SocialMinder- Upgrade Bait And Switch
Last night I got an email from a old co-worker inviting me to check out SocialMinder, which said:
SocialMinder is an online assistant that helps you maintain relationships with your LinkedIn network.
I thought that you might appreciate a free invitation to the “closed” alpha test of SocialMinder.
SociaMinder:
* Scans your email headers and maps them to your LinkedIn network
* Identifies relationships that need strengthening
* Helps identify recent business news to discuss with each contact, no matter how out of touch you are
* You get weekly updates identifying top opportunities to build a better networkI have arranged for you to get a priority account;
1) Go to http://www.SocialMinder.com , and
2) Click on the green button (‘sign me up’)You are on the priority list, but your space is only held for 3 days.
And the price is FREE…
Hope that it works for you!
Since this came from someone I knew (and someone that has sent me beta invites in the past), I decided to go check it out. You enter your gmail username and password, and SocialMinder tells you how long it’s been since you’ve contacted everyone in your gmail address book.
I then was brought to this screen:
If you can’t read what’s in the yellow box, it says:
Click here to upgrade to full version for free – just answer a few questions in our Alpha phase questionnaire. The full version helps you manage all of your contacts, and checks for contact updates regularly.
Oh, cool. I can get an upgrade to the full version just by answering a few questions in the Alpha phase questionnaire, right? I can answer a few questions. No biggie.
So I click. And here’s what I see:
No problem. This one’s easy. For some reason I see the following at the top:
Free Trial Upgrade- Step One of Two
But that’s okay.
So I answer the questions and click OK. Here’s what I get:
Yup, you read that right. Here’s the line:
To get your free full trial upgrade, you must select 15 friends to be sent a pre-approved invitation to try SocialMinder.
So the third step- which wasn’t mentioned at the beginning- is spamming 15 of your friends.
My Point:
I have no problem with services trying to get users to spread the word. It not only makes sense, it’s essential. But in user acquisition as with everything else, you have to manage expectations. And as someone who just ran through this process, I’m left feeling cheated. I feel like I wasted my time, and I’ll never go back to the service again.
Harsh? Probably. But I’m just pointing out how easy it is to make someone feel cheated and angry when promising one thing and giving them another.
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I thought this kind of sneaky tactic went out with web 1.0. People are very sensitive to being spammed or scammed that I wonder who what the usability person was thinking.
I totally agree with you. I wonder if the thinking is “well, if they’ve gone this far, they probably have invested enough time and energy that they’re past the point of bailing out. They’ll probably just invite a bunch of friends instead of calling it a total loss.”
Glad I read this post – received two of these this morning and was about to take a look a it. I won’t bother now…
Shame on them!
Nathan,
I went through the same process- -and stopped at the lat step as well. Now, if they let me try the full version, say for two weeks or 30 days, with lots of reminders to invite other peop,le without requirement, then why not?
Instead, they spam and they are dead to hundreds of potential viral cheerleaders. File under “Jackholes.”
Doug- exactly. They’re trying to pull a fast one instead of encouraging people to try out and then spread the word about their product. How can I recommend something to friends without trying it first?
I completely agree. And now I’ll never try socialminder either. Thanks for the heads-up!
More interesting–SocialMinder has now had two days to respond publicly and issue a mea culpa, and they have not (at least not that I’ve seen). Here’s who are behind the app: http://www.socialminder.com/about-2/.
John Adler, Brent Halliburton, Mike Subelsky and Salman Sajid: what have you done to address these concerns?
[...] Burke’s post on Blogstring explains how the upgrade email requirement works, and why people have been giving SocialMinder a [...]