The Easy Way to Create a Customized Social Network for Your Business BuddyBoss gives you powerful tools to create online communities around your brand.
By Entrepreneur Deals Edited by Jason Fell
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No matter what kind of business you run, adding social networking features to your online presence can be a great way to connect with people and build your brand. The only question is, what's the best way to do that? In the past, you'd either have to hire a developer to build a social networking site from scratch, which was not cost effective for most smaller businesses, or you'd have to use a discount cookie-cutter platform, which typically yielded inferior results.
Fortunately, it's now easy and affordable to add sleek and effective social media features to your website thanks to BuddyBoss.
What is BuddyBoss?
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BuddyBoss is a comprehensive set of tools that make it easy for you to build on WordPress, the world's most popular open source content management system. With BuddyBoss, you can easily turn your website into a fully functional social networking site, complete with user profiles, news feeds, timelines, video and image sharing, DMs, social groups, forums, member interactions, and email invitations to non-members.
In addition to all that, BuddyBoss is also fully compatible with all major WordPress plugins. These include LearnDash, a popular platform used to create online learning courses; WooCommerce, a customizable eCommerce platform; GamiPress, a gamification platform that lets you create customized games with points, badges, and achievements; and AppBoss, which lets you create custom WordPress-powered native apps.
So what does all this mean? What can you actually do with BuddyBoss? Here are just a few examples.
eCommerce
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If you run an eCommerce site, you probably give your customers the option to create a user account. With BuddyBoss you can easily add social networking features and create an entire online community under your brand. Build a custom social marketplace using BuddyBoss and the WooCommerce plugin. Create custom groups and walls for customers to talk about products and share images and videos. Create a newsfeed for customers to share positive reviews. Use built-in messaging and notifications to deliver customer service. Manage membership programs offering discounts and loyalty rewards. Promote sales and special events. Use email invitations to let customers invite friends to check out your products and services. Create a custom app to promote customer retention and repeat business. The possibilities for promoting your business are almost endless. Anything you would do to promote your business on Facebook, BuddyBuss lets you do on your own personal social network.
Employee training and networking
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Want to streamline the training and orientation of new employees? Want to make company policies and educational resources more readily accessible? Want to schedule regular online meetings to make sure everybody is up to speed on important issues? Use BuddyBoss to create a customized internal communications and education portal. Make it easy for employees to find someone to cover their shift, ask about a dress code, or take online courses on things like public health protocols and customer service.
Online education
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These days more and more businesses specialize in online training in one form or another. Whether you're a fitness instructor offering virtual workouts, a motivational speaker specializing in career coaching, or a STEM educator who runs online coding courses, BuddyBoss has all the tools you need to create captivating content, build an audience, and generate revenue-including the ability to charge for subscriptions or one-time payments. Used in conjunction with plugins like LearnDash and GamiPress, this platform allows for structured training, micro-learning, social learning, and even gamification for an engaging learning experience. And the social media features let your clients engage with each other for a richer, more well-rounded learning experience.
Niche interests
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BuddyBoss makes it easy to create social networks for groups with unique interests. Use it to create an interactive online portal for members of your church or other community organization, with videos and photos of events, online resources, discussion groups, surveys, and volunteer signups. If you run a hot rod restoration business, use it to create an online community for hot rod enthusiasts in your area. If you teach yoga, use it to create an online community for yoga enthusiasts. The possibilities are almost endless.
Simple and affordable
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One of the best things about BuddyBoss is that it's relatively easy to use. It may take you a little time, and you may have to make use of their numerous online tutorials, but it doesn't take a specialized degree to build a fully customized social network, online store, or online learning site.
Plans start at just $228 per year, and they come with everything you need to create your custom site. That includes the sleek and stylish BuddyBoss WordPress theme, the BuddyBoss Platform Pro WordPress plugin, a one-year license for one website, one year of free updates, and one year of priority customer support.
Over 50,000 businesses already use BuddyBoss as a cost-effective way to beef up their online presence and connect more with clients, customers, and employees. Why not click here to add yours to the list?
