Pinterest Tips from the Pros

How many of you have heard of Pinterest? Okay, hands down.

Now, how many of you actually know what it is and how to use it for your business?

Unfortunately, those of you who didn't raise your hand are already losing the race. Millions of companies, large and small, are flooding the site realizing Pinterest's business value. In fact, "[Pinterest is] driving more traffic to company websites and blogs than YouTube, Google+ and LinkedIn combined." ("How Pinterest is Becoming the Next Big Thing in Social Media for Business", Jason Falls, Entrepreneur.com).

We've turned to the pros at Pin Savvy Social to provide an answer to our second question, and, hopefully, help you catch up in the Pinterest race.

How to Make Pinterest Work for Your Business

Pinterest is one of the fastest growing sites in social media. It is the one place where consumers can search for and share the products they are most excited about and a necessary addition to the social media tool box of any growing company.

The unique aspect of Pinterest is that it is one of the few social media sites that is completely consumer-driven. If you look at a major brand on twitter or Facebook you will notice the brand has thousands of followers or “likes.” If you look at the growing number of companies with Pinterest accounts you will notice, in almost every case, the company is following many more Pinterest accounts than are following them back.

Pinterest is about finding the best of the best, “pinners” repin things they love and things that represent their own personal taste. They tend not to pin all of the products from one company thus giving them less of a reason to follow a brand, but there are a few ways that companies can help make sure their products have a decent pin-life:

1. Don’t pin solely your own products. Pin things to your boards that show your taste in other areas, books you enjoy, products that inspire your style. If pinners know you will be doing nothing but self-promotion there is no reason to follow you on Pinterest when they can just visit your website.

2. Create timeless boards. If you create a board of your Winter 2012 line no one will follow it in Spring 2012. Create your boards according to the types of products you produce such as “boots” or “linens.” If your fans love your shoes or the bedding you sell then they will be more likely to follow one of your boards in order to get a peek at what you are launching next.

3. Pin sparingly. No matter how fantastic your product is, if you pin every photo from your latest line at once it is going to fill up my whole Pinterest screen. Even if I LOVE your products I will not love seeing only your self-promotion. Pin three or four items at a time, wait a few hours or even a day and then pin more, giving your followers a little bit at a time.

4. Give Pinterest users a reason to follow you. Consider launching a promotion that gives your Pinterest followers a unique reason to follow you. Maybe you release your new line on Pinterest first or offer a giveaway once you reach 1000 Pinterest followers. Just like all other forms of social media, you will get out what you put in, interaction with your consumers is the key.

These suggestions are a few quick ways to become a Pinterest-friendly company and increase your likelihood of gaining followers and repins. The trick to Pinterest is not only gaining followers but keeping them, following a bit of pin-etiquette will keep your fans coming back for more.

The Pin Savvy Social team is available for individual consultation to help you effectively market to your consumers. Contact us for more information.

How to Post on a Facebook Page as Yourself

In addition to the list of features I outlined in Pros and Cons of Facebook's Page Updates, Facebook has added another feature to the new Pages area.

As a Page admin, you previously could not post, comment, etc. on the Page you admin AND have that message appear from your personal account. Messages were always posted as the Page alias.

Not anymore...

Facebook now allows you to toggle between posting as the Page and posting as yourself on a Page you admin. To post as yourself:

1. Visit the Page you admin
2. Click the "Edit Page" button in the top right
3. Find "Your Settings" in the sub-navigation in the left column (its the first option)
   
4. Uncheck the "Posting Preferences" box

When you want to switch back to posting as the Page, just complete steps 1-3 and recheck the "Posting Preferences" box.

Its easy to do but a confusing topic to put into words so hopefully this all makes sense! If not, feel free to post any questions on cascade's Facebook page.

