Ning

I had never been to Ning before this week, and I have to say I was pretty impressed. I set up a network myself and found it to be a simple painless process. I really liked seeing what features Ning had to offer.

Advantages:

• Control and privacy. Ning allows you to set these options in accordance with the purpose of the social networking group.
• Sharing. You can set up a Ning for any reason under the sun--a group project, goal setting, common interests or hobbies. Workplaces can use them for specific projects or for the long-term to promote sharing of ideas and workplace unity.
• RSS feeds. In a work environment, I think it would be an advantage to have everyone in the same Ning with access to RSS feeds that impact the business.
• Easy creation of a badge. This is good if you want others to promote your Ning on their blogs or websites.
• It's free.
• Search. If I remembered that Joe who works in YA Lit said something a year ago in his Ning blog that I wanted to remember, I can do a keyword search for it.

Limitations:

• Google Ads.
  
• Getting people to sign up and try it out.