‘Engage’ and ‘Converse’ replace ‘Sell’ and ‘Broadcast’

Consider this. More than 400 million people share their lives to an exhausting degree: They upload 2 billion photos, 14 million videos, and 8 billion bits of other information a month, and drag their identities and networks with them to over 15,000 Web sites a month through Facebook Connect.

The internet is fast becoming a place for a conversation. The rise of Ning.com as the world’s largest platform to create powerful, custom social websites bears testimony to this fact. The new mantra is – Build a social destination to create a community. Foster conversations, drive action and earn revenue. All in a matter of clicks.

One of Ning’s big goals for 2011 is to delight their customers. Through their open and transparent platform shared by developers, they intend to create an enduring customer-company partnership.

The ‘engagement’ and ‘converse’ matrix, at its heart, requires making the customer feel ‘special’. You can do that in a variety of ways:

Branding & Visual Design Freedom

Offer a plethora of many distinct and unique themes, to enable clients create their own design and custom CSS interface.

Unique Member Profiles

Let members customize their profile pages with their own dashboard, choice of widgets and profile applications.

Moderation & Privacy

Moderate members before they join. Moderate photos, videos, groups, chat and events before they are published. Privacy is paramount.

Invite and Share

Build a rich invitation engine, with full web address book and .csv file importing to enable existing members to invite new members. Everyone can also cross-post status updates on Twitter and Facebook, and share content across the Internet with additional built-in tools.

Latest Activity

A real-time, dynamic activity RSS feed of everything happening across your network, including status updates from members. Track activity and encourage more engagement.

Create Synergy

Create groups with images, membership, comments and a dedicated discussion forum. Give your members the ability to collaborate by sub-group; geography, committees, special interests.

Before you know, your social network will give you the power to mobilize, organize and inspire.

Go-Green.ae is one such endeavor where I have tried to walk the talk, where the default is social.

Send your comments to sharad@cyber-gear.com or visit www.sharadagarwal.com