Social Networking for Business
April 8, 2012
Facebook, Twitter, Youtube, FourSquare, Google+ and various other social networks have demonstrated how vital social networking is to customer service and growing small business. Social Networking sites reach over eighty percent of the online community. With that, it is paramount to utilize the appropriate platform for web and social network development. Ill mention a few popular platforms that allow businesses to communicate with their target audiences. Social Networking done properly can be extremely rewarding as it reinforces company awareness, establishes brand recognition, and effectively manages customer relationships.
BuddyPress is one of my personal favorites. BuddyPress is built on the WordPress platform. Of course this means the software package is open source and cost effective. Buddypress comes loaded with customizable features like activity streaming, multisite blogging, private messaging, extended profiles and more. Tools for metrics are also built into the WordPress stack. Since BuddyPress runs as a WordPress developers build more custom features and plugins according to user needs.
http://buddypress.org/
NING has been around for a spell and is well established. Owners of Ning communities can chose a theme from an amalgamation of designs. Professional developers have access to CSS files which can give the site added panache. NING offers a free 30 day trial after which plans become scalable with fees attached, as much as 59.95 monthly for a professional plan. NING offers video streaming, email marketing and photo editing on its platform. It also integrates with your popular API’s like Facebook, Google+, and Twitter.
http://www.ning.com/
Wall.fm is built for the hobbyist. Its features are conducive to the development of fan clubs and video sharing. This platform is also open source and cost effective. The interface features drag and drop functionality and the ability to add many features like video conferencing, groups, events, blogs, and forums. Themes are free and options for ad support are available.
http://wall.fm/
JomSocial is another one of my best in class favorite open source social networking utilities. JomSocial is built on the Joomla platform which is a very cost effective customizable Content Management System. JomSocial runs parallel to Joomla which is based on PHP, a very secure programming language. JomSocial has over 7000 extensions and plug-ins. If you cannot find a solution within the extensions you can always build your own. Packages and upgrades are also available from $99-$499.
http://www.jomsocial.com/
SocialGo allows businesses to customize features on their own domain. There are a number of features including unlimited website pages, activities streams, blogs and real time chats. SocialGo has a fee schedule attached after a free 14-day trial.
http://www.socialgo.com/
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