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MichaelJ
Community Manager
Community Manager

Create your own network right here on Upwork (beta): Feedback and Questions

Building a network of fellow professionals you can count on is one of the best ways to grow your business. Today we announced a beta test as the first step in a greater initiative. With this feature, talent included in the test can save and message other talent on the platform. 

 

Check out the announcement and let us know your thoughts about these updates in the comments below.


Cheers,
Mike
115 REPLIES 115
jr-translation
Community Member

Tbh, I think this will be abused to subcontract more work without informing the client and to scam Upwork out of money.

Being contacted randomly by any other professional on Upwork is borderline to unsolicited contact. First of all, there are not really that many professionals but people who claim to be in order to make quick money by scamming clients and Upwork. Second, if one is really so desperate in contacting a certain freelancer to dicuss work, it can be done by inviting to a job.

davydkoff
Community Member

Another freelancer invited me into his network via email, but messages from him appear in my client account, not in my freelancer account. All the messages I send him from my freelancer account, he doesn't see.

Thanks for flagging this issue, Ilia. We'll look into it and provide an update.

~ Valeria
Upwork

Thank you for the feedback Illia! We've identified this issue and will be releasing a fix in the next 48 hours.

a_lipsey
Community Member


Mike J wrote:

Building a network of fellow professionals you can count on is one of the best ways to grow your business. Today we announced a beta test as the first step in a greater initiative. With this feature, talent included in the test can save and message other talent on the platform. 

 

Check out the announcement and let us know your thoughts about these updates in the comments below.


Can I get added to the Beta test? I would actually use this feature, and I'd love to test it and give feedback on how I used it. I collaborate with a few freelancers already but not using an agency model for it. 


Amanda L wrote:

 

Can I get added to the Beta test? I would actually use this feature, and I'd love to test it and give feedback on how I used it. I collaborate with a few freelancers already but not using an agency model for it. 

Amanda, you should see the option under Find Work tab now. Could you please try accessing it? Let us know if you experience any issues with accessing it and feel free to share any feedback you have. Thanks!

~ Valeria
Upwork
oliverm7
Community Member

Hey Upwork Community!

 

Just a thought for this newly added feature. I think this is brilliant! However I think this can be utilized even better if freelancers are not limited to just email address and name search. I thought allowing freelancers to search for other freelancers in the same city or location will greatly enhance this feature.

 

I hope Upwork can look into adding search by location / city filter and give it a thought. 😁

 

Thanks Upwork Community! 

Thanks, Oliver Dave - this is such helpful feedback! We've recieved a few other comments on the topic and appreciate you sharing with us. 

In thinking about searching/filtering by location or city, could you share a bit more about why this might feel valuable to you? For example, do you currently meet up to collaborate with other local freelancers in your area, or would you like the option to in the future? You have us curious to hear more! 😊

syawedis
Community Member

I actually just got my first request from someone wanting to join my network. Their message states we've worked with the same client before, but there is no chat feature (guessing I have to accept the invite first) to confirm this, which seems like a flaw.

I'd like to chat with any network requestees before accepting into the network, like in this case ask specifically what client we've both worked with.

Hi Nathan,

Thanks for sharing this - it's really helpful for us to hear! 

Wanting to validate that you have worked together before makes a lot of sense. Can you think of any other circumstances where it might feel valuable to chat with someone who sent a request before you accept?

Others who see this, feel free to share ideas as well!

I mean, I could think of a dozen reasons why it would be good to chat with someone before adding someone to your network. 

 

- "Hi, who are you and why are you adding me to your network" is one example. (Maybe the person who sent it didnt fill out a good cover letter)

 

- I am not sure what happens when I accept someone to my network, maybe I'm worried they'll have access to other contacts or something. 

-  It's not much different from someone randomly adding you as a friend on facebook and you messaging them first to see if you want to accept their request. I really compare this to something like that. 

I think the bigger question is why would you NOT want to message someone before accepting their request?

kbadeau
Community Member


Maggie C wrote:

Hi Nathan,

Thanks for sharing this - it's really helpful for us to hear! 

Wanting to validate that you have worked together before makes a lot of sense. Can you think of any other circumstances where it might feel valuable to chat with someone who sent a request before you accept?

Others who see this, feel free to share ideas as well!


