SocialGO Blog

We’d like to wish all our users a VERY happy New Year, and all the best for 2009!

2008 has been an incredible year for SocialGO, especially the last month or so, and we couldn’t have done it without all the feedback and support from our members - so thanks!

We’ve got lots of exciting things planned for 2009, and can’t wait to get started in the new year!

We’ve had a great year, with an unprecedented number of sign-ups and a great response to the SocialGO software - we’re looking forward to a very exciting 2009! Thanks for all your support, and have a very happy holiday, from the SocialGO Team!

Social networking is about people coming together around an idea, hobby or interest. The tools available for participation in this online environment aren’t just for ‘messing around’ or ‘having a bit of fun’.

These communication tools such a blogs, tags, forums, file swapping, video chat and so forth, not only offer people a new way of socializing but also a radical new way of learning.

Web-based technologies allow people to contribute through the sharing of content, opinions and facts, thus encouraging creativity, knowledge and education.

According to Fran Smith off www.edutopia.org, these Social networking sites and/or blogs are playing a very significant role in spreading awareness about new technologies and learning to use them through the internet.

Social interactions in cyberspace are all about gathering information of one sort or another, followed by a process of dissemination, collaboration and problem-solving. In this respect, it isn’t really all that different from what kids do at school…

Through social networks you can participate in an environment were students, teachers and professionals cooperate in an exchange of ideas, taking the traditional school setting in a new and exciting direction.

Mikael Wiberg writes in his article ‘Netlearning and Learning through Networks’, published in Educational Technology & Society, that learning through social networks differs from the traditional setting in that it can involve user-generated material which can be shaped, reshaped, and redistributed by the online community.

Teacher-centred material, often the centre of mainstream education milieus, takes a new direction via the World Wide Web, with content that is produced by and for anybody.

All in all, it seems that in today’s technology driven world, social networks are reshaping the way education is delivered and accessed with a more personalized learning environment, one that allows for greater contact, anytime anywhere.

We all know who the big players are, don’t we? My Space is great, FaceBook is brilliant, YouTube is fun… but, wouldn’t it be amazing to build, run and administer your own social network?

Well, SocialGO allows you to have your very own social network for you and your community.

What does SocialGO provide that FaceBook doesn’t?

SocialGO is the social network maker. A powerful tool that gives the user full control. You decide what it looks like, how it is laid out and who can join.

You can reshuffle and add tabs, add sub-tabs, add RSS feeds, JavaScript or HTML blocks anywhere on your network.

SocialGO software can be tailored to your communities’ needs unlike FaceBook with their one size fits all.

Whereas Facebook feels like a telephone book, SocialGO provides a platform that it is intimate and personal.

Networks can be privatized and remain as exclusive as you want them to be, unlike Facebook which is open to the public.

Whereas FaceBook is controlled, SocialGO puts you in charge of your very own network.

You can add your own sponsors, images, text or anything you like throughout your network to make it truly personal.

SocialGO is about going one step further than FaceBook. Instead of being open to all, SocialGO is dedicated to your own community.

SocialGO provides strong monetization tools to help network owners generate revenue by placing their own ads and charging a subscription fee for access.

Conclusion…

SocialGO is a white-Label project providing you with a platform that is customizable, where you and your brand(s) are in control of your own identity.

SocialGO provides the infrastructure with terms of services heavily skewed in your favour. In other words, you have complete data ownership.

FaceBook provides a huge need in the community, but SocialGO is serving an emerging need for niche communities allowing them to connect and communicate in new ways.

BMOREHacks is a network created to aid the promotion, sales and marketing of the low-budget movie ‘BMOREHacks’.  As well as allowing the 80+ members of cast and crew to reconnect and reminisce over the making of the film some years ago, the network allows fans of the movie to interact, and provides potential purchasers of merchandise a place to find more information.

The owner, Maxie, was familiar with CMS systems but following a security breach of his own server, he came to much prefer ‘Platforms-as-a-Service’, and “hasn’t looked back” since canceling his own servers. Having then spent over a year experimenting and developing with nearly every major and emerging social platform out there, he said “I’ve learned the strengths and weaknesses of many of them. Common weaknesses being things like: shared user databases; an emphasis on features over style; lack of e-commerce options, and over-saturation of similar networks already on the platform.”

“I have always rooted for innovative underdogs, so I really like and respect the SocialGO Team.  As a product, I love the Ajax interface, the messaging system, the a/v chat and I love the easy to use administration system.”

Maxie has really tailored the SocialGO software to his requirements.  He’s been able to schedule and provide information on screenings of the film using the ‘Events’ tool, and also organize film-making workshops. After providing all attendees of the screenings and workshops with the BMORE Hacks network address, he was able to obtain invaluable feedback.  Lots of clips and trailers have been uploaded to the network, along with general information about the film, and updates about the promotion of the movie.  Maxie also set up a tab linking to an e-commerce store so people could purchase film and music digital downloads, as well as the DVDs, CDs, and T-shirts.

