Posted by Joshua Paul on Thu, May 17, 2012 @ 10:23 AM
As a leading provider of private social networking software to companies and membership organizations, Socious will be showcasing its online community platform during the ASAE Marketing, Membership, and Communications Conference at the Washington Convention Center in Washington D.C. on May 23rd and 24th.
Associations that use Socious online community software average over 35% higher participation in their private member communities than organizations using other private social networking systems. Socious executives will be discussing the tools and features that they help associations utilize to achieve these standout results. Socious representatives will also be available for one-on-one consultations.
“Along with investing heavily in making the best online community software for associations, we are committed to providing guidance and education to the association community. The Marketing, Membership, and Communications Conference has always been a great forum to provide advice to association executives,” said Paul Schneider, Socious co-founder and senior vice president.
In 2011 Socious launched the largest online community for member engagement professionals to spread best practices, find support, and share ideas. Building upon the success of its Member Engagement LinkedIn Group, Socious is organizing the first-ever networking event for member engagement professionals on the eve of the conference, Tuesday, May 22nd.
Learn more about how to set up a free online community consultation or the member engagement networking happy hour at Socious.com.
About Socious
Founded in 2002, Socious (socious.com) offers the industry’s most complete online community software to large and mid-sized businesses, associations, and user groups. The Socious platform includes private social networking, customer communication tools, advanced segmentation, forums, collaboration tools, and a full mobile platform to help organizations increase sales, retention, and member engagement. Take an online tour of Socious online community software.
For social business insight, member engagement tips, and information about online community tools, subscribe to the Online Community Blog at
blog.socious.com.
Posted by Joshua Paul on Tue, May 08, 2012 @ 04:46 AM
Myth #1: Successful online community managers have special natural talents.
Myth #2: You can launch a private or branded online community and hope that the members with run it.
Myth #3: Community managers are just online extroverts that can’t influence bottom-line business goals.
The truth is that successful online community managers are not born that way. They are hardworking business professionals who know how to read an audience, engage them, and evaluate the results with the intention of supporting specific business goals.
Online communities for customers, employees, or members cannot survive on “hope.” One of the primary skills needed in both beginner and advanced community management is the ability to analyze and act on online community data to grow and manage the community.
Online community managers, and those aspiring to become online community managers, should not miss Socious’ upcoming webinar:
Data-Driven Online Community Management
The virtual event features Richard Millington of the online community consultancy, FeverBee. Richard is the author of the Online Community Manifesto, arguing for a change in our approach to building communities. Richard's blog, FeverBee, is ranked amongst the top 10 UK marketing blogs and is widely cited as best practice in helping organizations around the world improve their community efforts.
Date: Thursday, May 10, 2012
Time: 1:00pm ET (US)
Length: 60 minutes
How to Register
In this webinar, you will learn:
- How to use data to optimize your online customer or member community
- The 8 elements of community management
- How to avoid missed opportunities by not using your data effectively
- Practical examples of data-driven online community management
- How to analyze your online community’s membership for better engagement
Don't miss this social business discussion to understand how to use online community data to unlock growth and customer satisfaction.
REGISTER FOR THE WEBINAR TODAY >>> Data-Driven Online Community Management
For social business insight, member engagement tips, and information about online community tools, subscribe to the Online Community Blog at
blog.socious.com.
Posted by Joshua Paul on Wed, Apr 18, 2012 @ 10:31 AM
Socious Hosts First Member Engagement Networking Event
We are pleased to announce that Socious is organizing a first-of-its-kind meet up for membership, marketing, and event professionals in the non-profit and corporate spaces.
Since launching the largest community of member engagement professionals online, there has been a consistent call for offline networking events. This happy hour-style event will be an opportunity for people, who are working to keep members of their community engaged, to share ideas and connect in-person.
Member Engagement Networking Happy Hour Details
The happy hour will be held at the beginning of the ASAE Marketing, Membership, and Communications Conference in May.
When: Tuesday, May 22, 2012 at 6pm
Where: Lobby Bar
Renaissance Washington Downtown
999 Ninth Street NW, Washington, DC 20001
Who: Members of the free Member Engagement LinkedIn Group and anyone else interested in keeping members engaged
Cost: There is no cost to attend. This networking event will be run in a communal fashion - we organize it, but ask that everyone foot their own food & drink bill.
