help you find a date to your company holiday party?
I didn’t think so.
It seems that the promise of the social web missed a generation.
And that is why Dr. Joseph Hathorn and his wife, Dr. Eugenia Jacobs, created their new social networking site Urban Prestige (UP). Dr. Jacobs calls Urban Prestige “Myspace and Friendster for grown-ups”. Dr. Jacobs’ says that she always appreciated the need for professional networking and felt that LinkedIn had started on a great premise but she wanted to take it further. Jacobs also realized that most of the dating sites online were not satisfactory, at least for professionals. Professionals are looking to date other professionals and don’t have time to waste sifting through hundreds of slacker profiles to find that one other upwardly-mobile single professional on the site.
So Hathorn and Jacobs had a great idea– lets take everything we love about the social web and put it all one one site– a centralized location where professionals can engage each other for personal development, professional development, and, yes, even dating. “It’s the next generation of social networking,” says Hathorn, “users are able to post the resumes, invite their friends to a cocktail party, and find work-out tips. The possibilities are endless.”
So how do you make a social networking/dating site that is geared forwards young professionals? You get a number of great bloggers to write content that would appeal to them. Dr. Tara Palmatier (relationships), Dr. Sommer (philosophy), Lindsay Anvik (fashion), Mark Degen (health/fitness), and our own David Houle (the future).
So what about security, are people safe on Urban Prestige? “The philosophy is simple,” explains Hathorn, “teenagers aren’t going to lie about their age, because our site isn’t built for teenagers. I’m fairly confident no teenager will find professional networking and personal growth entertaining. On the flip-side it means our site will not be another resource for predators. We refuse to contribute to the already terrifying atmosphere that has been created by other social networks.”
Alright, so the kids are safe but what about the tech savvy fashionista in Manhattan– how do you plan to keep her safe on her first date with the Chad, the investment banker she met on your site? Well, Urban Prestige offers tips for developing trust in a new relationship while still respecting your own safety. (IE– don’t invite him over for coffee for your first date- meet him at a cafe instead) Urban Prestige will also review any profile that is flagged by a member of their community and remove any that are deemed inappropriate by management.
Also, UP is offering a year free trial. Just use AS101 as your referral code when setting up your profile
I can’t wait to meet you all on UrbanPrestige.com
April 19th, 2007 at 1:48 am
I, as a teenager myself, would like to contradict Dr. Hathorn’s statement “I?m fairly confident no teenager will find professional networking and personal growth entertaining.” I would like to state that teenagers do think about personal growth and they are pretty much in dire need of tips on developing relationships. And about professional networking, some, not all, teenagers are interested to develop their relationships from beforehand so that they donot have to rifle through newspapers or job sites to find them a suitable job. I tried out UP, and I personally think it’s a good site. But care should be taken to stop a certain type of spamming which is already rampant in other social networking sites. Spamming such as posting offensive topics in forums and putting up lewd photo comments are pretty common in sites such as hi5. Over all, best wishes to Dr. Hathorn and Dr. Jacobs with their project.