Sep 14 ' 2009
Social Networking Websites have now become a place to connect and communicate with different people with different ideas. Popularity of these Social Networking Websites is increasing daily. When we talk about Website Development, Custom Web Development is what comes to our minds. Custom web Development is the oldest way to developing a website. Now Web Developers Open Source Software's are the easiest way to develop a Social Networking or Ecommerce websites. In-spite of this, Custom Web Development has its own popularity and usefulness.

7 main Advantages of a Custom-made Social Networking over commercial Software:

1. Branding - If you are using custom software that was designed just for your company then you use your social networking site as a great branding opportunity. The site can be made in your company colors with themes and graphics that reflect your products. Many commercial social networking programs won't let you use all of your own graphics when you're building the site.

2. Design and layout - If you are having your own software built just for your company then you can have total control over the layout and the design of the site. That way you can control all the navigation and use the layout of the site to push customers towards certain areas. When you use commercial software you often don’t have total control over the layout and design of the site because you have to work from a pre-programmed template.

3. Features - This is a big one. When you are using custom or personalized software you can have all the features that you want the site to have built into the software but you don’t need to have the ones that you don't want. When you use commercial software often there are features built into the design that you can’t get rid of. When you are you using software that’s built just for your site you can decide what features to offer and what features your site doesn’t need.

4. Customization of features - Many social networking software platforms in the market today are built using open-source technologies. There are many open source forums, blogs, CMS systems, etc. available, and many companies have just combined these tools into one product and started selling them to customers. Such "packaged solutions" may work if you do not want or need to customize them. But, if you need to add new features or modify existing code, it can be a nightmare working with unmanaged and complex codebase created as a result of mixing different code bases.

5. Originality - If you are using commercial software to build your online community site then chances are good your site will end up looking like a bunch of other sites that are all using the same software. When you use software build to your own design specs your site won’t look like any other corporate site which will help with the brand recognition of your product.

6. Compatibility - If you’re building a social networking site as an addition to your regular website then using software that you helped design and that is built just for your company will make it possible to build a social networking site that will fit seamlessly into your existing website and function well with other aspects of your website, like a shopping cart that customers can use to buy products. If you’re using commercial software you might have a hard time getting the social networking site to work properly with your website.

7. Monetization - Monetization can take many forms, including advertising on your site with display or video ads, major sponsorships, membership models, E-Commerce integrations, or contests. Metrics should be determined based on what your initiatives original goals are. Increased traffic? Increased revenue? More customer and product feedback? Improved brand awareness? And once those are determined you should have some way of gleaning reports and analytics to see if you are meeting those metrics.

As a Platform, SNSEPRO’s Social Networking Platform gives organizations complete freedom to unleash the power of social networking for any social networking application they need. Publishers, retailers, information hungry service companies, charities, schools, colleges, and universities…. just about anyone can use SNSEPRO’s Social Networking Platform to liberate the power of their people and get a customized solution to meet their niche requirements.