Have a great idea to bring local people together and advertise locally sourced products and services?
Thinking of a way to create a community of people surrounding your fantastic new product and want to really allow open and honest opinions to gain awareness of your customer demographic and opinions.
Or do you just want to create a social network based on something your passionate about, Coffee Black can help!
We cant really mention social networking without looking at the 8000 pound gorilla in the corner
Since its launch as Facemash in 2003, and its subsequent purchase of the Facebook.com domain for $200,000 in 2005, Facebook now boasts more than a billion active users and is valued at $80 Billion.
It has spawned thousands of similar websites which follow the Social networking service concept whereby as a whole people interacting and sharing information can make new connections, expand their own knowledge and experience and if all else fails provide a great place to post funny videos of cats.
Anyone who comes to us and says they are planning the next Facebook gets a short but polite explanation of the budget required for such an endeavour. However anyone who come to Coffee Black with a plan to make a website platform where people or friends who have a certain hobby or interest can build a community with everyones best interests at heart then we can help.
There are several options for Social Network sites including PHPFox, Community Builder and Social Engine.
Our current advice for starting your own social network is BuddyPress with BBPress,
The current Big Boy in the open source social networking arena is phpFox. a script which has taken a very direct route in replicating the instantly recognised facebook look and feel. However it has a very rapidly expanding userbase and community of developers making more and more plugins to expand its functionality and reach all the time.
Originally our first choice was Community Builder as we had used it many years ago to make an affiliate marketing group (which has long since been closed) and secondly because it is dependant on (built as a component for) our favourite content management system Joomla.
Since utilising Social Engine for the www.girlswithink.com website we have found that there are many “Expectations” for social interaction now and as a result our first choice changed to be much more balanced and after writing several customised plugins for social engine we can heartily suggest it for your social network.
Dependant on the requirements for the website we will likely recommend one of the above solutions for your new social network.
Whether it’s a brochure site or a E-commerce website we will be happy to talk to you and discuss you requirements and provide you with a website that does exactly what you need. You can fill in the form to the right or contact us directly.