Julianna
Lately you can’t go online without seeing another social network, so why not do your part and create your own! Seriously though, while it’s hard to keep track of every new social network on the block, if you already belong to a community or market, a social network may be the communications tool you’re looking for. Whether you are the owner of a sports equipment store wanting to connect with the local running community, or you are a recruiter looking to create better connections in your industry, you could use a social network to help reach out to your community. While this might be as easy as creating a group on Facebook, there is a whole segment of companies waiting to help you create your very own social networking site.
Techcrunch, “a weblog dedicated to obsessively profiling and reviewing new Internet products and companies” and the source for technology news, recently reviewed some of the leaders in “white label” social networks. These companies specialize in letting you brand their application for your own use, in other words, pop in a logo, choose your colour scheme, make a few changes and voila – your own social network. Well maybe it’s not all that easy, but some of these sites look pretty usable straight out of the box (while others take more work but allow greater customization.) Techcrunch is doing a two part series on white label social networks, the first of which reviews hosted do-it-yourself platforms, allowing customers to “largely point and click their way to a brand new social network.”
The clear winner in the Techcrunch battle of the hosted social networks is Ning:
The standard Ning package allows affiliates to build at no cost an ad-supported network with all of the features that they offer. This entails a point-and-click setup process in which an affiliate chooses a theme, tweaks appearances, and loads features such as photos, videos, groups, and blogging. Within minutes, the affiliate has created an impressive, fully-featured (albeit rather cookie-cutter) network that is ready to accept its first batch of members, which can be invited by email or Ning ID… Affiliates can disable ads or run their own ads for $20 per month, and they can mask their networks’ URLs for only $5 per month. Furthermore, they have access to Ning’s comprehensive Developer Documentation and an API for when they desire advanced customization. Effectively, their API allows developers to take the standard Ning network and retool it.
You can even have your own social network within a social network, as Ning has developed Facebook integration thanks to the Facebook Developers Platform.