Ning, the leading free social media platform provider has recently lost not only its CEO, but also about 40 percent of its workforce. For its nearly 20 million monthly visitors, this means a rate increase.
Freshly-appointed CEO Jason Rosenthal posted last week, Ning will now "double down on our premium services business." He continues: "So, we are going to change our strategy to devote 100% of our resources to building the winning product to capture this big opportunity. We will phase out our free service."
Where does that leave those of us who need a free-for-use Ning alternative?
At Forum One, we periodically examine dozens of collaboration platforms. Here are some of the more interesting low-cost solutions we've evaluated or used:
A customizable social network with a wide variety of fun and sophisticated add ons.
Hosting: Online.
Profiles: Personalized user profiles with ability to import contacts from Outlook.
Messaging: Available to members.
Directory: A full member directory with a listing of friends, similar to that of Facebook.
Admin: An easy-to-use back end, with a wide variety of customizable themes, with minimal design control.
Additions: Photos, wikis, video, search, email notifications, and chat.
Pricing: Free version comes with 1GB of storage and is ad-supported.
A social networking tool similar to an intranet, specializing in online collaboration.
Hosting: Online.
Profiles: Dual profiles for both professional and social uses.
Messaging: Available to members.
Directory: A member directory for both profiles.
Admin: A full admin interface, boasting ease of use, and navigation.
Additions: Photos, email notifications, email blasts, and calendaring features.
Pricing: Free version is ad-supported and provides upto five subgroups.
A social media environment that maximizes WidgetBox for optimal customization.
Hosting: Online.
Profiles: Profiles which can be personalized.
Messaging: Available to members.
Directory: Using the "My Friends" module, ability to view others photos, and information.
Admin: A full admin interface.
Additions: Photos, video, search, and a chat add-on widget.
Pricing: Free version has a 50-user limit and is ad-supported.
In addition to these hosted services, BuddyPress and Elgg are worth a look. While these downloadable open source softwares protect you from meandering software company business plans, they require more technical time to install and support.
With a such a rich variety of other useful, valuable and most importantly, customizable solutions out there, there is still hope that cheap online social media platforms will continue to be availalbe. Go forth, and socialize!
