What is Common Red?
New social network Commonred is now in closed beta and available by invite only, but while you wait on your invitation, we thought we’d give you a peek!
While I can’t explain why the site is run by cute dinosaurs, I can tell you that Commonred has stepped in where social networks naturally fall short- focusing on why you should be connected. They say it is for professionals to discover common threads and “build meaningful relationships.”
Because you can see who from your Facebook, Twitter and LinkedIn contacts are already using Commonred, you now have an icebreaker. Rather than just connecting, you have something to immediately talk about and hopefully expedite the process of getting to know someone and eventually doing business together.
For example, I signed up, answered a variety of serious and fun questions and saw that one of my Facebook contacts also lived in northern Spain like I did, so I pinged her with a big huge “OMG, you were in Spain too? Let’s catch up, I had no idea! #embarrassing” note.
Yes, I could have dug through Facebook to learn she was in Spain and maybe even seen a Tweet at some point over the years, but there’s something helpful about having the intent to find commonalities in a simplified way that doesn’t make me feel like I’m stalking someone’s profile in the dark shadows.
Be the first to see:
Commonred is brand new and in beta, so you’ll have to remember that means it may be buggy (although we haven’t had problems). It could be a great way to enhance and boost your existing social networking efforts.
Chris Adams
April 1, 2011 at 6:59 pm
very intriguing twist on social networks. It would be nice to see them integrating with your Gmail and Yahoo email accounts to help strengthen the relationships with those you already know (or kind of know).