Add me to the group of freelancers who think the chat feature is essential. I would love to have a group of freelancers I can refer work to, but I don't have the time/bandwidth to seek them out. If by chance they try to connect with me out of the blue, I'd like to be able to chat with them about their experience, location, rate, availability etc. before adding them to my network. I think it would be really clumsy to accept their invite, chat with them and find out they're not a good fit, and then remove them. As it stands now I'm just going to decline the invitation.

Add a custom message to the request? sure. Let people chat with you before?  No, thanks. No need for 'help me get job' spam.

 

if you want to talk to them - add them, talk to them, then remove.

No. I'd likely just decline an invite if I can't speak to them first.

I don't see why this would be any different to how an "interview" works

 

Because people pay to send a proposal so it's less possible to spam invites.

Also, when sending an invitation, it asks if you know the person. If you need to talk to a person before accepting most likely you don't.

Why do I have to know them first? Maybe I want to get to know them, or visa versa. That's the entire point, isnt it?

You can't gauge properly if you want to add someone or not with a simple invite request. I'd rather chat, and then ignore or block someone if they are not a good fit instead of accepting them into my network, then chatting, then having to remove them from the network. It's seems more rude that way. 

What's worst, someone on facebook accepts your friend request and then deletes you? Or just declines your friend request? 

Then try linkedin where people have 500 connects and haven't seen or talked to either of them once. 

Not sure why you are trying to force your opinion on me. 

I have mine, you have yours. I don't care about linked in or whatever comparison you are making. I want to contact people before I add them to my network, period. 

santhib
Community Member

It would be nice to be able to search for freelancers by field rather than by name or e-mail. For example, from time to time my clients need proofreading services, which is not a service I offer. They ask me if I can refer someone to them, but unfortunately I can't because I don't know anyone in that particular field. If I could "network" with some proofreaders and have the ability to recommend them to my clients when needed that would be helpful.

I came here to write about the same. Even if I know someone, I have to got through several pages before I find them. There are profiles that have not been used since 2011. Please add the regular filters if you really want us to connect.

 

Also, why on earth should I add someone's email address to connect on Upwork when I am already perfectly connected outside?

jr-translation
Community Member

I just thought of a great use. The function could be used to discuss potentially problematic clients with former freelancers who eg. remove a feedback.

tmcdos
Community Member

I tried to use this new feature and honestly, I think the UX is close to zero.

If I was the developer, tasked to build this feature, I would have simply added a button "Add to my network" to the info card of each search result when I search for freelancers - as shown in the following picture:

shot-1.png

With the current implementation of the feature, I have to open 2 tabs - one tab with the search results of freelancers and one tab for the "Add to your network" which is a completely separate search that allows searching by email or by freelancer's name(s). A significant problem with this approach is that there are too many people with duplicate names - right now I am on page 50 of "Add to your network" and I still can not find that "Pavel N." that I am looking for.

 

If you can't add a button like I propose in the picture above - then please at least allow the search engine in "Add to my network" to search by freelancer ID.

 

Another observation - the search results in "Add to my network" page are presented in random order. Don't you think that sorting them alphabetically by name, and grouping by country (and eventually by category and/or specialty) would improve the UX?

 

By the way, how many networks can I have? And how to specify the network where I want to add the freelancer ?

jr-translation
Community Member

Just found another feature. You can find people who have set their profile to private.

Hi Jennifer,

Could you please send me a private message with a screenshot showing the profile in question in search results? Profiles set to private should not appear in search by design so I'd be interested in taking a closer look.

~ Vladimir
Upwork
629bb44f
Community Member

Hi all,

Thanks for your fantastic feedback so far - the team is learning so much from you!If you’re interested and able to share more, the team is conducting additional research this week via a 4-Day Journey, starting today through Friday. If you haven’t heard about it yet, here’s how it works:

  • After spending some time exploring Your Network, you’ll be asked to share feedback in a short activity each day. Here is today’s link. (5-10 min)
 
  • On days 2-4 (starting tomorrow), we will update you here with a new activity link in this thread, and the same process will continue.
 
  • Once you’ve completed all 4 days of the Journey, you’ll be entered into a drawing for 10 $100 Credits to thank you for your time. Upwork Credits can be used like cash on the platform, without fees.
We’d love to hear from you if you’re interested in sharing more!
Many thanks,

Hi Maggie C, I tried to check my account, but there is no sign of the "Upwork Network" option. Is the deployment of this feature only for a part of the freelancers?

