Ning

Ning was VERY quick and easy to set up. It seems as if it has many advantages.

Some of the advantages are that with Ning you can:

• subscribe to an RSS feed
• add pictures and videos
• create blog posts and have discussions
• create groups within your network
• invite people to join an event
• broadcast messages
• add badges and widgets
• create applications that can be placed on Facebook accounts
• add different features such as a chat, music, notes, and text box features
• add web analytic software
• can import pictures from flikr

I can definitely see the advantages of using this within a work environment. By using Ning with your company you could:

• Reach everyone if company has many locations
• Centralize your information
• Create slide shows of company pictures/happenings
• Share insights, motivate employees, find support
• Advertise upcoming events
• Use to create a community for your customers or announce new items
• Customize site to meet your company's needs
• It runs on a programmable platform

Some disadvantages are:

• Staff could possibly spend excess time on site which could be a problem if using during work hours
• Some staff may not be computer savvy enough to use some features
• Consumers may not have knowledge of site or may have trouble navigating site
• Have to pay for upgrades
• It has ads
• It has limited storage

I think that, as far as I have seen, Ning looks like it would definitely be useful in the workplace. I enjoy the layout and page "skins" and it gives you some great creative options in order to customize it. It has a lot of extras that can be added, which is good and many features that people are already using elsewhere. I would like to look at this more and explore more options for its use.