Business, Social Media
& Online Marketing

Social networking  sites are one of the most revolutionary developments of the 21st century. On sites like Facebook and Linkedin, people everywhere are building online communities to share their interests and passions with others. Everyday, millions of people from across the world interact with one another on social networking websites through a variety of ways, such as e-mail and instant messaging services.

More and more businesses are making use of this new technology. They are using social media to create brand awareness, reach prospective clients, manage online reputation and build brand image. Companies also use social networks to recruit people, learn about new technologies and monitor their competitors` moves. In addition, businesses are openly discussing with their clients on how to improve their products, thus gaining valuable market insight by using social forums.

There is free technology available that allows you to create your own site with the same functionality as Facebook. What’s even more exciting about these tools is that  you don’t need  any knowledge of programming to set them up! Ning is one such social platform. It allows individuals as well as businesses, trade associations, and non profit organizations to create social networking sites that facilitate communication between their members, clients and interested groups.

Based in Palo Alto, California, Ning was founded in October 2004. It is an easy-to-use online service to create, customize, and share a social network. Once you visit their “Create a New Social Network” page, all you need to do is enter the name you have chosen for your social network and then pick up a minimum of 6-letter web address. You are done!!

Similarly,Kickapps is another popular social networking site that allows you to create your own online community and to make use of message boards, photo and video sharing, viral widgets, and other user generated content. It is compatible with web content management systems (CMS) like Joomla, Drupal and Word Press. You can log into the KickApps Affiliate Center to configure, build and manage your KickApps-powered community for your business.

KickApps WYSIWYG Site Styler and Theme Builder will enable you to customize your online community. You can also use your own HTML, Custom CSS and Java Script to make your site look and feel exactly the way you want it to. KickApps open APIs. Enable DNS masking allows the deepest level of integration. With this your KickApps site points to the URL of your choice. You never have to worry about upgrades, application development or managing servers and databases. Being a Software-as-a-Service (SaaS) platform, KickApps hosts, manages and delivers all community applications and media. You would never need to download any software.

KickApps boasts of a wide clientèle ranging from some of the world’s most recognizable brands like HBO, Guinness World Records, Endemol, P&G, and many other brands to local TV and radio stations, small businesses and independent web publishers.

Businesses, trade associations and even non profit organizations have found such platforms immensely helpful to grow and engage their audiences. They use such social media as a customer relationship management tool without incurring huge expenses. Non profit organizations can use their customized sites to let people know about their services and the cause they are fighting for. This is one of the easiest and most effective ways to reach wider audience base.

You can also use micro-blogging to reach your community. It is a form of multimedia blogging that allows users to share brief text updates or photos or audio clips with others or a restricted group they have chosen. These messages can be submitted by a variety of means, including text messaging, instant messaging, email, digital audio or the web. One online platform that supports microblogging is Shoutem. More and more organizations are using microblogging as a means of informal communication among their co- workers. It is an effective tool of communication for niche or small communities.

So, what are you waiting for? Give your business more exposure by creating your own social networking site.

Related posts:

1. Navigating through a sea of social media
2. Building your online brand – for both business and personal
3. Manage Your Social Networks Using Ping.fm
4. There’s a social media owl in my barn!