See also: Ning-to-Grouply Migration

With Ning’s recent announcement that they will no longer offer free networks, Ning Network Creators are feverishly evaluating alternatives.  It’s an exercise that Yahoo! Groups and Google Groups owners are familiar with, as many continue to seek a more modern platform with the latest social features.

Grouply and a few others provide all the basics you need to support your online community, including a customizable website, installable applications, event management capabilities, discussion forums, RSS feed support, activity feeds, user profile pages, and a “white label” option.  Here are a few thoughts on other factors to consider before you make the move. Some of thse factors could have a huge impact on the eventual success or failure of your group down the road!

1. Migration path

It is not uncommon for groups moving from one platform to another to lose 50% or more of their membership.  This is usually because members miss (or ignore) the invitation to come register at the new site, and after that, well — that’s it.  They’re gone.

When you use Grouply’s member import feature, you are directly adding your group members to your new group on Grouply.  All members receive a high-quality, professional-looking invitation from you about the new site.  More importantly, all of your members immediately start receiving individual emails of all new content posted to the group.  And each email they receive includes a link in the footer encouraging them to register to access advanced features.  So your members are never disconnected, and you don’t lose anyone!

What about all the forum postings, comments, blogs, etc. from your old platform?  Whether you are migrating to Grouply from Ning, Yahoo! Groups, or Google Groups, you are covered.  Grouply automatically integrates and synchronizes with Yahoo and Google Groups in real-time.  And Grouply is developing a full set of content migration tools for Ning right now, so very soon you will be able to automatically bring over your Ning Network content in just a few clicks!

2. Email interface

Like or not, email is still the preferred way for millions of people to consume their community content.  That’s why traditional email-list systems like Yahoo Groups are still so popular and remain the default choice for many.  If your social website platform doesn’t have an email interface, you risk missing out on tons of prospective members!

With Grouply, members can interact with your group completely via email if they want.  Members can post to the group via your group’s posting address in the format groupname@grouplygroups.com.  And members can receive all group content via email as it is posted.  Each email includes a helpful link encouraging members to visit the site to access more advanced features.  Eventually, all members become aware of the advanced features on the website and start to use it regularly, but it’s great to have email to maintain the connection until then!

3. Cross-group administration dashboard

The typical group owner manages many groups and must login to a variety of websites to make updates and approve membership requests and new postings.  Administration across multiple groups can be time-consuming and frustrating!

With Grouply, you login once and then manage and participate in all your groups without having to login again.  In addition, Grouply provides a single, powerful cross-group dashboard that includes all the information and controls you need to administer all your groups from one place.  Group administration time is cut from hours to seconds!

4. Group Analytics

Is your group “healthy” and are your members satisfied?  Grouply Analytics provides charts and graphs that highlight your group’s strengths and help identify opportunities for improvement. Grouply’s rich, group-level analytics provides insights like no other social media tool currently available. Grouply answers key questions about your group members and their interests, such as:

• Is group activity increasing or decreasing over time?
• What portion of my group participates each month?  Is the trend getting better or worse?
• Who are the “power” content creators?
• What are the most popular topics being discussed right now?

5. Public and private pages

Often there are two different versions of a group website that the administrator wants to present to the world:

• Members version – This site doesn’t try to explain what the group is but instead provides the latest updates to members and encourages them to participate.
• Visitors version – This site explains the group in some detail with the goal of recruiting new members to join.

Grouply allows you create one “super site” with member pages, visitor pages, and pages for everyone, enabling you to customize the experience for users based on who they are.  Members can focus on participating in the group, and visitors are more likely to join because you told them exactly what they need to know.  Everyone wins!

6. Flexible content

Robust social websites support many different types of content – forum postings, events, announcements, classified ads, blog postings, photos, comments, RSVP responses, subgroup content, etc.  But understandably, members can get confused about how to post and where to find each type of content.  Often, confusion ensues and mistakes are made.  Few aspects of running a group are less appealing than having to berate members for not following the rules about where to post what.  And most systems are unforgiving; if an event is accidentally posted as an announcement, there’s no fixing it.  You have to apologize and repost.

Grouply manages content in a way that is innovative and flexible yet simple.  Looking for something?  Search across all group content from one search box.  Want to post something but aren’t sure where or how?  Just select “Post” and you can post any type of content to any of your groups.  Accidentally mis-categorize your posting?   No problem.  You – or anyone in the group – can edit the post and fix it after-the-fact.  Headaches are avoided, and happiness ensues!

7. Avoiding information overload

We would all like to believe that ours is the single most important affinity group in our members’ lives.  But the fact of the matter is that the average online adult belongs to no less than seven online groups across multiple platforms such as Yahoo Groups, Google Groups, Ning, and others.  It is simply impossible for the average person to keep up every day with all the content being generated across all their groups.  They are experiencing “information overload”.

Good news!  In addition to offering our own Grouply Groups, Grouply automatically integrates with the 10 million existing groups on Yahoo! Groups and Google Groups.  Users can sign in once to Grouply and access all their groups in one place.  And now you can use your Facebook ID to login to Grouply, so there are no additional IDs and passwords to remember!

Grouply offers users a variety of ways to interact with their groups so each user can choose what works best for him.  One option, of course, is to visit an individual group website.  But you also have access to a personalized “cross group” site where Grouply organizes and filters content from all your groups so you can keep up much more efficiently (see Grouply: Personalized to your real-time interests). Grouply’s intelligent interface allows group members to spend less time searching and skimming and more time actively engaging with their groups.

The big benefit for group administrators, then, is that the overall level and quality of group participation increases, which means that more groups succeed in the long run!

This entry was posted on Wednesday, April 21st, 2010 at 9:54 pm and is filed under New Releases.