When talking about ‘the old times’ parents get nostalgic, and occasionally tearful. We get to hear from them about their friends and their idea of hanging out, why, even a pen pal or two with whom they used to stay in touch with through mail (not e-mail by the way). Why , even twenty years back, telephone was the only way to get through to someone if you wanted your message to reach the recipient within anywhere between two and five days, especially if that message has to travel half way across the earth. It has only taken a phase shift of twenty years to get that transit time to come down to two, three seconds at max. Welcome to the era of instant communication where keeping in touch is in.

With social networking growing the way it is, you find more and more people keeping in touch through web sites that offer this forum, sometimes going to the extreme where two people at work sitting in adjacent cubicles at work forward jokes over the internet. But all of this advancement is not as crazy as that. The previous generation has always complained about how unlike their lot that the current generation is. Social networking just re-emphasises that – this generation has managed to stay in touch with the people they met at school, college or at their first job, which our parents have not managed to do. Thumbs up to this generation!!! Social networking sites not only allow you to simply communicate with each other, but they allow you to share music, pictures, videos, files and just about anything digital under the sun. Imagine being able to play a game of backgammon with a Japanese man sitting in Germany using an American laptop on an English network. Now that’s getting connected. Powerful tool huh?

Owning and running such a networking site must be very difficult and time consuming right? Wrong, availability of easy to use and commercially viable software has made owning a social networking site a breeze. The best part of the deal is that no technical knowledge is required to use such software and the user interface is as simple as can be. So get online, get yourself one of the easily available facebook clone software, get creating, and watch your money grow!

Author’s bio: www.agriya.com is the website of a company that offers “kootali” – a facebook clone. All necessary details are available on the website.

For reference visit

Kootali

By L. Ennis

Social networking software has grown in popularity with individuals over the years and recently many companies have started to take advantage of the corporate social networking software that developers have made available. These software programs make it easy for businesses to take advantage of the social networking craze with little or no networking experience. With the help of social networking software corporations can reach their target audience in larger numbers than ever before. These different programs are designed to work with various, popular, social networking websites.

Corporate social networking software is designed to be used by professionals that are using social networks solely for business. These software programs allow corporations to promote their various products or services to casual users who have expressed an interest in their company’s services. They also let businesses build mailing or contact lists so that they can send out mass communications to interested users. Many corporate social networking software programs will even promote blog feeds from outside websites keeping social network users updated on information being posted on other websites.

Corporate social networking software also gives businesses the chance to connect with other companies.  This networking can be extremely valuable especially if the company runs another website or blog that needs to be promoted. Some software programs even allow corporations to recommend specific products and services to other users on the networks. By building contacts with other businesses a company can set up profitable link exchanges or cross promotions with companies that target a similar audience.

When choosing your corporate social network software it is important that you or your marketing experts identify the needs of your business. For example, if you’re primary goal is to use a social network to promote a blog then pick out a software program that will make it easy to showcase your blogs RSS feed. Also, be sure that your social networking software includes customer support. Even though must corporate social networking software programs are designed to be used by people with limited experiences it is always helpful to have support available. Purchasing a software program that allows for telephone or online customer service support will help your company get the most use out of its new program.

For more information on social networking solutions visit

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By Irina Ivanova

If you’re going to create your own social networking site you will have to decide what features you want to offer on the site so that you can choose the right networking software that has those particular features built into it. There are hundreds of different features that are common social networking sites, so how do you know which ones to use and which ones not to use? The trick to picking the best social networking features for your company’s networking site is to make sure that each feature you pick has a functional aspect as well as a fun aspect. You also need to keep in mind the purpose of your networking site when you’re choosing the software that will give you the features that you want for your site.

For example, look at one of the most commonly found features in social networking software, the ability to post videos online. Does your networking site need that feature? If your social networking site is just an in-house site to help the members of the company get to know one another more and stay connected then you might not need to have that feature. But, if your site is designed to help clients stay in touch with their account managers or customer service reps then having a video feature on the site would allow the account mangers or customer service reps to post videos and tutorials about how to use the products that you sell, and that could be extremely helpful and beneficial for customers.

Ultimately only you can decide what the best features are for your custom social networking site and which features you really want to have but when you’re buying networking website software it’s better to buy software that has more features then you think you will need because you might decide later on that you need different features than the ones that you want to have now. If you buy software that already has all the additional features that you might want in the future you won’t need to buy software when you want to add more features to your custom social networking site.