Pros & Cons of Facebook's Page Updates

Today, Facebook announced their recent slew of design changes and addition of new features. These recent updates definitely have their Pros and Cons, but one new feature will have a HUGE impact on how businesses are able to communicate within Facebook:

• New Pages Design - Most users already migrated to the new Profile layout since its introduction back in December. Facebook is now offering this "new" design to Page admins.
  

• Pro: More design flexibility, especially with the new image bar.
  
• Con: Page Tabs aren't as noticeable in the left column as they were above the Wall. You're out-of-luck if you're not a fan of the new layout--ALL old profiles/pages will be converted by March 1, 2011

• Post Filter - Page admins can choose between sorting Wall posts by the default view or "Everyone", which sorts posts in an order Facebook deems as most relevant.

• Pro & Con: I'm indifferent on this one. Need more time to see if this holds any value.

• "Use Facebook as Page" - This is a early Christmas present for Page admins (or maybe I'm just revealing my Facebook geekiness). This feature allows page admins to use Facebook under their Page's alias. Now admins can post, comment, share, etc. as their Page rather than using their personal profile. This feature can be accessed in the Account drop down (top right corner) by selecting "Use Facebook as Page".

• Pro: Directly reach out to brands, sales leads, customers, business partners, etc. without using your personal profile. You can also manage your notification settings so you don't receive an email every time someone interacts with your Page.
• Con: When you switch to a Page alias, your Wall, notifications (in navigation bar), friends, likes, comments, etc. change to those associated with the Page rather than your personal account.

• Tab Apps and Iframes - Custom tabs and apps for Pages can be built using iframes instead of FBML. This comes to no surprise as Facebook has been increasing the usage of iframes and slowly killing the FBML platform (which Facebook will deprecate on March, 11 2011).

• Pro: Tab Names lengths are not under as strict of limitations with the new Page layout.
• Con: FBML fans will have to make the switch to iframes. (Not necessarily a bad thing)

All-in-all I'm a big fan of the recent updates. Much thanks to insidefacebook.com for making the announcement.

Cascade Brand Announcement

We recently announced the launch of our new brand, logo and website. Here is an excerpt from our new story regarding our make-over. For the full story with more about how our company has evolved, check out our news page.



Cascade Web Development is quickly breaking free of our web development tag and transforming into engineers of industry leading online solutions. With the introduction of brandlive by Ben and Fritz Brumder, a Cascade Web Development veteran, more and more national and local companies are beginning to adopt these technologies. The Portland Developmental Commission (PDC) saw this potential and recently awarded the Portland based company with a working capital loan.

To culminate our rapid growth and better explain our brand structure, we realized we needed a new identity; One that provides stronger brand recognition and does not limit our abilities in consumer's eyes. In a similar situation to companies like Apple and Google, we decided to establish an umbrella brand which houses our current solutions. With that said, we would like to introduce a new look and ideology behind our family of brands.

Cascade was chosen as the name for the parent brand using web//development as a secondary title. Cascade appropriately represents the company in a strong and memorable manner yet personifies a more modern feel than Cascade Web Development was able to accomplish. The logo specifically expresses our strengths as a web services provider and our ability to develop custom solutions to meet our client's needs.

You'll also notice a different visual expression of our three solutions: evergreen, whitepass and brandlive. Each brand features a similar style and color pattern yet individually elicit a unique and distinguishable brand image. We hope these logos will become commonplace in our industry and personify each solution's features and functions at first glance.

As always, we thank you for your commitment to cascade and will continue to support your business with innovative solutions and tools to help you evolve.

Just Do It

The term made world famous by Nike seemed a fitting title when I discovered the success story of fashion brand Burberry's use of live video to sell product. "Just do it" is most perfectly used for the moment before the leap of faith that a person or a brand makes when trying something new.

To be an early adopter takes guts and in business deep pockets. The inevitable course corrections take skill, insight and an ability to sustain. However, the moment the path has been charted by a select few is the moment to Just do it.

