The Business of Microblogging
So, last week we looked at the open source blogging platform LifeType, and this and next week we’re going to look at a couple of great microblogging platforms for your business. As I mentioned in last week’s blog, I did write a blog about StatusNet (“Branding Your Microblogging”) on 12/14, so scroll down for that blog. Today, I want to tell you about another microblogging platform that will help you keep in touch with your employees and boost your social media marketing through collaborative efforts.
SocialCast is “enterprise microblogging,” or that is how they advertise themselves. SocialCast helps businesses help their employees keep in touch with one another. How do they do that? Well, keep reading this blog to read a few ways. At my last office job, my boss was my Phil Jackson (Lakers coach). When someone from another department gave me trouble, I knew I could always count on him to make sure they stayed off my back, so I could do my job. If he wasn’t around, I had to deal with whatever situation came up. It would have been nice to know if he was in a meeting, at lunch, or in a closet avoiding my latest “I’m the best employee this company has!” attitude. With SocialCast, you can update your status, so your fellow employees or employer knows where you are.
Much like Twitter, with SocialCast employees can not only update their status, but they can also take part in real time conversations, Q&A sessions, and share files with one another. SocialCast also allows you to organize your microblogging streams, so you can communicate with all employees, preset groups (the creator must invite you), or specific employees. That makes SocialCast great for sharing everything from newsletters to secret meetings about overthrowing the King of Lilliput.
For companies still not convinced SocialCast offers them anything that Twitter does not, SocialCast can be integrated with e-mail. Of course, you can read message alerts in your e-mail inbox with Twitter, but if you want to respond to those message you have to log into Twitter. With SocialCast you can respond right from your inbox.
And the list of great ways companies can utilize SocialCast goes on, but one more I want to tell you about is Social Business Intelligence. This one is useful for you employers or HR managers who want to keep track of how people in your company are using SocialCast. Check out what big account or client is most important to your employees. And, of course, see who’s chatting with whom when they should be doing something a little more productive with their time. There are many more great features to SocialCast, so go ahead and read all about them.
Of course there is a free and a premium version; though, the number of users your aloud to have is always unlimited. For those companies that want to know more about the premium version, you can read about it here. For those who just want to see how SocialCast’s free microblogging platform works, it includes the ability to have multiple administrators, you can add guest users, there is a desktop application, and there is basic e-mail and phone support. There is more, which you can also read by clicking the above link, reading the SocialCast cookbook (a download on their homepage), read their blog, or visit their demo section.
So there’s a little about keeping social networking within your company, by using SocialCast to discuss various projects and company information. It’s not open source, but the great people at SocialCast are nice enough to provide us with a generous portion of what they offer. Come back next week for another great microblogging platform that will help you streamline your business efforts. For those companies who would like to stramline their efforts even more, consider SEO content or other social networking options.
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Until next week,
Erick
