25 Enterprise Social Media Platforms/Companies To Be Aware Of

Posted on August 1, 2008 by marc meyer

Here is as comprehensive list of players in the space that I could compile. I selected them based on my own professional sense of what I thought was important in regards to what they brought to the table and for whom. Some are more platform based than others, but I thought all of them were very relevant to where we are as of today. They are not in any particular order:

KickApps

Sparta Social Networks

In conclusion, this list will expand and contract as conditions continue to evolve. Though some of the platforms/companies are not pure play, they all are contributing to the conversation, in what can only be construed as rhe dawning and evolution of a new digital phenomenon. Did I miss any in your opinion? What are your thoughts on the list? Are some better than others?

10 social media blog posts to read this week

Posted on July 28, 2008 by marc meyer

Here’s a good midway point of the year article by Jim Tobin from Ignite Social Media on what the future of social media might bring. How many of these do you agree with? My 2 cents is that #4 will be more portable in regards to social media being more mobile rather than portable.

I haven’t had a chance to check these guys out Ecairn, but let me know if you do.

I’ve written about this in the past in regards to whether your online identity is alligned with your offline identity and Dan Thornton’s article takes it one step further. Check out his post, Is your online indentity in your control?

Richard at Dell has a nice compilation post from yesterday of things you should check out, not the least of which are The Blog Council, which I’m still on the fence with, and Feedly, which I have not checked out yet.

I love Mike Manuels’ post about measuring social media as well, since I sat in a bar last friday night and talked essentially about the same thing with Jason Breed from Neighborhood America. The bottom line and Mike’s post back it up. Very few companies have a clue about how to monitor their online engagements with social media as well as their online personas in general. You have to have a way to monitor your web traffic but then if and this is a big if, you are monitoring your social media interactions, what is the data that you are wanting to pull from it? What are your goals?

Read this post on Stowe Boyds blog, How we are made great and then lastly on Jason Falls blog, KatFrench has a great post on social media specialists chucking their backgrounds that basically asks the question, who’s running the ship for social media?

Social Media Marketing

Posted on July 7, 2008 by marc meyer

We talk, I talk, and everyone else talks a lot about social media, social networks and the impact it’s having on our online lives. Right now it has yet to hit critical mass, though you might not think that by looking at the lastest numbers.

With that being said, there are tons of those who wish to be on the inside looking out rather than vice versa. And those are the people that “work” for marketing companies, ad agencies, and Fortune 1000 companies. They have been approached by their bosses and they’ve been charged with figuring this social media thing out and how they, as a company, can leverage it for their benefit.

Problem is, trying to sort through the ones who have, the ones who claim they have, and the ones who wish they’d had. I recently encountered a company that HAS in a big way. If you have not yet determined how you are going to use social media for your company, perhaps your first step should be to undertsand the many uses. Once you see the many ways that it can be used to either brand a product, brand a company, or drive traffic, sales and eyeballs, then you can start to figure out what the big picture is of social media. But to understand the big picture, as I said earlier, you need to talk with people who HAVE done it.

I had the privledge of sitting down with Jason Breed from Neighborhood America awhile back to discuss their award winning Elavate platform, and their business model in general. A quick blurb about NA, Neighborhood America was recently recognized for Best Social Networking Solution by The Software & Information Industry Association (SIIA) Winning a Prestigious CODiE Award.

Here’s some quick perspective for you; More than 1,100 CODiE nominations were submitted by 600 companies in a total of 76 categories. A panel of expert judges narrowed the field to 340 nominees, from which the 2008 CODiE winners were chosen.

The point of this post is this, if you are looking for guidance, direction, and advice from someone like Jason or a company like Neighborhood America who is smack dab in the middle of social media, and social media marketing, then you need to look no further. Of course, I know they are not the only company out there that can roll out a solution for you, but as a starting point, it sure is a good start. Seriously, if you were to decide right now, today that you were going to go out and evaluate social media companies, how are you going to do it? What will it be based on? What is your criteria? I do recall awhile back that Chris Brogan created a cheat sheet on how to evaluate a company for social media marketing services, you may want to check it out. At the least, Chris writes a good blog on all things social.