For the launch of it's fall 2010 line, Burberry used live video (in 3D) to broadcast the exclusive runway show to thousands of buyers that could not be there in person. During the broadcast, viewers could ask questions and chat with each other and Burberry staff. For the 72 hours following the show, viewers could buy the exclusive merchandise, sight unseen, before it hit retail stores. Burberry will continue their use of live video for Spring/Summer by broadcasting the show direct on their website. Read more on the Mashable website.

Linking Social Media Channels to Facebook

Sure, Facebook allows you to upload and post your own media files in tabs, but, as a business with time already invested in Flickr, YouTube, twitter, etc. are the time worth it? Granted they give users a peek into the personality of your business, but why not just link your audience to your other social media accounts?


Thanks to the app developers at involver, you can link all those social media channel to your Facebook page in the blink of an eye. Involver developed a series of apps you can insert in the Tabs bar of your Facebook page linking users to your YouTube channel, Twitter feed, Flickr galleries, RSS feed, etc.


It is a free and easy, 5 minute installation process that cleanly integrates with the Facebook interface. Check it out on the Cascade Facebook page.

SoMe Awards: One Tweet Too Many

Clear off a space on the trophy shelf...the SoMe's are back. The SoMe Awards are back for a second go-around honoring the Pacific Northwest's best social media projects and campaigns.

Cascade was recently announced as one of 19 finalists for our social media work. There are around 10 categories ranging from Best Brand Awareness, to Best ROI, to Best in Show. Although we don't know which one we're up for yet, we hope to bring home some hardware.

The award show is this Thursday, May 6, from 7-10 at the classy Multnomah Athletic Club. Everyone is welcome, and we'd love to have you join us on the red carpet. Tickets are very reasonable and it should be a great night out. Plus, we'll need you in the crowd cheering us on and heckling other nominees. (jk...be nice)

If you can't make it, I'll be sure to post a follow-up article on the night's events.

Keep your fingers crossed.

Live From Portland Vol 1: The Cascade Live Sessions

If you missed out on our brandlive sessions over the past few weeks, too bad.

Okay, just kidding. Hopefully, you'll be able to join our next live broadcast. Or, if you'd like us to set up a demo for you, just let me know.

brandlive is easy to set up and even easier to use. The brandlive videos below are obviously missing from their normal exterior skin. Here is a sample of the new Cascade Live environment (which we refer to in the videos).


Each of these presentations were directed towards different audiences as you will see from our session location and message. So check them both out and let us know what you think. We love feedback.

4/23 Product Demo
(Video begins after a moment of set-up w/ a cameo from yours truly)

4/27 Professional Services Demo
(2nd of 2 sessions)

Please feel free to send any brandlive questions or inquiries to us at the Cascade site.

Portland's Finest Find a Home

Thanks to Rick Turoczy of the Silicon Florist for turning me on to an awesomely simple site. If you weren't aware, Portland houses some of the most creative and artistically gifted minds in the country. Thanks to Chris Kalani (who also created yayeveryday.com), they now have a home.

we are PRTLND showcases Portland's community of designers, developers, photographers and a combination of innovative minds in a layout impossible to turn down. There isn't much to the site: profiles can be filtered by profession, click on a someone's witty picture and you'll be taken to their website, or select LOAD MORE to view more profiles. But that's what makes it great.


Whether you're a freelancer or employed and looking for talent, PRTLND is a fun place to explore and see what this city has to offer (the pictures are pretty awesome too)!

Planting the Seed for "Plant an Evergreen"

Cascade Web Development just launched our Plant an Evergreen campaign earlier today. Through our partnership with Friends of Trees and their Gift Tree program, they are helping us plant evergreen trees in Portland for new clients on our Evergreen platform. Thanks to our clients and Friends of Trees for making the world a better place, one tree at a time. (so corny but so true)

Friends of Trees also helped us out on the PR effort by blogging about the Plant an Evergreen campaign on their Friends of Tree blog.

Thanks, Friends of Trees for your partnership and support.

