Are you shopping for social networking software? Have  you thought of seamlessly linking your community software platform into  your existing web destinations? If you’re concerned about bolstering your brand identity…(and promoting it in the marketplace), then you should be thinking about total integration. Potent Social Media for Your Web Properties You can jump into [...]

5. Make the Most of Chapter Activities in Dedicated Groups Fire up grassroots enthusiasm by setting up individual chapters in your social networking community. Local chapters can gather offline, then network online to continue the conversation, follow up on issues and plan ahead to the next local event. Cause-driven or goal-driven chapters who are nationally-directed can [...]

Since the explosion of social media on the internet has become reality, every organization is looking for ways to leverage the power of online networking. But association leadership and marketing teams should beware of unrealistic maxims. 5) Social Media Isn’t Media Those new to social media and social networking sometimes lose sight of its true nature. Social [...]

For growing associations and educational organizations, online content sharing is critically important in the success of a socially-enabled web destination. Document sharing among Groups, Chapters, Committees, and Special Events participants promotes community engagement and interaction before and after offline meetings. In a custom-tailored social community, members will have multiple options for creating and posting text, visual and [...]

Social CRM continues to be the focus of organizations who see the merging of social media and enterprise software as a powerful trend. In an enlightening new article on the Software Advice blog, analyst Lauren Carlson explores the Social CRM phenomenon in a series of mini case studies. The bottom line is, organizations as diverse as H&R [...]

Lovely Santa Clara, California, is the scene for a lively gathering of major corporate powers who understand the projected growth of Web 2.0 solutions related to Social CRM. As reported in this blog previously,  projections of leading analysts such as Gartner and Altimeter Group pinpoint Social CRM to expand rapidly into a billion-dollar market by the end [...]

Nonprofit and association organizations are benefiting—at an accelerating pace—from the deployment of white label communities that boast flexible social spaces where members gather. The many forms of social spaces can be tailored to perfectly reflect your community’s activities, your organization’s goals and your members’ most compelling interests. Social Spaces are innovative, socially-enabled places that consistently drive [...]

Chief Operating Officer John Patton led the charge for ThePort Network at the Direct Marketing Association’s exciting annual event held recently in San Francisco. The city by the bay hosted thousands of marketing professionals in an unprecedented display of the latest technologies in the world of traditional and digital marketing. ThePort team was pleased to serve the conference [...]

ThePort Network’s esteemed partner, Blackbaud, is sponsoring  one of the most anticipated nonprofit gatherings of the year, October 20-22 in our nation’s capital. The technology-focused event boasts a new venue (The Gaylord National Hotel & Convention Center) and a sellout crowd of not-for-profit leaders looking to take their constituents to the next level of social networking [...]

Venture capitalists from around the globe traveled to Atlanta’s beautiful Georgia Aquarium this week for Venture Atlanta 2010. Making waves at the event were 20 carefully selected technology companies asked to present on the main stage. We’re proud to say ThePort Network and our CEO, Bob Cramer, were among the privileged firms who captured the attention [...]

Calling all association leaders! You’re invited to check out an informative, relatively brief white paper on topics associations are currently focusing on vis a vis social media. We’re happy to provide answers to the most compelling questions confronting association executives in the last quarter of 2010.       Is your association nearing a point where you and your [...]

In any social networking community, there are many tangible benefits to choosing a fully integrated, custom platform as opposed to a generic, out-of-the-box version. A paramount difference is the way in which a white label community will perfectly reflect your brand and differentiate your online community from others. As a fluid component of your website, [...]

The growth of social media on the internet is nothing short of staggering. Consider the number of registered members now interacting in the most popular networking communities, as of summer 2010: Facebook = 500 million. Twitter = 145 million. LinkedIn = 75 million. Nonprofits and associations are recognizing the enormous power of these numbers in terms of [...]

You Need Qualitative Goals before Leaping to Quantitative Metrics In establishing a socially-enabled community, it’s important to keep the big picture in focus. Your objectives should be all about your organization’s constituents. Certainly, fundraising campaigns and dollars raised are the bottom line, but the members of your online community have agendas that go far beyond monetary [...]

SaaS (Software as a Service) is a model of software deployment whereby a provider licenses an application to customers for use as a service on demand. In terms of a social networking community, a SaaS vendor will offer the deployment as a monthly subscription in addition to an initial set-up fee. As adoption of social networking [...]