Variety's The Biz - know the audience

by artytosh

Variety, a leading brand for the film industry, launched a social networking service  called 'The Biz' in February 08. Even those of us whose interaction with the film industry doesn't extend beyond Netflix can guess what people in the "biz" want from a community, and Variety figured it out too. The extreme emphasis of The Biz is networking, connecting and jobs.

It looks like it is working - a rough count shows almost 15,000 registered members in the first few weeks - a great result for a business-to-business brand. This is because the community emphasis reflects the users needs - so anyone who says that social networking and community engagement is not working in B2B need only look at The Biz and see that if there's a reason for the community to engage - they will.

GOOD

The tools that The Biz offers its members are relevant to the purpose of the network ; simple profiling tools - including questions around availability and experience - and ways to search for jobs and projects, and search for people to connect with. 

BAD 

Its tough to find anything bad about this - the strategy is clear and targeted. OK, so there is little if any emphasis on content (blogging, forums and so on), but its clear the publisher has decided that networking is the basis of this community not content.