CWD Plans a Valentines Party with Vh1

First of all, Happy (belated) Valentine's Day. Aside from planning our own love day (I wouldn't call it last minute but it was pretty close), Cascade Web Development was able to help 150 Vh1 Insiders have their own Valentine's Day parties.

The Vh1 Loves Me Party site was created in collaboration with Boston-based AMP Agency for Vh1 Insiders chosen to throw bashes to watch the channel's block of guilty pleasure reality shows. These 150 insiders were given Vh1 Loves Me decorations, party favors, games, and, everyone's favorite white elephant gift, Snuggies to help spread their Vh1 love with their friends. Party goers were encouraged to take pictures and post their Valentine's Day moments on the Vh1 Loves Me Party website with the rest of the Insiders.

(Sorry, Cascade Web Development wasn't chosen otherwise we'd post some awesome pictures of us in Snuggies)

AMP came up with a great marketing idea and promotional tool to help their loyal fans celebrate Valentine's Day. The project was a ton of fun to work on and it turned out great.

Social Media: Outdoor Product Companies Building Online Communities

Outdoor product companies are flooding the web to take part in social media in hopes of building online communities to build their brand, engage their customers and create new levels of brand loyalty. Unless you have been out on the trail or high in the hills for the last several years, this is old news. With the help of Twitter, Facebook and/or blogs, you have seen this take hold and evolve over in recent years. Below are some striking examples of how this medium is turning into a game changer for companies selling products to get people from behind their computers and into the great outdoors... ironic as that sounds.

- IF Bikes did a major site overhaul last year in an effort to better serve its customers and position itself as a clear leader in the custom bike world. So far, they have been successful in this effort. Their blog site that has garnered significant attention, as well. Just under half the number of total visitors to the main site visit the blog each month to learn more about the build process, see new bike pics and hear about where IF is showing up to promote their brand the cycling community. Most impressive.

- Tecnica and Blizzard are two well known international ski brands. They combined forces to create TecBlizzBuzz.com this fall. The blog was launched in early October the number of visitors has increased 25% in month two. This is off to a strong start as they create this new platform to communicate with their customers and dealers.

- While Cascade Web Development is not an outdoor product company, we too have put more attention to our social media efforts. As a reward, our blog traffic has increased 40% in recent months. We are finding that more like minded people and organizations are following us on twitter and facebook. And the most exciting result of all is the increased number of inbound inquiries for web solutions. Hard to argue with the merit of those results.

The rate of evolution in the social media realm is often mind numbing, but with results like these, its hard to argue the value of these efforts. We're all learning valuable lessons with each new post and review of analytics. One truth is that customers like to participate in the conversation. Its now up to brands to create and lead that charge. Stay tuned as the experiment continues...

How To Embed a YouTube Video on Your Site

Content is King. Ahh, the age-old adage about what matters on the web. But does content just have to be words? Of course not! Spice up your web pages with video to make a lasting impression on your site's visitors.

This tutorial will guide you through the steps you'll need to embed a YouTube video on your website using the Evergreen Content Management System.

1. Find the Video

You'll need to locate the video you'd like to feature on your website, whether it's one you've uploaded yourself to YouTube or one from a stranger. Don't worry about stepping on anyone's toes here, if users don't want their video to be featured on other's websites, they will have disabled this feature when they uploaded it to YouTube. To disallow others from embedding videos that you've uploaded, follow these simple steps from Google.

2. Find the Embed Code

Now you'll need to find the embed code that will allow you to host this video on your site. Unless the uploader has disabled this feature, you'll find it below the video description off to the top-right.



Highlight all the code in this field. If you miss some, your video will not work on your site. You can also customize your player using the options below it. Just make sure to copy the final version of the embed code once you're finished choosing your options.

3. Embed the Video

Now that you've copied the embed code to your clipboard, you'll want to paste it onto your webpage through the Evergreen Content Management System. For now, create a brand new page. This way you won't have to worry about where within the HTML you'll need to paste your embed code.