Irina Ivanova is a marketing consultant for MegaStar Media. For more information about MegaStar Media visit the MegaStar Media website at: http://www.MegaStarMedia.com

Article Source: http://EzineArticles.com/?The-Best-Social-Networking-Software-Features&id=1266150

By Irina Ivanova

If you want to build a custom corporate social networking site that your company can use either for communicating with each other or communicating with customers and the corporate headquarters you’re probably wondering what best social networking software is. It’s actually hard to pick one brand of software that is used by businesses to build a networking site and claim it’s the best one because every company has different needs, making it quite possible that every company will find a different type of business networking software suits their particular needs.

In order to pick the best social networking software for your company you need to identify what features you want your online community site to have. If you want just a basic networking site then you probably want to choose networking business software that doesn’t have a lot of bells and whistles because you’d end up paying a lot more for features that you don’t need. If your business networking site has to look like all the other company social networking sites that are going to be under one large company umbrella then you will have to use the same social networking software that all the other companies that do business that corporate umbrella are going to use for their sites. And if you want a custom online networking site that has all the bells and whistles that a site like MySpace has then you’ll have to get top of the line corporate social networking software.

Once you have identified what type of features you want your custom social networking site to have you should try out a few different corporate social networking software packages to see what each one offers and how each one is to use. Most social networking software companies will give you a 30 or 60 day free trial of their software to make sure that the software fits your needs before they require you to buy it. Take advantage of the free trials of corporate social networking software so that you can compare different brands and see which one will give you the type of corporate social networking site that you want.

Irina Ivanova is a marketing consultant for MegaStar Media. For more information about MegaStar Media visit the MegaStar Media website at: http://www.MegaStarMedia.com

Article Source:  http://EzineArticles.com/?What-is-the-Best-Corporate-Social-Networking-Software?&id=1266132

By Sharon Drew Morgen

My neighbor – a lovely man I’ve known, and have had social contact with for years – is the COO of one of the world’s largest companies. He’s read my books, is familiar with my concepts, and is a fan. But we’ve not talked shop due to our social connection.

One day he called me and told me he wanted me to speak with his new national VP of sales – that he wanted my ideas and methods to be used in his company. Wonderful. Especially since it all came from him.

The VP called me days later at my friend’s request, and we had a great phone contact: he said he was familiar with my concepts and was interested in a conversation, and he invited me to his office to spend some time. It was one of the only times in my life I flew to a client site for a face-to-face prospecting visit. In my mind, this was a very hot lead indeed.

When I got there, it became apparent he was setting me up to show the COO that he didn’t need me, didn’t need my material, and was fine, thank you very much. He was curt, rude, and, frankly between us, rather stupid in his remarks.

When I spoke with my friend, he grumbled and hung up. Next week, he called me back with the name of the VP of training. The man called me, had a lively, exciting conversation with me, sent me a check for the next public training so that he could attend himself, and I never heard from him again.

IT’S NOT ABOUT WHO YOU KNOW
I knew the right guy. It doesn’t get any better – COO of a Fortune 50 company, close friend. But in the end, it had nothing to do with what I was selling, or who I knew – it had to do with how the buyers were buying.

There is a whole burgeoning field of software that will help sellers find people who they know in a company. Then you can call that person, or have one of your friends call that person – all in hopes that this connection will give you a leg up. Let’s take a look at the presuppositions inherent in the concept of social networking:

1. that the person you know within a company has the clout to have some say within the company;

2. that the person you know is on a decision team (or knows someone on a decision team) that is ready to make a decision to bring in a new product or service;

3. that the person you know will know how to say what you need him/her to say to get you the exposure you seek;

4. that bringing you into the company – even if the person has the clout to get you into the company – will influence a decision;

5. that the company is ready to make a change;

6. that the person bringing you in can help the company understand they need to change;

7. that the company will know how to line up it’s decision criteria just because you know the right person, and you can show up with your great product and presentation material.

Let’s take a look again at what’s happening at this point in history. Sales people are not needed to offer information: buyers can get more information about a seller’s product than they have to offer, more about their product andthe competition, the good points and bad, the industry successes and failures, the price points – sellers are just not needed to push product any more.

Because this historic sales function has been superseded by a computer, sellers don’t know what their jobs are anymore. Sellers are attempting to add new functions to their role so they can offer some value: they are making themselves ‘trusted advisors’; becoming ‘true consultants’; demonstrating some sort of ‘value add’- either through product or service or technology.

IMPEDITMENTS TO SALES
But the problems with sales continue: the same problems that have existed within the sales function since its inception continue to be impediments to sales. There remains a void in the sales process in that space between how sellers sell and how buyers buy.

Since its inception, the dichotomy between the product/seller/sale and the buyer’s environment/buyer/buying process has been met with fallacious assumptions, including:

* if you get in the door and have a face-to-face meeting, the buyer will know how to buy.

