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Sneaky Social Media Tools:
How
to Compete With Bigger Sites
New tools are emerging which bring
sophisticated interactive streaming video and
community-driven social media features within reach of the
smaller internet subscription content publisher.
This means, for example, that even small publishers can create
their own niche "YouTube" or "Facebook"
communities on their own sites -- but just for their
customers; under their own brand; and with complete control
over content and advertising.
Small publishers can also create interactive widgets for
their sites which provide specific utility for their
visitors and are seamlessly integrated with social networks.
Two new providers in particular have caught my eye:
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VidiTalk,
a versatile, low-cost video platform with a virtual
Videopalooza of customizable features. |
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Ringside
Networks
and
Popular Media's Social
Networking Suite, which enable you to provide standard social
networking capabilities (plus a lot more for the
former because it's
open source). |
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1. VidiTalk - Low-Cost, Flexible Video Features |
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With VidiTalk, users can upload their own videos, post
responses to each other, and even post video responses to
videos. Plenty of other viral stuff too.
It boasts a low cost of entry for smaller publishers, and
also has very flexible capabilities for larger ones who want
to customize the application.
Because of its flexibility, VidiTalk's website doesn't
entirely do justice to its value proposition. To learn
more, contact their Adaptation Partner Frances Schlosstein
at (212)372-9762. |
2.
Ringside Networks:
Networking and Social Media |
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Ringside's new open source
server provides smaller publishers and retailers with
standard social applications that build traffic, such as
such as user profiles, friends, groups, comments, ratings,
favorites, events, and so on. But you can also:
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Keep the
same branded look and feel that you use today on your
site.
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Create
new customized social apps to be more meaningful to
your users and business -- rather than be limited to
standard default capabilities.
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Your
existing site content and business applications can be
made "socially aware" and integrate seamlessly into
Facebook itself (and vice-versa). |
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Bill Baird is a leading consulting authority on the use of
digital direct marketing tactics to generate revenue from
publisher content and services on the web. He can be
reached at (203) 838-5444 or at http://www.bairddirect.com. |
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