Why Shocase Fails as a Social Network

shocase social network
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Shocase (get it? showcase), which launched last month, bills itself as a social network for marketers, but it is more like the unholy love child of LinkedIn and Dropbox, with absolutely no way to actually send a message to others on Shocase, even if they are following you.

What kind of social network is that?

In fact, in a support chat with Amanda with Shocase support, in response to our question “Is there a way to make it so that others on the system can send me a message? How does one send a message to another user?”, we were told that “Currently, we do not have a system for Shocase members to message other members. We recognize this would be a great feature and it’s on our radar when considering what to implement in the future.”

shocase no messaging

A ‘social network’ which may, at some future date, enable messaging others on the network.

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In this day and age of online networking, and given Facebook, Twitter, and even Google Plus as the quintessential examples of social networking, we see nothing ‘social’ about this, let alone anything that enables ‘networking’.

Yet Shocase says right on their site, “It’s the only social network that gives the entire community’s ideas, experiences and passions the visibility they deserve. It’s an opportunity to validate, recognize and build authentic working relationships, grow reputations and cultivate new opportunities.” {Emphasis ours}

If you can’t message – or even email – those members of the community, just how are you expected to cultivate new opportunities, or build those working relationships?

Again, we ask, what kind of social network is that?

Essentially Shocase offers a place to store and showcase (get it? ‘Shocase’) your project files, and there is a stream much like a Facebook timeline. You can also provide your own professional profile (or pull it in from LinkedIn), but there is absolutely no way for others to contact you through the Shocase system.

Now, perhaps techinically with this paradigm they can be called a ‘social network’, but we disagree. However, in all of the broad marketing media press coverage they have received, they are being called a social network, and we think that this is misleading.

Even the Oxford dictionary agrees with us, defining a social network as 1. a network of social interactions and personal relationships; and 2. a dedicated website or other application that enables users to communicate with each other by posting information, comments, messages, images, etc..

social network definition

So, while Shocase may be a cool way to showcase your marketing chops, we think that they have a ways to go before they can truly call themselves a social network.

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4 thoughts on “Why Shocase Fails as a Social Network

  1. As of 2/12/18 the site appears to be down. Today is 2/16 and user-facing pages stilljust go to a white screen.

  2. Hi Michele! Sorry that one of the overgrown man-children who run that sorry excuse for a company made you write that. We’ve all seen plenty of hilarious failures in the start-up world, but Shocase might be the most pathetic one yet. It’s pointless, useless, and has the absolute stupidest man in “marketing” running the show. It’ll be gone before the year is done and I hope it ruins that misogynist idiot, Ron Young.

  3. Yeah you think they are so successful when they laid off 85% of their staff with no compensation and the value of the company went down that their investors won’t give them cash! Ron young the CEO is killing the company with his ego mindset. The 118,000 members were driven by a lead generation campaign that was due to one individual I shall not name . Shocase is going to be shutcase!

  4. Check out Shocase now. It has over 118k members in 154 countries and has 100 of the top CEOs in marketing as Shocase Thought Leaders. Very social. Lots of features.

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