B2B Social Networks - Leverage Software

Original Post  - Jan 22, 2008

I had a demo today with a social network vendor: Leverage Software. They offer SAAS (software as a service) hosting to provide community and social networking software for some fairly large websites: InfoWorld, Saleforce.com, Reuters, The New York Times, to name just a few. Most of their features are fairly standard: profiles, blogs, forums, polling, chats, file uploads (photo, video, etc.). An open API provides widgets to integrate network content onto your website, web services or cookies for single sign-on, and integration with analytics and ad serving programs. Visual Targeted Matchmaking is a unique visual representation of the network and relationships, allowing datamining and filtering for specific niches.

Technically, the platform is written on .NET, which doesn’t thrill me, but the application seemed well designed and quick. Of more concern is the cost. The $299/month pricetag touted on their homepage is only for the smallest network of 100 users and does not include the upfront startup fee of $7450/network. Pricing for just 5000 users jumps to around $2400/month. These costs quite easily push them beyond most B2B websites. If you’re just venturing into social networking, have a small website, or are unsure of the ROI, I’d recommend trying a free service such as Ning to start with - look to upgrade if the community works out.

I’ll be continuing my evaluation of social networking companies with Community Server, Prospero, Small World Labs, and Pluck.