Want to create the next Facebook? Sure that does sound great but lets be a little more realistic.
How about a Social Networking website for your business? Hey that is a great idea!
Almost two years ago I came up with the idea of creating a Social Networking website for my Thai food brand
CurrySimple. Why? I wanted to place for customers to be able to share recipes and cooking videos that revolved around CurrySimple. Previously I would have them email me photos and lists of ingredients and a paragraph about how to prepare the item. It would take me at least an hour to write the code for the layout of the new recipe page and post it. Enabling the customers to do that for me would be a huge time saver!
At the time the options for doing so with a tight budget were very slim. I opted to use the
Ning platform to create
iLoveCurrySimple. I hired a designer for about $700 and had it customized for my brand. I paid to have the website "Add Free" and of course my own domain name. Since launching it has been a hit! I love the fact customers upload their own content to the website. As the business grows the interaction will continue to grow as well.
Now in 2010 there are lot more options in regards to how to launch your own network. A solution I was looking at today is called
phpFox. It is a downloadable product that you host on your own server. This could be more cost effective over time if you already have your own server. The solution is user friendly, fully customizable and highly expandable.
Features Include:
Administration - Admin Control Panel and User Group "powers" give site admins full control of their social network from the content that is added to the activity of what is going on behind the scenes.
Activity Feed - Activity feed keeps your members up-to-date with what their friends or the community with what they have recently been up to. Designed to work like Facebook's Live Feed.
CMS - The product is a CMS (Content Management System) at its core allowing our product to take on many shapes and forms, which we use to release our flagship social networking product phpFox.
Blogs - Members can share their thoughts and insights by writing blogs to share with the community.
Polls - Members can create polls for the entire community or for just a set of their friends.
Quizzes - Quizzes gives your users the ability to create tests for other members or just their set of friends.
This is just a small list of items it includes. Pricing starts at $99 and up to $299 depending on the feature set you choose.
Adding a Social Network to your businesses marketing plan may or may not be suitable. It really depends on the type of business you operate. Reviewing the option of creating one should be a must because of the cost verses the reward. There are so many tools to stay social with your business and phpFox is one you must consider. ~Mikey Moran
Social Media & eCommerce Consultant
I am a serial entrepreneur! 