[JoePistell]

I want to create a fun and social site for each of my stores. Staff pages, employee of the month, store manager promos, testimonials, charity & fund raising, etc AND do it on an external site to create SEO food for the home site. (you must feed the beast to make it happy!)

It's much like Mitch Gallant's thread Your Own Internal Social Network! except is not for internal use.

Just beginning my research. I am aimed at Ning so far. Need flexibility to get the look and feel as close as I can. I've been admiring Squarespace's evolution. Examples - Squarespace

Any ideas, examples appreciated.

thnx!

[Jeff Kershner]

I was messing around on Squaresoft about a year ago..maybe a little longer. This was when they had a free level. I was not digging it to be honest. Not intuitive at all...I'm sure they have made a lot of changes since then. Seems like some big players using the system.

Another one you might want to look at is Kickapps.

Give SocialGO - Social Network Maker a once over as well.

Not sure if this would accomplish what you are looking for and I believe someone over on the other thread you mentioned up there brought up WordPress MU but left out the BuddyPress.org – WordPress Social Network Software piece that I think you would need to accomplish the "social" aspect of MU. Apparently Volkswagen is using this for their VW TDI Tank Wars. I think the whole site is on WP MU. It's stellar!!

I have heard a few good things about Elgg as well. Full open source Social Network platform.

And lets not forget...the very platform you are reading this on. Well not exactly BUT the newly released vbulletin 4.0 has a ton of new tools and features while making vbulletin more "social". vBulletin-The Most Powerful Forum Software Available.

[Alex Snyder]

My all-time favorite social media conglomerate site is Ford's: The Ford Story: See where we are. Be a part of where we’re going.

Joe - I have a feeling you're going to hear a bit about some new solutions for managing something like this at NADA.

[ghen]

To build the actual website you could use Joomla (What is Joomla?) Its free and easy to manage once it gets installed and setup.

[Jarrett]

Another source of good info is RapLeaf.com. This is for the dealer who is really interested in granular social information about existing customer base.