Some interesting comments, thanks. As you’ve noticed, our marketing is still in evolution, just like the products themselves. What at another company would be internal marketing discussions, we’re conducting right out in the open, on our blogs and on Twitter. Perhaps we’d have a clearer message if we kept more of these improvisations in-house.

To answer some of your specific questions – we’re pretty committed to the names “StepRep” and “MyFrontSteps”. There’s still a lot of ambiguity about where MyFrontSteps ends and Homebook begins, but that’ll be cleared up in coming weeks as we overhaul the myfrontsteps.com landing page. Watch for updates here and on MyFrontStepsBlog.com.

I agree that it’s way too hard to explain right now. It will become easier when we can point users to myfrontsteps.com and say, “Just look at this.” We’re getting pretty close.

Thanks again,
Michael.

But honestly, it still seems WAY TOO. Way Too hard to explain, that is. At least, it is if this post of yours above is the only way to explain it.

I know how hard it is for a founder or visionary to keep it simple. It’s not simple, so how can I describe it simply. I KNOW. I have the same problem with my own projects : )

HOWEVER: A cohesive value proposition needs to be made in a single sentence, preferably by somebody who is OUTSIDE the project.

I will volunteer the following….

HomeBook is like facebook for your house, where you post decorating and home improvement project questions, comments, pics, ask questions about home care, and see what your friends have done – while steprep is where you find professional contractors, decorators, realtors, and other professionals that your friends trust and recommend.

BTW: Is it too late to call it “homebook” and “homepro” or otherwise make it a two piece world when it comes to public consumption? The three way linkage where steprep and homebook are all connected by myfrontsteps can only be made by some convoluted reasoning that make no sense to the entire audience.

The steprep name is not very intuitive compared to “homebook” (which is an AWESOME brand name IMHO).

I know that StepRep may some day have a bigger market than just real estate… but there are a lot of reputation management tools out there and you need a niche or you are wasting time… so why not just….. you know…. lose the complications as far as your public brands and go with a two prong brand like

homebook

& one of the following:

homepro
homepros
homeref
homeserv
homecare
etc…