The creator said “I had previously used SocialGO to create an alumni network for present and past employees and the site expanded and became even more active than I had hoped. I sought to do the same with BMOREHACKS.com. Since launching the site, I have reconnected with people I have not talked with in a decade. In one case I tracked down the email of the first editor, within 15 mins of sending an invite to him  we were chatting on the BMORE Hacks network!”

“I can already see a clear vision of how SocialGO is going to mature, and I’m really excited by that! These are the ways I have dreamed for years about utilizing technology to produce, distribute, promote, and sell Indie media.”

One of the exciting new features of our Admin Center is the Member Manager tool. 

This exciting new feature allows you, the network owner, to control lots of different options relating to each member of your network.  Upon entering the ‘Manage Members’ section, you are presented with a list of all your members.  With the click of a button you can change the status of individual or multiple members from ‘Member’, to ‘Pending Member’, to ‘Payment Pending’ or to ‘Moderator’.  You can delete or ban a member equally as easily.

From the ‘Member Manager’ tool you can also control the role of a member - be they a regular member, or a moderator - someone who has certain moderating privileges on your network, such as approving new members or groups.

The ‘Member Manager’ is just one of the many features we’ve rebuilt and enhanced for the new admin centre, to make your network administering that little bit quicker and easier!

We’ve already done featured network blog on Earthlings ParentBook, a network showing how effectively you can use custom CSS coding to manipulate the SocialGO software to really suit your branding and/or specific network requirements, as seen here:

Another incredible example of the possibilities of custom coding is LookBooster, a network created by a web developer which really pushes the boundaries of the standard SocialGO template.  This network is one of many the developer is working on to achieve his perfect custom template, but you can really get a good idea of the endless possibilities for the design of your network when you look at the below screen grab!

The long awaited new Admin Center has arrived featuring the new SocialGO member billing tool. We’ve had a great response since it quietly went live last week, so many thanks for those of you who have been in touch.

With member billing, you can charge members regular or one off subscription fees, in Pounds Sterling, US Dollars, or Euros. These payments can be required, or optional - it’s all controlled by you, the network owner!

(more…)

WiiPA was recently launched as an online community for Wii fans, where they can connect with other players, organize and participate in “Wii parties”, and compete in online and offline tournaments.

The owner, Tom, started this network because he thought that multiplayer gaming on the Wii could be improved by having a community built around it, and until now that has not really existed. Gamers could play with family and friends, or online for some games, but there was no continuity to the experience, and you couldn’t really make a lasting connection with new people.  Using SocialGO, he was able to design the network to make it’s purpose instantly obvious. He uploaded custom avatars that were all related to the Wii, and customized the ‘Groups’ tab by turning it in to a ‘Tournaments’ tab, which is much more relevant to his user base. Using the custom tabs Tom was also able to create an information page, with some information about the site mission, and also a games tab, to provide some online games for his members!

Tom said “The decision to use Socialgo was a real no brainer. Even though SocialGO is still in Beta, everything looks so polished and seems to ‘click’ - so that it was easy to customize the look of my network, and get it to do the things I envisioned.  I am a pretty independent developer but when I needed it, it was great to get answers from the owners network, and support has been very accessible. I also like SocialGO’s commitment to having the owners maintain as much control as possible to the content and infrastructure of their site.”

“WiiPA is still at a very early stage, and a community like this hinges on being able to attract many users, but I feel the site has so many of the features people would want from a  social network, so I am confident that we will become a place that every Wii owner would want to join.”

The SocialGO team wish WiiPA the best of luck with their network!

Following on from the introduction of the brand new Admin Center, we’d like to show you the new ‘Member Billing’ feature!

Using SocialGO and PayPal you’ll be able to enable membership subscriptions to your network. You can set payments as optional or make them required for sign-up to your network. If you make them required, their account will not be activated until we receive an IPN response from PayPal, which notifies us that the payment has gone through.

You’ll be able to charge members in US Dollars, Euros or Pounds Sterling, and make the payment a one-off upon sign-up to your network, or a repeating subscriptions variable by days, weeks, months or even years!

All payments will be taken from your SocialGO network by PayPal, and using the exciting new ‘Member Management’ feature, you’ll be able to see which members have paid and who hasn’t, and then communicate with them and/or impose certain restrictions of your choice!

This will be available for everyone for free initially and then, with the launch of premium features will be $19.99 per month.  We plan to be developing this offering over the next few months to support more payment providers and additional options for network owners. As always your feedback will play an important part in the ongoing development of our service so let us know what you think once you have had a play with it.