You’ve probably noticed, if you’ve been paying any attention to our marketing exertions here at StepRep, that sometimes we’ll refer to the service as StepRep by MyFrontSteps. You might have also spotted some references to an enigmatic something-or-other called Homebook by MyFrontSteps.

What the heck are we talking about? What are “StepRep”, “Homebook”, and “MyFrontSteps”?

Maybe I’ll start by breaking it down graphically:

The MyFrontSteps Community.

MyFrontSteps

MyFrontSteps pays my salary. It’s the name of the company that’s putting this whole shebang together.

It also lends its name to the MyFrontSteps Directory, which (as you can see from the elegant illustration above) is the bridge that connects service providers on StepRep with their customers on Homebook.

This all probably requires a bit more explanation…

StepRep

When we launched StepRep, it was a reputation monitoring service, and that was it. Even now, most of the people who sign up for StepRep are primarily interested in finding out what people are saying about them online.

But StepRep has evolved into more than just a reputation monitor. Our tagline is “Monitor, manage, and build your online reputation.” One of the ways you’ll build your reputation is by connecting with your satisfied customers and their friends in the MyFrontSteps community.

Now, maybe you don’t have customers; maybe you don’t have a business. That’s okay. You can still use StepRep to keep track of what people are saying about your garage band or your attractive lawn or your angry bullhorn rants from the steps of City Hall.

But basically, StepRep is for people who provide a service. Or as we like to call them, “service providers”.

Homebook

The MyFrontSteps community includes everyone on StepRep plus everyone on Homebook. So what’s Homebook?

It’s a place to hang out and talk about your home. For starters, that will mostly mean sharing photos with your friends. In the future it might mean contests, discussions, decorating tips from experts…all sorts of stuff.

Homebook’s most innovative feature is the ability to share your list of trusted service providers with your friends. Next time you’re looking for a good plumber, instead of thumbing randomly through the phone book, you can go into the Directory tab in Homebook, drill down to the list of plumbers in your location, and see at a glance which ones your friends have used and recommend.

There’s more. In a month or so (we’re working on it right now), Homebook users will be able to request quotes from StepRep users. A little further down the line, StepRep users will be able to offer additional incentives in the form of referral fees (discussed in greater detail in a recent post on the Spokesmonster blog).

Where do you find Homebook? It’s not a website – it’s an application you can add to your Facebook or MySpace account:

Homebook on Facebook
Homebook on MySpace

(If you’re not on Facebook or MySpace, there’s a standalone version too, at myfrontsteps.com.)

The price is right…

Sometimes we get so excited about all the neat stuff we’re building that we forget to emphasize something fundamental: All this stuff is free. We’ve got a plan to make a little money later on by taking a small percentage of every referral fee that gets paid. But the referral fees are optional; everything else we offer up gratis. Why?

Just because we love to give.

Maybe you could express your gratitude by signing up for Homebook, trying it out for a few days, and giving us some feedback…