After you've assigned this page all of its required properties, return to the WYSIWYG and click the HTML button (). Drop your cursor somewhere in this box and click Ctrl+V to paste your embed code. It should look something like this:



Finally, click Apply > Ok and Save your new page. Open the page in your browser and voila! Your video should be right there waiting to be enjoyed by the masses!

Embedding your video on a page with preexisting content can be a little more tricky only because you'll need to establish a general sense of where the code will need to be pasted in relation to the rest of the HTML. Play around, and make good use of the Undo button. Before long you should be fairly comfortable with at least navigating through the HTML of your page.

Good luck and have fun putting the social web to work for you!

Twitter Basics

Social Media can be a mysterious and intimidating space for many of us. These thoughts are intended for the user that is new to, or contemplating, more activity with Twitter and Facebook.

Twitter 'tweets' and Facebook 'status updates' have the highest potential to fall flat, in my opinion. What do my virtual fellow-travelers and followers really care to hear? After watching Twouble with Twitters, I felt even less inclined to hop in the game and start sharing... This vid is hilarious, but points to the many pitfalls of twitter use (or abuse, depending on how you look at it).

I am relatively new to the twitter game. I have had an account for a couple months now. The first thing I did when I set up my account was to sit back and ask, now what? What does the twittersphere care about? Then, an SEO collegue broke it down for me... when it comes to the social network, consider this progression:

1) Listen

2) Participate

3) Lead

After seeing the light with this simple 3 step program, I searched around twitter for interesting people and organizations to 'follow'. I observed what they shared. What was valuable? What was annoying? I took lots of mental notes.

More and more, I have started throwing some tweets/updates out there (in fact with TweetDeck, I can make one comment and have it syndicate to twitter and facebook! More to come on useful tools surrounding the social media world in coming posts.). I then observe some more. What garnered responses? Were they desirable? Some things I learned...

• Its easy to recommend a good restaurant, painter, mechanic or brewpub. If you have a good experience, throw it out there.
• The flip side is true as well. If you are in need of a good resource or tip, ask your followers. As your list of followers grows, its amazing what responses will come back.
• Take a stand. Share your thoughts on current events. Let your people know position on issues.
• Pictures. They say a 1,000 words.

Some suggestions on what not to share...

• Don't tell people you are out of town. Its a great way to make yourself a victim of a home break-in. And if that sounds like useless paranoia, another reason not to promote your time away from home is that it reminds the rest of us that we are not on vacation.
• Avoid commenting on only yourself. Its a big world out there.

In time, you'll likely find a topic or general approach that seems to work well for you. Depending on whether your twitter account is personal or business/non-profit/subject-matter specific, the topic may be focused or broad.

The key is variety of content and steady contributions. Social networking is about participation... You must give and not just take.

Don't Get Trumped By A Baby!

CWD added a new baby to the family last month. So what is the best gift a web development company can give a baby? A BABY BLOG! It started as something fun and easy to post photos for family, but I quickly realized that the blog was a hot trend in the world of new moms and dads. A lot of the blogs I started seeing have some rather innovative features (for a new born):

• Mobile device updating using iphone, blackberry, ect.
• Embedded video
• Dynamic video
• Ability to subscribe/follow the blog
• RSS feed of new posts
• Some rather cool design for a baby

What does this mean for your company? Well the first question is do you even have a blog? If not, you should tuck your tail and close up shop because you just got out innovated by a new born. If you have a blog, how are you using it? How often do you update it? Baby blogs get updated 2-3 times per week! Do you have some of the features listed above?

Blogging for your company is a communication tool, just like it is for a new born baby. So get started today, time is wasting.

Some screen shots from baby blogs:

Engaging with customers not competitors?

I had a friend pose very interesting question yesterday: I have noticed my competitors following me and copying my social media activities (he was using Twitter, videos, blogs). What can I do to engage with my customers and prospects but not my competitors?