How can I benefit from this option?

Hi Franck,

 

You can sign up for a waitlist to access the feature here. Stay tuned, we hope to release this to all freelancers soon.

 

~Andrea
Upwork
629bb44f
Community Member

For those interested, you can join us in Day 2 of the journey here. Thanks!

629bb44f
Community Member

And here's Day 3! 

jacobolumbreras
Community Member

Product update :rocket: :rocket: :rocket:

Hi everyone! Our product team would like to thank you for all of your feedback in this community thread as well those who have been participating in our ongoing research study. We have been recording your suggestions and have prepared list of initial improvements to Your Network that will help you find other independent professionals and add them to your network more easily. 
 
Here is a preview of what’s coming starting in February:
 
  • Improvements to the search bar in Your Network page: a series of updates and fixes to the search capabilities that will help you find talent using first and last name more easily.

search recommendations_desktop.png

  • Add professional to your network directly from top navigation search: Many of you use the talent search on the top navigation bar of the platform. This will allow you to search and filter other professionals using all the top parameters in their profile such as category, skills, location, and others.

UFS_desktop.png

  • Network recommendations in Your Network page: a series of modules with recommended professionals to add to your network based on geo proximity, skills, people you may know, and others.

search recommendations_desktop.png

  • Inviting professionals that are not on Upwork: you can send an invite to your network for professionals that are not currently on Upwork.

search recommendations_desktop.png

We will continue to collect your feedback and work to bring more improvements to Your Network in the coming months. Thank you for all of your support and comments!

 

Best,
Jacobo L. | Lead Product Manager

a_lipsey
Community Member

I am not sure if this has been brought up yet. I have invited approximately a half dozen people to my network. The problem is, I invited all except two from my freelancer profile. The two that I invited as a client, ended up in my freelancer messages. Another who I invited from my freelancer profile, ended up in my client messages, and still ANOTHER ended up in a set of messages from a team room/profile that a client of mine had set up for another freelancer and myself that he had hired separately. 

 

It seems to me that ALL the network messages should end up in the freelancer profile, right? I can share screenshots privately if it will help to understand the problem. I was actually excited for this feature, but this disorganization and putting messages in these weird places makes it almost unusable for me. 

Thank you for the feedback, Amanda! We've identified this issue and will be releasing a fix in the next 48 hours.


Jacobo L wrote:

Thank you for the feedback, Amanda! We've identified this issue and will be releasing a fix in the next 48 hours.


THanks. So will that fix move all the conversations to my freelancer account? Just want to know what to look for to let you know if it worked.

Okay thank you 

Hi Amanda, that's right! It should move the conversations over. Let me know if you see the update, it should be reflected on your account by now.

 

Thank you!


Jacobo L wrote:

Hi Amanda, that's right! It should move the conversations over. Let me know if you see the update, it should be reflected on your account by now.

 

Thank you!


Unfortunately it didn't work, the conversations are still spread through different accounts. I cleared my cookies and refreshed the browser twice. Still no change. 

Hi Amanda, I'm sorry to hear that. We're looking into this right now and I will report back to you shortly. Thank you for your patience and feedback!

thamsanqandlovu
Community Member

I am a market researcher and I would love to connect with other market researchers on UpWork. However, you can only connect with other UpWork Pros only if you have their names or email addresses. What's the point of connecting with those people if you already know them? I get that I could use the client side to find people and chat, but again, what if I didn't have that? Seems backward 

Hi Thamsanqa,

 

Thanks for your feedback. I'd be sure to bring this up to the team for review and consideration. 

 

I'd also like to add that when you search for freelancers in this feature, you can use the freelancer’s first name and last initial, as shown in the images added in the announcement post. For example, you want to add Valeria to your network; you can search “Valeria K” and choose her from the search results.”

~ Joanne
Upwork


Joanne Marie P wrote:
I'd also like to add that when you search for freelancers in this feature, you can use the freelancer’s first name and last initial, as shown in the images added in the announcement post. For example, you want to add Valeria to your network; you can search “Valeria K” and choose her from the search results.”

rhetorical question: Any particular reason this tidbit wasn't made more explicit in the announcement body text? If we happen to know a colleague's name, it's pretty counterintuitive to have to search for them by pretending we don't.

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