The ability to sell oneself is fundamental for any professional

The ability to communicate effectively is essential for every professional. 

Beehives, bees, honey and buzzing on a social network?

Our idea was to create a reference like Twitter has its bird logo. A bee is a hard-working insect, that produces honey whilst buzzing lively and the beehives work together like groups. It´s resemblance with an employee is excellent. In the beginning we started out as WeBee, but then we changed our name for beBee. Abbreviation is quite common in the United States: FB, TW, IN or LI… beBee is BB or as others refer to it bB. Same in every language… and it doesn´t have a history! Its perfect: diligent, sociable, lively, visible…

But why orange?

The orange color and the hexagon are to differentiate ourselves. There are social networks with square and round logos, blue, red, black and yellow…We stand out from the crowd: the bee, the hexagon and the orange, a color that combines seriousness with youthfullness. Neither yellow, nor red.

Has the phrase “come on, get off your computer and get out to send your curriculum” lost its actuality?

It simply doesn´t work like this anymore. Its not enough to simply register on social media and then sit back and wait for something to happen. This is about investing time on a daily basis; there are no short term results. It's not enough to just updload your resume and then don´t do anything else. We give you the tools to advertise your services, complete your profile and get yourself noticed. What should you do with all this? Write about what you know and show your personality!

It's about creating an image, right?

On beBee you can showcase your whole persona. That's why we call it personal brand instead of professional brand. Behind the professional there is a human being. What works is networking, or as we used to call it back in the days, “napotism” but it sounded somewhat derogatory. In real life its networking that works best: connecting with people who can help you to get ahead. For example, I know architects who are struggling to get a job whilst their peers enjoy an abundance of offers. The latters might not be better in any way, other than their ability to communicate. 

Nowadays, the ability to sell ourselves and communicate effectively is indispensable for every professional. We were blown away by the fact that in Silicon Valley, all degrees offer drama classes. Now imagine that an economical degree incorporates drama classes! It should work exactly the same here. They already know that professionals from all fields should be able to market themselves effectively. It is considered an essential part of every profession, even plumbing. A plumber there has his own blog, his positioning on Google and therefore, more clients. They don´t question the necessity of all this. Here we are just starting to understand this: you must stand out of the crowd!

How are you managing the growth?

We are still small. We hope to reach 20 million followers in a year and 40 in 2 years time. We are growing organically, especially through Google. All content is properly indexed on Google and that attracts traffic naturally. The other way is through the profiles of our users: once you get active, beBee positions you on the first page that brings attention, especially on social media. It generates a word of mouth phenomenon. By December we hope to attract, and lets see if we get there, around 300.000 new users and 500.000 more by each month.

Where do you hope to get as Spanish entrepreneurs? It is quite a disadvantage...

I believe it is one, yes. Obviously. But we have a strong american commitment as we have an american CEO in the US. That is to say, regardless of how good we might be, we also have to be smart and know that a Spaniard over there doesn´t really... Let them see you as an American company, even if your founders are Spanish. They must see that you are strongly focused on the American market, otherwise you can forget it. The limit? I don´t know... Why not dream of being the first spanish and European social network with 400 or 600 million users? Dreaming has no price tag...

Social networks are born, they grow and then tend to disappear?

If they don´t evolve then yes. If they lack the ability to adapt themselves and innovate they can easily disappear. Twitter has been facing some difficulties and LinkedIn has also been struggling since its acquisition by Microsoft, as the engagement - user commitment towards the network - is very low.

You can read more about this topic on the following links

https://www.google.es/amp/s/venturebeat.com/2016/08/04/linkedin-now-has-450-million-members-but-the-number-of-monthly-visitors-is-still-flat/amp/

https://www.google.es/amp/s/venturebeat.com/2015/10/29/linkedin-now-has-400m-users-but-only-25-of-them-use-it-monthly/amp/

Facebook, however, is a great success story: it innovates, recently acquired Instagram and has started new projects like stories or live videos. The secret lies within innovation ( or improve ) and the ability to adjust to different situations and the absence of these traits can lead any social network to its doom.

The problem of Tuenti - the past spanish social network  - for example resulted from the fact that it was born locally and also died locally. There is no point in a non-global network; it has nothing to do in this market.

Isn´t everything invented already?

It seems like it is, but really, it is not. We are very different. First of all its the wall. In beBee everything is personalised and based on your interests, whilst on other platforms the content of your wall is defined by your followers or connections. Here, if you are a part of a hive, the system will show you posts from people with whom you might not be connected to, but share the same interests, objectives. Because let´s be honest: you probably have asked for a new business opportunity from the people you already know, and if they haven´t given it to you already its most likely you won´t get anything out of these relationships. beBee therefore, focuses on 3rd degree connections. Your family and friends make up your 1st degree connections, the friends of your friends add the 2nd layer and last, but not least the people who you don´t know belong to the 3rd degree of your network.

How the idea of beBee was born?

We realised that when you post something on any social media platform you merely reach about 8% -10% of your followers and we wanted to change that. If you put energy into your network, then you should reach 100 % engagement. beBee ensures an organic engagement. In order to network more effectively we thought about what brings people together. Because, in the end, you are going to do more business with the people you sympathise or get on well with or share some common interests.

A Personal Brand on the Internet

Javier Cámara is the CEO of beBee, a social platform that is in the midst of expansion. The users of this constantly growing network find jobs thanks to their personal brand.

To give you an example: "who is going to sell a bike better? Someone who is passionate about cycling or someone who isn´t? You can only find this on beBee, because we succesfully merge professional networks with leisure ones. beBee is focused on becoming a network of personal branding"; added the company´s senior executive.

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https://www.bebee.com/producer/@javierbebee/why-bebee-reasons-to-be-on-bebee