Swipe right for a professional connection
In this increasingly digital age, there are apps for everything. The familiar-to-many swiping technique that is fairly widely used nowadays is now seeping into the working world: it was announced a couple of weeks ago that Bumble, the mobile dating app where women make the first move, is branching out into a professional networking app.
Bumble is not the first company to take this step with its new offering, which it has named BumbleBIZZ.
Grip is a ‘handshaking’ app that launched in the UK last September, allowing users to join professional communities that interest them and swipe right to express an interest in ‘meeting’ fellow members. Shapr is a professional matchmaking app, introduced to the market just over 18 months ago, which links jobseekers with mentors, allows users to import certain basic information from LinkedIn and caps people’s networks at 50 members.
Grip’s Co-founder and CEO, Tim Groot, focused on the app’s encouraging “instant interaction with peers”; Ludovic Huraux, Co-founder and CEO of Shapr, described his app’s mission as making networking “so seamless and inspiring that it becomes a lifestyle”; and Whitney Wolfe, Bumble’s CEO, said that “success comes from spontaneous connections”.
The issue faced by these two apps is a lack of members. Smartphone users are inundated with apps, for everything from ordering food and travelling, to 10 different social media, via games and gimmicks. This is where BumbleBIZZ is likely to excel.
With nearly seven million people registered on the app worldwide, the networking opportunities are vast, and although this is 15 times fewer than the number of active monthly users on LinkedIn, the ease with which people will be able to see others’ details and swipe – all through an app already on their phone – will no doubt encourage anybody already using the app to dip into its professional capability when job hunting.
Another selling point for BumbleBIZZ is the feminist ethos. In the same way that the original dating app works, women will have to make the first move when professional connections are made. This is likely to be another attractive element of the app, as women seek to network with other businesspeople who share their desire for true equality in business.
It will remain to be seen whether BumbleBIZZ follows the success of its predecessors – Bumble and its platonic friendship app BumbleBFF – but given its inclusion of an additional feature in an already-flourishing app, it would be a great surprise if it didn’t.
In PR in particular, an industry where networking and communication play a vital part, apps encouraging instantaneous professional connections are likely to thrive. The purpose of the job is to create connections and build relationships, and this is just another way in which professionals can go about this. In the wider corporate world, apps such as this are likely to attract the young, tech-savvy graduates that so many companies are trying to reach. In turn, they may be more drawn to what they previously thought was a tech-shy corporation if its employees are members.
Currently this is all speculation, and we’re yet to see a growth in the use of apps for networking purposes. However, if any is able to succeed, chances are it will be this one.
Written by Rebecca Ingram, Senior Digital Account Executive (@_beccaingram)