Scott Belsky and the rest of the team at Behance have launched their newest creation, The Behance Network (beta). The network finally went live this Monday morning after about 15 months of the team working on it day and night, and after a privately held beta testing session which lasted around a month to polish up the system for launch.

This newest addition to the ’social’ network scene aims at providing the best possible platform for the creative individual. It takes the “Professional level Network Credibility-by-Association” concept from Linkedin, the Content-centric Navigation Content Connectedness” from YouTube & Flickr, it “Emphasis On Groups Activity Feed Focus” like the famous Facebook, and the “Platform for Recruiting Portfolio-based Applications” from Monster, pulling it all together in a seamless network platform for us to enjoy. Making the Behance Network a platform suitable for creative portfolios, projects, and collaborations.

Here’s a snip-it of what the Behance Team had to say about why they created the network, and what’s it all about.

“Across the creative industries, professionals struggle to efficiently disseminate their work, find new opportunities, and develop and maintain a network. In the creative community, content is the basis for credibility. Creative professionals must be able to create a portfolio of multimedia projects, share them selectively, and engage in advanced networking features that cultivate collaborations. We want to empower creative professionals to represent themselves and make ideas happen.”

The Behance Network currently provides 5 major components (features) for the creative professional, which are Portfolios, Projects, Circles, Tips, and Gigs. Portfolios are basically a collection of ‘Projects’ you’ve published on the Behance Network. Portfolios are displayed in your profile along with your background information, ‘Circles’ you belong to, and other helpful information you may provide for others to view. On the Behance Network you’ll find “Circles” (aka Groups) which you can join or create at any moment, except if they are set to private of course. The Circles provide a great way to meet other interesting individuals which may lead to finding business associates or even good old friends that share the same interests.

Another great feature on the Behance Network is the ‘Tips’ section, an open-list of tip exchanges on “how to’s”, which I personally believe most creative professionals can really benefit from immensely. The majority of creative professionals forget to keep learning as they continue to grow to broaden their horizon, not knowing that by simply exchanging information with other creative individuals they can easily open new doors and enhance their positions within the industry. So this is definitely a great feature to check out and contribute when on the Behance Network.

Last but not least, they have a ‘Gigs’ section which I see as an intuitively added feature which complements the network, it makes perfect sense to provide a listing of jobs and freelance opportunities right on the site for the creative professionals to browse through and recruiters to post.

Overall the Behance Network is a major upgrade to standard social networks and is beneficial for the growth of the creative individual. If you would like more information about the Behance Network, you can check out this page for further details.