LinkedIn has become a ‘meme fest’; this new social network wants to fix that

Blue Circle: LinkedIn began as a platform for professionals to connect with others in the industry and carry out discussions of mutual interest. However, recently, the platform has become cluttered with topics and connections that might not necessarily help in professional growth, especially for senior executives. This is what Siddharth Anand, Founder and CEO of Blue Circle seemed to observe while using the Microsoft-owned platform. Hence he came up with a solution – a networking space meant only for senior executives across (at present) 20 industries and communities.

The platform was launched in 2017, with the aim of providing people with the right connections and opportunities in the sector that they work in by holding seminars, webinars and conferences. The 20 Communities on the app are E-Mobility, Energy, Healthcare, Logistics, Real Estate, Aerospace and Defence and newly added Agriculture and Food Processing, Auto Components, BFSI, Chemicals, Education, Hospitality and Tourism, IT, Infrastructure, Metals and Mining, Media and Advertising, Retail and Consumer Goods, Talent Search and Development, Telecom and Textile.

Blue Circle: An alternative to LinkedIn?

Explaining about the platform, Siddharth Anand told FE Online, “LinkedIn used to be a place for frequently connecting with like-minded people in the professional space. Unfortunately, now your home feed is absolutely cluttered with the irrelevant conversations going on. I mean, I even see wedding photos on LinkedIn and it has become a meme fest. Because of the now spammy nature of LinkedIn, senior leaders were looking for a focused, curated network change.”

While the platform had been launched in 2017 to conduct conferences and webinars focused on the industry, the mobile application of Blue Circle was launched merely a few months ago, and on the application, people on the network can find access to the right people across 20 sectors.

“We invite only leaders right now on the application. We also feed them Inshorts-like a bite-sized content specific to that sector. A lot of email discussions with experts happen on the platform and plus a lot of webinars which we do on a very frequent basis. Over the last few months, over 6,000 leaders have joined the platform,” Anand added.

Blue Circle: Who can join

The platform has created eligibility criteria for the platform that lists out several designations, and senior leaders across the spectrum, be it of Fortune 500 companies or small startups, can join the platform if they so wish. However, unlike LinkedIn, not everyone will be able to join it.

“We want to build an ecosystem for leaders who have been there, done that as well as for future leaders who want to do something significant. We also have leaders coming in from the government on the platform, policymakers, and academia leaders,” he added.

Blue Circle has been seeing a steady growth, with it clocking average user time of 9 minutes, which is quite impressive compared to LinkedIn’s 15 minutes. The app has a very minimalistic look for easy navigation, as observed by Financial Express Online, with a dedicated space for communities or sectors, where people can also search for specific sectors and connect with leaders in that space. As the platform grows, it will also look at improving the filter of search so that users can easily look for the relevant users from the large number that they might have.