Review: Faujnet & XISF

Two websites I have come across lately which attempt to bring together the armed forces community on one platform are Faujnet (http://www.faujnet.com/) and XISF - which is an acronym for eX Indian Security Forces (http://xisf.org/en/). Having had the opportunity to interact with the founders of both I consider these ventures admirable. Register with them to reap the rewards (both are still very new but are seriously committed to constantly upgrading and improving. As is true for all such ventures, value addition will emerge and multiply based on the membership numbers and interactivity. So you will need to be patient with them for a start). They have similar models:

1. A web based interface which has elements of interest to members in it. In this case career transition advice, job posts, articles, networking, forums, etc. (let me not do injustice by clubbing all the other utilities with an 'etc', the sites actually have a lot more to offer and it will be well worth your time to explore each in detail).
2. Creation of a large membership base.
3. A revenue model revolving around the above elements.
   

Critical aspects required for them are:

1. The utilities / resources being provided to members need to be relevant, effective, scalable and engaging on the long term. As an illustration, an officer seeking transition advice must find it on the site and this should help him in his endeavour for a second career (relevant & effective). This and similar transitional advice must reach all officers who need it. Tailor-made and customized advice could be available, however, resources should aim at providing solutions to the maximum majority possible (scalable). The officer who sought and received transition advice should have a reason to continue to be engaged over the long term with the site (engaging). This could imply continuously innovating with new resources / solutions on the site, tweaking existing utilities to keep them relevant & interesting, creating second, third and so on levels of engagement. Thus, if the officer was seeking information on which transition course he should choose and received this information, the site should further tell him how he should evaluate multiple job options at the time of his placement. At the third level, he could be provided with information on how he needs to set his medium and long term career goals and the steps he needs to accomplish them. Thus at every stage of his career he gets the solution / answers he needs and identifies the site as a source for this information referring back to it on frequent occasion. This level of engagement however is infrequent. The sites should further aim at creating frequent levels of engagement (daily, weekly, etc.).
2. Visibility and branding to propagate the sites to as many relevant users as possible and further ensure they register with the site.
3. High quality content (including user generated) and resources. A user coming across low quality content or a resource which was supposed to work but doesn't could put him off completely and he might never return to the site (I have seen content on both the sites with numerous grammatical & spelling errors and well as some which was outright bad). The Indian Armed forces community has a very strong element of networking and communication inherent in it. A happy user will tell 10 others about the site. The opposite is true as well. Creation of self appointed brand ambassadors is important to create a successful brand.
   

XISF seems to have adopted the Barista model where it evaluates each step independently, refines and goes ahead with it. Whereas Faujnet seems to have adopted the Starbucks model (also adopted by Cafe Coffee Day) where it goes all out in expansion / visibility and refines / consolidates along the way.

There are pros and cons of both approaches. As with Barista, they have a far lesser number of stores but loyalists admire the ambience and personal touch of their outlets. Whereas in Cafe Coffe Day, their large numbers ensure huge footfall (consequently revenue as well) and branding / visibility, but people sometimes complain of an outlet being like an assembly line.

The bottom-line of any such venture is its ability to attract and retain users over the medium to long term. A site can be monetized and thus be successful only if it is able to achieve that aim.

My best wishes to both!