The Best Social Networking Software Features

If you’re going to create your own social networking site you will have to decide what features you want to offer on the site so that you can choose the right networking software that has those particular features built into it. There are hundreds of different features that are common social networking sites, so how do you know which ones to use and which ones not to use? The trick to picking the best social networking features for your company’s networking site is to make sure that each feature you pick has a functional aspect as well as a fun aspect. You also need to keep in mind the purpose of your networking site when you’re choosing the software that will give you the features that you want for your site.

For example, look at one of the most commonly found features in social networking software, the ability to post videos online. Does your networking site need that feature? If your social networking site is just an in-house site to help the members of the company get to know one another more and stay connected then you might not need to have that feature. But, if your site is designed to help clients stay in touch with their account managers or customer service reps then having a video feature on the site would allow the account mangers or customer service reps to post videos and tutorials about how to use the products that you sell, and that could be extremely helpful and beneficial for customers.

Ultimately only you can decide what the best features are for your custom social networking site and which features you really want to have but when you’re buying networking website software it’s better to buy software that has more features then you think you will need because you might decide later on that you need different features than the ones that you want to have now. If you buy software that already has all the additional features that you might want in the future you won’t need to buy software when you want to add more features to your custom social networking site.

Microsoft YouTube Clone Coming

Microsoft’s new YouTube competitor will be all about user generated videos if its name, Soapbox, is any indication (Hunterstrat calls it “personal whine”).

There aren’t many details yet, but LiveSide is saying this will be a MSN, not Live.com product, and will eventually be launched at soapbox.msn.com. The feature set includes:

* Upload videos in almost any format—like from your video or digital camera (maximum file size is currently 100MB)
* Tag and categorize your videos to make it easy for other people to find them
* Watch original videos and browse for new ones at the same time
* Set up your own personal RSS feeds for videos you’re interested in
* Use your Windows Live Spaces profile with Soapbox on MSN Video
* Embed a video on your Web site or blog

This information as well as the screen shot below is taken directly from LiveSide, there are no other sources at this point. I have an email in to Microsoft PR for a comment but I certainly don’t expect an answer before Monday.

I agree with Nathan Weinberg – it’s extemely odd that Microsoft is launching this under the MSN brand instead of live.com. All of their recent web services have been released under Live.com, including their recent video search product. And MSN Spaces was recently rebranded as Live Spaces. The best way to ensure that this service gets immediate traction would be to link it directly to Live.com, as Myspace has done with its own video product.