Add it your calendar and share this announcement using the social sharing buttons above.
Please post questions in the comments below, reach out through the Member Engagement Group, or contact Socious directly.
For social business insight, member engagement tips, and information about online community tools, subscribe to the Online Community Blog at
blog.socious.com.
Posted by Joshua Paul on Wed, Apr 11, 2012 @ 09:35 AM
We are often told by associations and companies that see our online community software that it has more features and ways to keep customers or members engaged than any platform on the market. One of the challenges of being in that position is explaining our product in a clear and concise manner.
To help organizations better understand how they can mix and match the tools inside their online customer or member community, Socious has launched a free product feature tour on Socious.com.
Take the Socious Online Community Software Tour
Companies and membership organizations that are researching their best options for engaging prospects, retaining customers, and generating revenue can click through this easy-to-follow tour to get a big picture view of all of the ways that Socious software can help them.
We are eager to get your feedback. Please check out the Socious social networking software feature tour. Let us know what you think and share ideas on how Socious can explain its platform more clearly.
For social business insight, member engagement tips, and information about online community tools, subscribe to the Online Community Blog at
blog.socious.com.
Posted by Joshua Paul on Wed, Mar 28, 2012 @ 06:35 AM
Leading provider of private social networks and membership software celebrates a decade of helping businesses, associations, and user groups.
Socious, a pioneer in bringing social software to businesses and membership organizations, reached 10 years of age this month. Well before Facebook, LinkedIn, and newer social business software providers were on the map, Socious provided online communities to user groups, businesses, and associations.
“The demand for web-based community solutions is very different from when we launched our product. We founded Socious to give customers and members access to one another so that they could tap into each other’s experience and knowledge. Now, we provide the collaboration, event, mobile, and membership management platform for some of the world’s largest companies and membership organizations.” said Socious President and Co-Founder, Scott Balthazor.
Over 10 years, Socious software has been at the center of marketing, customer retention, and member engagement strategies at industry leading companies and nonprofit organizations. Earlier this year, Socious reported 10 years of consecutive growth.
To highlight the impact Socious has had in keeping customers and members engaged, consider the following data points.
- Over the past 10 years, customers, members, and employees using Socious software have posted over 1 million discussion forum messages in their organizations’ online communities.
- The Socious platform sends over 4.5 million electronic communications to customers or members each month for companies and membership organizations.
- Socious software currently helps organizations manage over 370,000 customers and members each month.
“When we first introduced online community software to companies and membership organizations in 2002, collaboration and engagement were backburner issues. Today, developing customer communities is a strategic imperative for most organizations.” said Paul Schneider, Socious Co-Founder and Senior Vice President.
As more companies and non-profit organizations add online communities to bring customers, employees, and partners together, Socious’ management team and product roadmap position the company well to have an even larger impact on the social business landscape over the next 10 years.
About Socious
Founded in 2002, Socious (socious.com) offers the industry’s most complete online community software to large and mid-sized businesses, associations, and user groups. The Socious platform includes private social networking, customer communication tools, advanced segmentation, forums, collaboration tools, and a full mobile platform to help organizations increase sales, retention, and member engagement. Take an online tour of Socious online community software.
For social business insight, member engagement tips, and information about online community tools, subscribe to the Online Community Blog at
blog.socious.com.
Posted by Julie Secor on Wed, Feb 22, 2012 @ 01:58 PM
Socious Brings Back its Popular Boot Camp Series for Customers
Socious Boot Camp is a series of one hour classes for customers presented over several weeks. It is intended to help new community managers and administrators fully understand the power of the Socious social networking, membership, and event management tools. The classes are also an opportunity for current administrators to receive additional training on specific aspect of the system. Use this series to learn the fundamentals of the tools that your members use every day – and make both yourself and your organization more effective!
Socious Boot Camp Series
The Socious Boot Camp series consists of ten webinar classes presented over ten weeks. This is our original Boot Camp series and will provide you with a complete education on Socious online community and membership management tools. These one hour trainings are popular, insightful, and easy to follow!
Mark Your Calendar: Socious Boot Camp Series starts March 15, 2012.
