ANTenna Blog -- Apple

There are oodles of social networking sites. I'm partial to Facebook and LinkedIn, but there's MySpace and countless others. Why pay attention to another one, ONEsite? Because this is one that your company can build for itself, and use to build brand loyalty and create marketing opportunities.

ONEsite is the software behind oodles of specialized social networks, like those from World of Good, a community site for eBay, or WWE Fan Nation, for lovers of World Wrestling Entertainment (it used to be called the World Wrestling Federation).

What makes ONEsite noteworthy in to us here is that the company has released a custom client for iPhones (and iPod touch) called eNotify.

"eNotify extends the social network community platform beyond the computer by enabling users to follow the latest developments on their mobile device," says Thad Martin, a VP at ONEsite. "It goes beyond traditional syndication tools like RSS by providing users a mechanism to interact with the content they receive — by immediately posting a response or forwarding it to others, for example — just like they would from their web browser."

In other words, if you create a custom social network for your business, you can have mobile tools for it right of the box. What's more, you can capitalize on your social networking fans, says the company:

"Using GPS mapping technology, retailers and brand marketers can use eNotify to alert subscribers to new product launches, special promotions and events, limited time offers, and other timely or geographically targeted messages. Brand marketers or retailers can notify subscribers within a 5-mile radius of a limited-time discount, for example, and map the store locations where the promotion is taking place to make it easy for subscribers to take advantage of the offer."

Try doing THAT with a Facebook page... I don't think so.