* if you pitch/present/promote/advertise your product effectively, the buyer will know how to buy.

* if you give clients great prices, they will choose your product;

* if you give clients great service, they will know how to choose you;

* if you are the brand leader…

* if you have the best product…

* if the buyer needs your product…

* if you have the best software…

* if you know someone…

A few years ago – about 5, I’m guessing – we came to the realization that ‘sales’ wasn’t working. What did we do? Point our resources to the new-new thing – technology. Since then, we’ve attempted to try to use technology to overcome all of the inherent problems sales creates. We’ve tried SFA, CRM, and now Social Network Software. And all they do is continue to operate on the same beliefs that sales has always worked from: people will buy if they like/understand/need/recognize the product, or like the sales person. And that’s patently untrue. We’ve just not known what else to do. And the gulf between the sales end and the buyer’s end keeps widening.

In the December 2003 issue of Inc. Magazine, Michael Fitzgeral says in ‘Internet Icebreakers’, an article on Social Network Software:

‘It’s not a slam dunk–the contact might not care that your brother’s partner’s wife just happens to be a member of his homeowners’ association.’

THE SOLUTION

For those of you who have been reading my newsletters for years, you are going to have to hear me rant about this just one more time.

-Buyers live in an idiosyncratic buying environment.

-The buyer’s network of decision factors includes an interesting network of people, rules, collaborations, initiatives, budget issues, and human fallacies.

-The buyer’s environment is a complete system that they are comfortable with.

-Systems face chaos when something new gets added.
-Buyer’s systems won’t add anything new until they understand how to manage any chaos to return to some form of stasis.

In other words, no matter how good your product is, how well you pitch/present/promote/propose it, or who you know, the buyer won’t make a purchasing decision until they line up all of their decision variables so they can manage the disruption a new purchase will create within their system.

If you are eager to use Social Network Software, at least use Buying Facilitation® as the front end: help this person navigate their internal variables so they can learn with you how to bring you in the most effective way.

Remember that Buying Facilitation® uses the buyer’s decisioning sequence to: lead them through a good look at where they are at (all of their company’s norms, rules, values, initiatives, and subjective criteria); notice if anything is missing; understand how to fix it with familiar resources; address all of the internal systems they need to manage prior to bringing in a solution that will possibly create chaos.

The above is the sequence buyers go through anyway, and that the time it takes them to do the above is the length of the sales cycle: they are going to do it with you, or without you. If you can use your new-found relationship to get you into a close range with the prospect, make sure you take the opportunity to lead them through this process and become a true Trusted Advisor.

Once you are ‘in’ and getting a chance to have your time in the sun, use Buying Facilitation® again to help them line up their decision factors. That will not only make you their true Trusted Advisor, it will also make the person you know look good. It will increase your sales over 200% (that’s right – there is not an extra zero there), reduce your sales cycle by 75%, and get you on the decision team.

Getting into the prospect’s space, knowing someone who can bring you in, or having a great product remain the outer edge – the selling edge – of sales. It’s time in our history to use the job of ‘sales’ to help buyers make their best buying decisions. Social Network Software can play a part: it’s just the front end, however. There’s still plenty of work to be done to help buyers buy.

My tag line remains: do you want to sell? Or have someone buy?

Sharon Drew Morgen is the author of NYTimes Best Seller Selling with Integrity. She speaks, teaches and consults globally around her visionary sales method, Buying Facilitation. http://www.newsalesparadigm.com http://www.sharondrewmorgen.com 512-457-0246 Morgen Facilitations, Inc. Austin, TX

Article Source: http://EzineArticles.com/?Social-Network-Software&id=27338

By Tommy Leung

I’ve worked on several Facebook Applications since the beginning of the year and although none of them have been massively successful hits, I’ve learned a couple of things about developing Facebook Applications. Hopefully, I can share some of what I’ve learned and experienced. I’m not going to talk much about the technical development process but instead, more of the marketing and business aspects. I’m also going to try to not make broad assumptive conclusions based on my experiences but instead, share my experiences and give conclusions that I’m pretty confident in. Some of us are making applications because we want to share our great ideas with the world but, all of us would like to monetize our ideas–don’t lie, you know you do.

Facebook launched their application platform in the middle of 2007 and it has done very well since. Thousands of people have made applications for it and some businesses have sprouted from it. I was generally cautious of the Facebook Platform and did not look into it until mid-January of 2008. As of today, I have four active Facebook Applications that were developed solely by me and one other that I worked on. My applications aren’t drawing any significant number of daily active users–I don’t even have an application that has 1000 installs yet. The total combined user base of all my applications probably falls in around 1500 – 2000 installs. It isn’t impressive but, keep reading.

