Enterprises and big companies are using social networking to keep in touch with clients, attract new customers, promote their brand and form communities. Public social networks are not very suitable for this as a company basically advertises someone else, trying to attract thousands of people to fan pages or into groups. At the end of the day, you do not own the database of your fan club, cannot export it. This may be a problem in the future.
There are many issues to be addressed here: data security, brand promotion and growth possibilities. Public social networks do not allow that. The smartest solution is to own a social networking site and start building your community there. You have a database, all you need is a set of options users would expect at any community site: profiles, registrations, user walls and connections, blogs, comments, uploads and galleries. Read the rest of this entry »