Here are my thoughts:

Interesting question, enough that it had me up last night thinking about it! Just last week we tried to follow one of our competitors on twitter and he blocked us! We actually felt kind of good about it since they are much larger than us so I presume he is seeing us as a threat:) So this is one option, don't let them follow you. Now of course they can still get to the information but it clearly says, "bug off dude..."

Another option is to use social media tools that are closed source. Basically a client/prospect portal/community. Depending on your customer's willingness to engage, you could create your own community rather than join the open community and hope to capture your customers there. If you can pull it off, the advantages are huge. You have control over the branded experience, you control all of the content (and I do not mean control as in force the user into what you want them to see.) I mean control who gets to see it, how they interact with it and the tools you give them to do so. Think of the technographics social ladder in the Groundswell. If your customers are creators, then add a bunch of contribution tools for them. If they are critics then create the content and give them the tools to react to it. The nice part about a 'private commiunity' is that you can simplify it by taking out the featuers that you do not need!! Ease of use = adoption.

Finally, it sounds to me like you already have your competitors beat! You are one step ahead of them, which is better than one step behind. Keep innovating and they will have a hard time catching up. 

Trying To Find A Business (Or Just Any) Use For Twitter? [pt. 2]

Post by Guest Blogger Jason Lander of ShiftWise

In my post earlier this week I showed you how to set up a Twitter account. Now I’ll show you how it can benefit you as a hospital or staffing supplier in the healthcare staffing industry.

First, like all marketing efforts you have to think about your objective and strategy regarding how you will promote yourself or your company on Twitter. You need to also consider how you will provide some kind of value to the community.

Twitter is a social networking site that can certainly be used for business/marketing purposes. However, many people using Twitter aren’t on there for business reasons. Therefore, coming off as simply trying to promote your business without any strategy will ensure you’re treated like the guy at the party who won’t stop talking about himself.

Here are some goals/strategies you might want to consider:

• Build Brand Awareness
• Gain new customers
• Improve or expand upon your company image
• Monitor the activities of your competitors
• Measure customer satisfaction

Here are some suggested promotional ideas:

• Post linked items to articles on your website or other relevant sites
• Create surveys on how to better your business
• Share new job openings or opportunities
• Address customer complaints
• Offer discounts or rewards
• Show people how to use/benefit from your service
• Answer business related questions
• Promote company events
• Announce new product/service lines
  

Essentially, just because you heard about Twitter from your kids first doesn't mean that the fundamental rules of marketing don't apply. The most important thing to do is to listen to your followers and respond with content that is relevant, engaging and meets a need. If you do this correctly you will build relationships and gain followers. Ultimately this will result in the promotion of your business by not just you and your company, but also your followers! What better promotion is there?

The following video will show you how to get some business use (new leads, recruiting healthcare professionals, etc.) out of Twitter for your hosptial or staffing agency by making use of another application called TweetDeck. You can get similar functionality from other apps like Twhirl but I think Tweetdeck is the best.



Jason Lander is VP of Business Development for ShiftWise. For more of Jason's posts, you can visit his blog, the Staffing Robot.

4. Link the media

There are many ways to link together the web assets and leverage syndicated content. In this diagram we have connected the dots to communicate the content flow. We have also identified which assets can be updated using a mobile device. In some cases we specify the type of content being transfered. 

With this map in place, we have clear direction for technology implementation.

Trying to find a business (or just any) use for Twitter? [pt. 1]

Post by Guest Blogger Jason Lander of ShiftWise

I’m guessing you never thought you would use the word “tweet” when referring to any aspect of your business. But for many of us this word has become part of our everyday vocabulary.

For those of you that haven’t heard of Twitter (no it is not the cool new electronic toy your child wants for Christmas), it is a service that lets people communicate and stay connected through the exchange of quick, frequent messages that are limited to 140 characters. You can post these messages directly on twitter or with a text message or mobile app through your cell phone.