From a social media marketing standpoint, you may also want to check out Scott Monty’s blog site as well. You may find it usefull depending on your grasp of social media.

All of this though makes me think that perhaps my next worthy post should be a a listing of companies poised to help you figure out what your social media marketing initiative will be. If you know of some other worthy companies, I am certainly willing to listen. Besides, isn’t that part of the conversation that we are all engaged in right now?

One more thing for J Breed…. Go bulls…

The only place for social networks to go is down. Or out.

Posted on November 30, 2007 by marc meyer

After posting several “top” social network lists over the past few weeks, I started thinking about what will happen when the early adopters tail off and all of these new and existing social networks fall in line with all of the other new and as of yet unknown social networks. What will they do? What will social media consultants do? Picture South Park: Blank stare.

So now what? What do we now? Do we wait to be bought? I thought our widget was so cool. etc etc. The reality is that at some point, and I don’t think it has happened yet, but social networking will become this bloated animal of a technology where you can only do so much with your network of friends. You see, there will come a time in which you will say, “I can only write about so much mundane trivial drivel.” To the extent that you are bored. Unmotivated. That finding the NBT in widgets won’t even get you excited. Then what? Now if your Mark Zuckerberg, it really doesn’t matter at this point, does it?. His 30 year vision notwithstanding, I just don’t see what the value add will be for most social networks. They have to give me more than just a snapshot of you and what you are doing and when you did it! Yeehawww…

Which leads me to what I think will be the NBT for social networks. Through a series of revelatory emails with one of the founders of introNetworks, Mark Sylvester. We both are in concurrence as to what will happen, we have found some common ground so to speak. See if you agree: Here are some snippets from those emails:

Mark Sylvester:

” Would like to call your attention to introNetworks, one of the first true B2B social networking platforms. introNetworks debuted at the TED Conference in 2003 and since has created gated communities for employees, partners, customers and events for hundreds of companies. The software specifically focuses on providing an easy to deploy and easy to configure system that delivers business intelligence that serves to help management improve their product, services and offerings to their various audiences”

Me:

Hi Mark, thanks for providing an addition to the list of business related social networking sites. Your site/company seems to have a valuable proposition. Although a thought came to me just yesterday that, at some point we are going to reach a saturation level with social networks, and then what? What happens next? There has to be some sort of pay-off here. Granted I can use a social network to meet people, co-workers, business contacts etc etc…But where do they go from here? I have a feeling that the next great app is going to take social networks to another level that we haven’t dreamt off yet. All I can think of at the moment is some sort of melding of a mobile app and social networks on a platform that will change the way people live and conduct their lives.

Mark Sylvester:

“Right now it looks like the early adopters and innovators (according to Crossing the Chasm) are embracing the technology and finding applications that extend beyond the obvious ones – like inside the corporation for succession planning, team building, managing a flexible workforce – etc. But that over time, we will start to see some definitive use cases that have shelf life. I agree that there has to be a compelling reason to ‘come back’ to the sites. Remember, we are appealing to business and professional users, not kids with a lot of free time. So, we have to deliver value immediately.”

“Regarding MoSoSo (mobile social software) market, I couldn’t agree more. That is why we have such a great relationship with Neighborhood America”

Thanks Mark for a great exchange. So what do you think? Where do social networks go from here? There needs to be more of a value add. The new ones on the block need to know that but of course that was and is always the premise of any new app or site. What is the value proposition? How will you drive traffic and make money? The bottom line is that social networks need to change the offer now. The ones that are thinking further down the line will survive. The others, will not make it beyond the next 18 months.

Back to South Park, Cut to the blank stare. Now what?