Upwork Branding Failure to Connect

usmediapro2 · ‎02-25-2021

While I recognize that this company's desire is to trend young, woke, diverse, and hipster, I am constantly offended that I always see the same ageist images on your landing pages. Hey, I work for you. Can we please have an image or two of a grayhair in all of your oh so slick marketing? Maybe one or two faces over thirty, sporting laugh lines and, dare I say, a wrinkle or two? Please? Just one. Pretty sure there are a lot of us out there. Pretty sure we make money for you. It's a small thing, I know, but important. Here's a hint to take to heart when you are discussing this kind of thing. Look around the (Zoom) room. How old are the people in the (Zoom) meeting? Yep. Geeze, maybe a good idea would be to get one or two older folks in here to add some...perspective?

a_lipsey · ‎02-25-2021

michael s wrote:
While I recognize that this company's desire is to trend young, woke, diverse, and hipster, I am constantly offended that I always see the same ageist images on your landing pages. Hey, I work for you. Can we please have an image or two of a grayhair in all of your oh so slick marketing? Maybe one or two faces over thirty, sporting laugh lines and, dare I say, a wrinkle or two? Please? Just one. Pretty sure there are a lot of us out there. Pretty sure we make money for you. It's a small thing, I know, but important. Here's a hint to take to heart when you are discussing this kind of thing. Look around the (Zoom) room. How old are the people in the (Zoom) meeting? Yep. Geeze, maybe a good idea would be to get one or two older folks in here to add some...perspective?

I was featured on Upwork's Facebook page. I am older than 40. Seems pretty stereotypical to say let's get some people who "look" older than 40.

Also - you don't work for Upwork.

usmediapro2 · ‎02-26-2021

So, here's the deal. SM like FB is not inbound marketing. Nor outbound. It
is SM. If you used Google Analytics to see the origin of that traffic, who
would be the sources? What is the value of the links? Do you really think
UW clients are logging on to FB to post and follow and repost?

If I am an inclusive part of that inbound effort, I have a better chance of
being found and hired. Anything else is marginal. Also, I do work for UW,
and UW works for me. Symbiosis only works when there is reward for both
parties--otherwise it is parasitism and will eventually fail.

Why do you think UW revamped its business model a year or so ago to
discourage high volume, low value providers from the site with the 20%
initial take on low dollar transactions? It's pretty simple. As well as the
basic profit/loss math, there's the pain point concept. If the majority of
problems/issues come from the same group of providers, best practices is to
make the entry barriers higher and more costly to exclude those providers.

This is not rocket science, just basic data analytics. Give me the same
visibility as everyone else. Pretty simple.

petra_r · ‎02-26-2021

wrote:
So, here's the deal. SM like FB is not inbound marketing.

This is not facebook

michael s wrote:
Give me the same visibility as everyone else. Pretty simple.

You have exactly the same visibility. Your profile does not appear less often in searches than the profile of a younger person whose profile is of equal value (for better or for worse). Pretty simple, indeed.

Also, I do work for UW,

No, you do not. You're an occasional user of the platform. You don't "work for" Upwork.

richard_wein · ‎02-27-2021

michael s wrote:

If I am an inclusive part of that inbound effort, I have a better chance of
being found and hired.

I don't see how appearing in an Upwork advertisment makes you more likely to be found, unless you're talking about a web page with a link to your profile. Are you talking about something like those "27 Best Freelancers" pages? I've just looked at a few of those, and I found myself on one of them. I'm 62.

I expect those pages are auto-generated without regard to age. If they are in fact hand-curated by an Upwork employee looking for young freelancers, then I guess they must have been fooled by my youthful good looks. (Actually my picture is 5 years old, and of course I selected the one that made me look youngest.)

gilbert-phyllis · ‎02-25-2021

They're not marketing to us FLs, they're marketing to clients. I don't care if they showcase baby goats on the landing page as long as they attract quality clients.

a_lipsey · ‎02-25-2021

Phyllis G wrote:
They're not marketing to us FLs, they're marketing to clients. I don't care if they showcase baby goats on the landing page as long as they attract quality clients.

I would definitely hire more if there were baby goats.

kinector · ‎02-26-2021

Phyllis, I love the idea of baby goats!

Let's make it the famous Fainting Goats while we're at it. 🤣 ... works as long as it doesn't indicate fainting freelancers. 🤪

And I agree with you. I don't care how Upwork does it as long as I get invitations from the best kinds of clients. 😏

tlsanders · ‎02-25-2021

I'm old enough to be more interested in whether Upwork is a good tool for my business than whether I "feel represented." I would much rather have Upwork use whatever images their marketing experts have told them appeal to clients (I'm betting it's mostly youngsters) and draw in business for me than tend to my feelings.

prestonhunter · ‎02-25-2021

I'm an old man. Almost certainly older then the original poster.

I will give the original poster credit for posting something we haven't seen before.

But I am unconcerned if Upwork's marketing material and image files skew young.

jr-translation · ‎02-26-2021

Preston H wrote:
I'm an old man. Almost certainly older then the original poster.

Not too sure about that. The OP finished his BA some 22 years before you did. Then again you started studying the year I did, does that make me an old woman.
If I remember correctly, Mary has been featured in the past, but if Upwork feels like featuring more people that meet the OPs requirements:

grayhair (tick)
face over thirty (My face is over thirty, but there are other parts of my body that look closer to my real age)
laugh lines (tick)
a wrinkle or two (tick)

I am in.

moonraker · ‎02-26-2021

I second baby goats

moonraker · ‎02-26-2021

Michael.

We don't work for Upwork.

And we make money for Upwork? It's the clients who are putting the money in. I want advertising to be targeted towards them, we don't need more freelancers.

biancabartel · ‎02-26-2021

Michael, thank you for your feedback. We're taking this very seriously, and are ideating on ways where we can enable success across all of our talent regardless of age, race, country, etc. You're right - the Upwork community is diverse, and we are committed to creating an inclusive platform. We stand by our mission which is to create economic opportunity so that people have better lives and that applies to all people.

prestonhunter · ‎02-26-2021

If Upwork decides to portray older people such as myself...

I authorize Upwork to hire Tom Holland to portray me in any print and television advertising.

colettelewis · ‎02-26-2021

Bianca B wrote:
Michael, thank you for your feedback. We're taking this very seriously, and are ideating on ways where we can enable success across all of our talent regardless of age, race, country, etc. You're right - the Upwork community is diverse, and we are committed to creating an inclusive platform. We stand by our mission which is to create economic opportunity so that people have better lives and that applies to all people.

______________________

That is comforting to know! However, clients are not obliged to hire anyone in an older age group (however suitable) - or even look at their proposals.

Age aside, another uninclusive feature of this platform is geoblocking, which seems only to create economic opportunity for Upwork (I'm assuming), but not necessarily for many of Upwork's freelancers for whom 'economic opportunity and better lives' is necessarily restricted regardless of their age.

moonraker · ‎02-26-2021

Bianca B wrote:
Michael, thank you for your feedback. We're taking this very seriously, and are ideating on ways where we can enable success across all of our talent regardless of age, race, country, etc. You're right - the Upwork community is diverse, and we are committed to creating an inclusive platform. We stand by our mission which is to create economic opportunity so that people have better lives and that applies to all people.

Thank you

Please don't exclude baby goats.

kinector · ‎02-27-2021

Baby goats rock! 🤘

If you don't have enough video clips about baby goats, I'll ask my neighbor to record some food stuff for you. 😉

The world needs baby goats, I strongly feel...