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

[#1]

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.

[#2]

Before Upwork starts handing out my email to anyone, I would like to be advised first - otherwise, I would consider it a gross breach of privacy. 

[#3]

Hi Nichola,

Your email is not being shared with others. The option Lisa and Maggie are referring to allows professionals to add each other to their networks on Upwork either by their name or their email if they already know it. 

[#4]

That seems highly unlikely that most freelancers know each other's private email.   We don't. And we sure don't know their last name.  So I don't see how Upwork expects us to find and add freelancers to our network. 

[#5]

Totally agree with Lisa here. I've even had a scenario as a client before where I knew the name of the freelancer I wanted to hire (I think only the first name) and it was still impossible to find and invite the freelancer (when we already had chats together from previous projects too!) 

So I imagine the process being the same, you will have to know the first and last name and it will show you search results that match. I think for this to work you really need a Search and Filter tool like clients have. BUT, a search function will open up a new can of worms if a bunch of random people start inundating me with Network requests. There would have to be a much better "Summary statistics" at the surface of every request to make that even worth while looking through / responding to (like their star rating, or earnings, all visible on the top tier of the request)

If you are trying to replace the way friends/colleagues talk (typically Slack, Telegram or Skype) then I think this is actually an uphill battle. 

[#6]

Thanks, Maggie.

But you write "If they don't know their email addresses, they can always just search by their name and add them."

This is also impossible -- you know that freelancers aren't typically listed by their last names.  It's first name and initial.  

So since we don't have their email addresses (your example is exceedingly rare) OR their last names, I'm not sure how you expect us to find and add them to our network.

That's why the ONLY way this can really work well is to enable us to find freelancers in a search by their expertise.  For example, if I'd like to include designers in my network, I could do a search for them, click on their profile and somehow be able to invite them into my network.  

During this morning's meeting, they said that feature is coming in the future.  Without this feature, I still don't see how it'll be easy to find and add freelancers. 

[#7]

Hi Lisa, 

Thanks for sharing your thoughts about this feature. 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. 

I agree that your suggestion of searching for freelancers based on their skills would be a beneficial feature. I took note of your post as feedback to share it with the team. 

Thanks, Lisa!

[#8]

What are the rules once you've added someone to your network?

Like, can you ask them for their email? Often times, you will need an email to share a google doc if you wanted to discuss potential jobs.

Can you talk to them outside of upwork? 

[#9]

Thank you Nathan!

Here is a link to the FAQ page that explains the Upwork’s contact information sharing policy as well as the exceptions to the policy. In summary, you can share contact info with the purposes of providing access to systems ( such as Google docs ) and for various legal reasons. When you connect with a freelancer via Upwork, communications must still take place via Upwork.

[#10]

okay, that's what I thought. I just wasn't sure if there were going to be different rules for the Freelancer to Freelancer chatting, especially network building (for the reasons already explained by others)

[#11]

I'm skeptical, mainly because I see this as quickly resulting in LinkedIn-style spam.

I see from the help that there are ways to block people and remove them from your network, which is good. I also see that after 4 declined invites from the same person, they won't be able to invite you again. To me, 4 is at least 2 too many. Is there a "decline and block" option? 

Is there a way to view the profile of the person inviting you before accepting? From the screenshot, it looks like there might be.

[#12]

Hi Wes! Thank you for the great question. Yes, you can view the profile of the person inviting you before you accept. You also have the option to decline the invite. We will absolutely monitor the invite limit and adjust if necessary as we receive more feedback. Thank you again, we really want to hear from the community about this feature and how we can grow it to be a powerful tool.

[#13]

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Michelle M wrote:

Yes, you can view the profile of the person inviting you before you accept.

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Hi Michelle

If my profile is in Private Mode and I will send an invitiation to another freelancer, will he be able to see my profile?

Thanks

[#14]

Hi Ioannis,

If your profile is set to private, the freelancer you invited to join your network will be able to follow the link to your profile, but they'll see a notification that your profile is set to private.
Additionally, if a profile is set to private, other talent will not be able to find it when searching by the name or email address.

[#15]

Hi Valeria

Thank you for the reply. Could you please mark this feature for review by the dev team? It would be nice if the profile would be open to the invited/netwrok freelancers I think, at least in the case that Private Mode was set by freelancer himself and not by Upwork (due to inactivity, etc)

Regards

[#16]

Hi Ioannis,

Thanks for the suggestion, we'll share it with the team for further consideration.

[#17]

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.

[#18]

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.

[#19]

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

[#20]

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

[#21]

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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.

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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. 

[#22]

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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. 

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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!

[#23]

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! 

[#24]

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! 😊

[#25]

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.

[#26]

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!