Event Boot Camp Series
The Event Boot Camp series consists of four one hour online seminars presented over a four week period and will educate you on the full Socious events management system. Learn the fundamentals of the events tools, including setting up an event with a payment account and scheduling session submissions.
Mark Your Calendar: Event Boot Camp Series starts July 12, 2012.
How to Register
To register and get more information on the Socious Boot Camp Series, please visit the Socious Boot Camp page in the Socious customer support community.
If you are not a Socious customer and would like to learn more about Socious online community software, please request a conversation with an online community specialist.
For social business insight, member engagement tips, and information about online community tools, subscribe to the Online Community Blog at
blog.socious.com.
Posted by Paul Schneider on Fri, Feb 10, 2012 @ 09:03 AM
We’re pleased to announce the launch of the 2012 State of Online Communities in Associations survey. This report will help association executives and staffs create more effective online communities to engage members and generate revenue.
Take the Survey Now >>>
The purpose of the State of Online Communities in Associations study is to move beyond the hype and promise of social media, and focus on the business strategies that associations must employ to remain visible, relevant, and financially viable.
A well-respected industry report from association consulting firm, Marketing General, recently reported that the average association has 8.7% member participation in their private social networks. However, some associations see 70-80% member engagement in their online communities. This survey and subsequent report will crystalize the steps that membership organizations should consider when building a strong foundation for successful online communities.
“As a leading provider of online community software to associations, we were seeing inconsistencies in the market. The associations we speak with want to know why our customers average 45% member engagement in their online communities, while the industry average is around 9%,” said Joshua Paul, Director of Strategy at Socious.
The survey is open to all current association executives and staff. Follow this link to participate in the 2012 State of Online Communities in Associations survey. Please share this link with friends via email and social networks. The more feedback that is received, the more valuable the data in the report will be.
Take the Survey Now >>>
For social business insight, member engagement tips, and information about online community tools, subscribe to the Online Community Blog at
blog.socious.com.
Posted by Joshua Paul on Wed, Feb 01, 2012 @ 08:55 AM
Arizona-based social software provider significantly grows customer base, increases headcount by 40%, and expands cloud-based online community products in 2011.
FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE:
Mesa, Arizona - February 1, 2012 – Socious, a leading provider of online community software to businesses and membership organizations, closed out its most successful year in the company’s history – increasing year-over-year revenue by 25% for the second year in a row and almost doubling the number of new customers that Socious brought onboard 2010. The announcement completes 6 years of sustained profitability for the enterprise social software maker, despite uncertain economic conditions during that period.
“We are thrilled by our strong growth. As we continue to expand, our focus remains on our customers, partners, and product, ensuring a world-class online community platform for their customer-facing and internal initiatives,” said Socious President, Scott Balthazor. Socious’ growth was a result of providing a mature social business platform in business-to-business and association markets where collaboration and engagement have a measurable impact on revenue and profitability.
Socious 2011 Growth Highlights:
- New Customers: More companies and membership organizations chose Socious in 2011 than any other year since the company was founded in 2002.
- Product Innovation: Socious launched a new edition of its online community software designed to help companies create online customer communities that bring customers, prospects, employees, and partners together. Socious also launched a mobile conference app to complement its mobile community app and extend the value of the event management software built into its online community platform.
- Company Growth: In 2011, Socious nearly doubled the number of employees in the company. The growth propelled Socious to lease new office space in Mesa, Arizona, outside of Phoenix.
- Channel Relationships: The world’s largest association management and professional services company chose Socious to provide the online community and membership management software platform for several of its association, corporate, and user group clients.
- Thought-Leadership: Socious produced over 100 educational articles, webinars, videos, ebooks, and whitepapers to provide companies and membership organizations with best practices and insight on implementing successful social business strategies.
“Our mission at Socious is simple – to help our customers thrive by giving them innovative, easy-to-use tools to make their customers or members more successful,” Balthazor continued. “Our dedication to our existing customers paired with guidance we provide to potential customers and our industries is reflected in the significant increase of our customer base in 2011 – which we expect to grow again in 2012.”
The demand for enterprise online community software continues to evolve. According to industry analysts, the market is expected to reach $6.4 billion by 2016. Going into its 10th year in business, Socious continues to be well-positioned to capitalize on the expanding SaaS social software market in 2012 and beyond.
