To Be or Not to beBEE - Join the Express Train

Come join us! I wanted to be part of an intelligent community that valued everyone’s contributions and I was so grateful that Jim Cody and John White persisted in telling me to look at beBee, a social affinity network for business and cultural initiatives. I have been telling family and colleagues about beBee because I think that something magical is happening. I am writing this to post on LinkedIn because several people have asked me why they should join. I enjoy intelligent humor and beBee has this in buckets. Started in 2015 in Spain by Juan and Javier, it has grown in one year to over 16 million participants, adding thousands more daily worldwide.

The bee symbol is bold, creative and fun.  Javier Cama Rica and Juan Imaz are building a colony of people in a social affinity network designed by their organization and their bees.  They understood that people want to network on both a business and culturally-stimulating level and the two discussions do not have to bee (pun-intended) mutually exclusive.  I do not know all of the hives but I can tell you that there are standard ones like HR manager, marketing, directors, sales, Audiology, etc. However, there are the really neat ones like writers, cars, medicine, microbiology, fashion/beauty  and photography. It is just fun buzzing around to find which ones to join their discussions. You receive only the discussions that you want to read; nothing more.

Who are the bees?  Many of the bees are just people looking to be challenged, share stories or ideas, look for jobs and discuss world events. The bees are different here. They mentor like Ali Anani, Ph.D., who gently guides many of us to expand upon our thoughts.   The bees are funny and comical. What I enjoy is that they do this without being disrespectful or bashing others. You can look up other bees by country to find followers with your business or artistic interests.

The actual website is youthful and looks so much more modern that LinkedIn. Pictures pop off the page and there never seems to be a problem with pixels.  It is easy to navigate and self-teach but we are all here to help any new bees thrive.

beBee does have a few funky people but overall Javier and Juan do a very great job of creating a safe environment for bees. I am not a prude but do not experience nearly the daily deluge of unwanted advances that I do on LinkedIn. Further, they listen if you are concerned and investigate quickly. Others, warn the hive if they feel scammers exists.

I was pretty disillusioned by LinkedIn.  I had worked so hard to build up my followers and connections, each over 8000 to see my number of views decline to less than 50. I tested out beBee and easily reach hundreds of views in a couple hours. That never happened as a non-influencer on LinkedIn.

beBee allows the entire hive to flourish.  A community cannot flourish if it does not value the individual contributions of each bee.  Each bee is valued as possible networking, business or social facilitator to help everyone reach their dreams.  The hive grows by learning from each other not just a select few Influencers.

beBee’s founders truly want your suggestions. The feedback button is not buried at the button but is on the side of the home screen. Javier and Juan want to know what problems that you are experiencing. They want to read your suggestions.  Juan and Javier review your survey results because they believe in continual improvement.  This like an open source social networking site that solicits and actually listens to ideas.

Even more unique is that Juan and Javier personally respond to your posts. That may become increasingly difficult as the hives grow but they are doing their best to make everyone feel welcome to share their voices safely.  They greet new members and encourage others. Why is that important? Not everyone feels comfortable writing. Not everyone has found their voice yet. Not everyone has experience or developed a story yet. They are learning from the group. I have sent letters to the founders of LinkedIn and never received a response. Did you not see the writing on the sale wall when LI changed so drastically and do not respond to any writer’s request for reasons besides a change in their algorithm? Juan and Javier want all of us to grow with their successes through their Ambassador program.

beBee is not complicated like sharing to the public or a group and then having to add a title, then a description with a suggestion for details, which seems so redundant at times.  They limit how many times that you can share a post to three. If you posted something worth sharing, other bees will share your buzz to other hives growing your audience exponentially. No one is flooded with too many posts.   Further, you always easily know how your post is doing because the viewers, comments and relevant share numbers are displayed with each post.  You can see the number of people uniquely commenting on your honey (stories.)

It is free! I do not think that this is the most important aspect but for someone with limited resources, that is wonderful.  People searching for a job, do not have to pay a premium price to find a job.  Employers, you also do not have to pay to list your company. How neat to put the world to work in gratifying careers or jobs. You can search for a job by salary requirements or city!

I want to climb the mountain with Javier and Juan. Last week, they discussed trying to wipe out measles in our generation. Someone else added not to forget to finish squashing polio. That is the power of a social affinity network and I cannot wait to see how we can help.

Come buzz with us. Yes, bee a little silly. BEE a little serious. Write a story. Tell us about your business or school adventures that encouraged your success.  Share your passion about art, music, nature, sports, etc.  Explore the hives and join the beBEE community. Invite your colleagues and friends to join too.  You can still be part of the LinkedIn community too but we are here too for you.

Written by Diane M. Schultz

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