I haven’t put much polish in my applications simply due to the fact that I don’t know what the return on these applications are. My first app is just a Flash remake of Pong: Old School Tennis. There is no social or viral features to that application, I was just dipping my toes in the water. That application has around 200 installs which surprises me every day due to its utter lack of features but, I guess Pong is just a fun distraction. My second go at the platform delivered me my, arguably, most successful application so far: My Bookshelf. My Bookshelf still needs a lot of polish and feature additions. My vision for it was a lot more grand than what it currently is. The biggest difference between other applications like it is the shelf display that was done in Flash so it has a nice scrolling view. I’ve spent the most time developing My Bookshelf and it produces the most money in advertising revenue–it accounts for about 80% – 90% of my daily Facebook revenue through Social Media.

My fastest growing and most complete Facebook Application is FlipCup Challenge based on the drinking game of the same name–minus “Challenge”. It has the social features that should be expected in a Facebook game like high scores amongst your friends, global high scores, challenges–hence the name–and the ability to invite your friends. FlipCup Challenge is growing at a faster rate than My Bookshelf but has not produced nearly as much revenue. While My Bookshelf suffers from a very poor retention rate–I believe due to its lack of polish–FlipCup does a very good job keeping users who have installed it. This leads me to believe that a certain level of polish is indeed necessary even though games like Zombies were pretty rudimentry and managed to attract millions of installs. The landscape for Facebook Applications is changing and developers are going to have to make more sophisticated applications in order to compete as the platform grows and matures.

The last of my personal applications is Sam’s Solitaire. It is a simple solitaire game based solely on Windows’s version of solitaire that everyone who runs Windows will have. It took me about a week to make it, working just a couple hours a day–I happen to have a full-time job as well. This application is quite generic except for the fact that I made it for a girl who plays quite a bit of solitaire on her phone–that must be a first, Facebook Application as a gift. So this application has a differentiating personality and a basic social feature that tells you how fast your friends have finished a game of Sam’s Solitaire. None of my applications have been active for more than 6 months with Sam’s Solitaire being active for less than two weeks.

The last application that I will talk about is Sheep Tycoon. It has the production polish because we developed it as professionals at Tiny Mantis Entertainment–an independent game company. This Facebook edition of Sheep Tycoon is a simplified version of a bigger game that we have been trying to find the funds to produce. The game on Facebook is relatively simple. The goal is to get the highest score possible by milking sheep and then turning the milk into butter, cheese, or leave it as is and bring it to one of the two waiting donkey’s to be delivered to town–I happen to hold the second highest score as of this writing. Although Sheep Tycoon is a very pretty game, it doesn’t have the same polish in social features. It is also a lot more original than any of the applications that I have made so it is difficult to gauge if such a game would appeal to the Facebook audience.

I’ve searched the web for Facebook marketing techniques and I have not found any definitive information. It appears to me that everyone is still trying to figure out how to tap the potential of the Facebook Platform. One technique that I’ve written about, viral loops, is something that I believe can be applied to Facebook. Some apps already have used this technique without even knowing it and some appear to be deliberately doing it but in uncreative and possibly annoying ways.

The main point that I’ve come away with in the last six months working with the Facebook Platform to develop viable business models is that an application’s ability to generate revenue has more to do with how long a user stays in your application than it does with how many total installs or daily active users you have. Obviously, if there are a lot of installs and a lot of daily active users, there will be a certain amount of revenue that can be garnered from it but, that is just a law of numbers. To maximize the revenue potential of each user is to keep them in the application. Applications also need to have a certain level of polish to them or it will just be lost in the mix. The amount of applications on Facebook is growing everyday so having a unique selling point will eventually become crucial.

I have application ideas sitting in my Developer application–some of which are half finished apps. Some of them will probably never see the light of day either due to its complexity–my procrastination–or just better ideas skipping in line. We have a big application designed for Facebook at Tiny Mantis that we are trying to get funding for. We believe that this application will expand the definition of “social games”–which is a hot sector in the application market. I’m sure I am a little biased–I had a hand in its inception–but, if you are looking to fund social games, let us know.

Revenue being generated from advertising is probably not the best route for a truly sustainable or highly profitable model. I believe micro-transactions is way to go and Facebook is supposed to be working on a system for that. There is a great deal of potential in the Facebook Platform and I will continue to find ways to unlock it–along with the thousands of other developers, venture capitalists, and business people. Hopefully, I’ve provided some insights through my experiences. Maybe I’ll have some more in the next six months. Until then, see you on Facebook.

Tommy Leung http://www.supertommy.com

Article Source: http://EzineArticles.com/?Developing-Facebook-Applications&id=1289391