About Socious
Founded in 2002, Socious (socious.com) offers the industry’s most complete online community software to large and mid-sized businesses, associations, and user groups. The Socious platform includes private social networking, customer communication tools, advanced segmentation, forums, collaboration tools, and a full mobile platform to help organizations increase sales, retention, and member engagement.
For social business insight, member engagement tips, and information about online community tools, subscribe to the Online Community Blog at
blog.socious.com.
Posted by Julie Secor on Mon, Jan 30, 2012 @ 01:04 PM
You’re so Vain, You Probably Think This URL is Just for You
Did you know that you can personalize URLs in your Socious online community? It’s true, instead of sending your customers or members to a conference URL that looks like this:
http://training.socious.com/p/cm/ld/fid=141
You can now send them to a conference URL that looks like this:
http://training.socious.com/Conference
Marketers commonly use personalized URLs to increase click-through conversions by using words that are relevant to the target audience and through better usability (ease of use).
Socious customers can set up and manage two types personalized URLs online:
- Vanity URLs. You can set up vanity URLs for any page WITHIN your Socious hosted community. A vanity URL allows you to enter a custom name at the end of the website URL that takes you to a specific page. For instance, we added a vanity URL for the blog post on this topic in the Socious support community (http://support.socious.com/personalizedurl). It takes Socious customers directly this page. The most common uses of a vanity URL are your marketing landing pages and conference pages.
- Redirect URLs. You can set up redirect URLs for any links OUTSIDE your Socious hosted community. A redirect URL will simply redirect the member to the external link that you set up. For example, if you are using a third-party tool for your speaker submissions, you can create a redirect URL to link members to the external website.
For more information about new online community features available to businesses, associations, and user groups, Socious customers can login the Socious customer support community.
For social business insight, member engagement tips, and information about online community tools, subscribe to the Online Community Blog at
blog.socious.com.
Posted by Joshua Paul on Tue, Jan 24, 2012 @ 05:15 AM
Leading online community software company announces major upgrade to its social networking platform for businesses, associations, and user groups.
FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE:
Mesa, Arizona - January 24, 2012 – Socious, cloud-based online community provider, launched a major update to its social software platform for businesses and membership organizations. The update includes over 70 product enhancements in 15 distinct areas of the platform including the revenue generation tools, Socious engagement engine, and community mobile app.
Socious President, Scott Balthazor, said, “As more people go online for support and advice, the more central online communities are becoming for companies and associations. Our focus is on helping our customers keep members engaged and create revenue models around their online communities.” Socious released several new features to increase customer collaboration, member engagement, and revenue generation, including:
eCommerce - An online store integrated into the online community to enable organizations to sell and deliver physical goods, virtual products (i.e. online tools, documents, or webinars), and access to the community for virtual memberships.
Gamification - Flexible online engagement tools baked into the entire online community feature-set allow organizations to use awards, profile badges, leader boards, and contests to encourage both short-term goals and longer member engagement.
Social Networking - Members of the community can more easily network and connect with other customers or partners. Members can follow the activity streams of other members or request to be part of their network for a more personal level of communication.
“While none of these features alone are new to the business or association communities, only Socious fully integrated them into the larger online community platform from the community pages to the event management system to the membership management tools,” said Socious CTO, Steve Balthazor. “We were able to look at other CRM, social networking, and association management systems then incorporate the best business processes and customer experiences from systems across multiple industries,” Balthazor continued.
Socious online community software can integrate into an organization’s CRM or association management system, as well as operate as a standalone online community and membership management system for associations, user groups, and businesses.
Paul Schneider, Senior Vice President at Socious, added, “Over the past year, Socious has partnered with companies that manage multiple large associations and user groups. In this release, we incorporated feedback from these association management companies to allow associations to manage their entire member-facing and backend membership management operations at lower cost than most association management software systems”
About Socious
Founded in 2002, Socious (socious.com) offers the industry’s most complete online community software to large and mid-sized businesses, associations, and user groups. The Socious platform includes private social networking, customer communication tools, advanced segmentation, forums, collaboration tools, and a full mobile platform to help organizations increase sales, retention, and member engagement.
For social business insight, member engagement tips, and information about online community tools, subscribe to the Online Community Blog at
blog.socious.com.