Seems strange yes? I thought so at first too. It took me about 30 days to figure out Twitter but once I did it became an indispensable part of my life. It’s all about connecting to a community or group of friends and participating in order to ask questions, share information or advice, post news articles, self-promote, communicate your whereabouts or activities, or make new acquaintances.

Here is a good beginners guide to Twitter if you want to understand more.

I’ve been using Twitter for several months now but have been recently intrigued by the potential business opportunities for the healthcare staffing industry that exist with Twitter. Business opportunities with 140 character posts? Yes. Read on.

I created a Staffing Robot Twitter Page only a few short months ago and already I'm following 235 members and have 128 followers. Many of these people are participants in the healthcare staffing industry – hospitals, staffing suppliers, healthcare professionals, etc. By connecting with these people I’ve been able to get helpful industry information such as: learning about innovative hospitals, finding suppliers posting job openings for healthcare professionals and finding nurses frustrated with trying to find a job.

Sounding more interesting? I hope so.

So your next question might be how did I find all of these members on Twitter? The answer is I’m magic and not going to tell you. At least not until part 2 of this post so stay tuned. For now though, I will show you (in the video below) how to set up a Twitter account for your hospital, medical staffing agency or for yourself.

Jason Lander is VP of Business Development for ShiftWise. For more of Jason's posts, you can visit his blog, the Staffing Robot.

2. Understand the media & 3. Ideas on how to use it

1. CWD website: With the augmentation of the following tools, the website is a home for information on CWD. The primary updated sections are News, Portfolio and Evergreen resources (which I separated below)
   
2. CWD blog: This is a place to express our understanding of the industry, talk about what we learn from projects and share relevant technology with our customers. Common tags may be: Our Work, Evergreen, Industry news, Web Applications, Portland, Thought leadership, Developer Resources, and Random
   
3. CWD newsletter: We would like to grow 'opt in' subscriptions for the newsletter. This is a tool to deliver all content from CWD. The newsletter goes out once a quarter. 
   
4. CWD Evergreen support portal: This section of the CWD website is used by existing clients. We often add new tutorials, videos and links.
   
5. CWD clients: Most clients allow us to create a link from their website to ours. 
6. Twitter: The latest in social media buzz. It is a simple application which could be recreated if needed. The app  is very flexible with RSS. All tweets are public. Used almost more for business than personal. 
   
7. Facebook: Also highly popular as a social tool. Businesses use it for advertising more than communication. The benefit to this platform is the developer community and long list of modules. Most of the content is private. 
   
8. YouTube: I used the title YouTube, but this could be any video site really. Users can create channels and embed those videos onto a web page or facebook easily. YouTube has a built in Twitter and facebook link. 
   
9. Linkedin: Primarily a business tool used for networking. Typically profiles are person based and not company based. Some content is public. I am not sure about built in functions with other social sites, but I would presume that is coming. 
   
10. SAO (software association of oregon): A community social network, any user has the ability to post blogs, forums or add photos. 
    
11. Babson Alumni network: Same platform as SAO (ning.com)
12. OEN (oregon entrepreneurs network): Not on the ning platform but offers some similar features. Users can post blogs and discussions. Content is RSS enabled from the site. 
13. Google reader/Google calendar/ Google Profiles: G is the powerhouse. The Reader platform/iGoogle can be used to monitor a number of RSS feeds. Calendars can accept RSS feeds of ical format and then embedded onto a page. Permissions are a little tricky but not if it is 100% public. 
14. Del.ic.ous: Book marking tool that is RSS enabled delivering content. Bookmarks can be made easily with a web browser plug in and links on most news websites. 
15. Personal employee websites: Most companies, like ours, have over 505 of the staff with their own website. Flexibility is key, but things take longer to get implemented on these sites. Link creation is one of the better options if your employees are passionate about it. 

Other technologies to consider:

Feedburner for RSS tracking