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Industry map

Social Software Landscape

Here’s a recent presentation David Teten made which highlights some of the most commonly used tools for accelerating your sales with technology.

The Virtual Handshake: How to Originate Deals, Win Clients and Raise Capital using Web 2.0 Technologies

When we originally published our book, we viewed social software companies as falling into five large buckets. We have listed a few representative companies in each bucket below. Please note that the lines between categories are fuzzy. Many of these companies could fit comfortably into a different box than the one in which we placed them.

Primary Customers

The Public

Enterprise

General Purpose

 Realtime communications– chat, IM, VoIP, web conferencing, SMS. AOL IM, eBuddy, ICQ, IRC, Meebo, MSN Messenger, Skype, Twitter, Yahoo! Messenger

 

Virtual communities / social network services. Alumni.net, AOL, Classmates, Craigslist, ezboard, FriendsReunited, Grouply, MSN Groups, MSN Spaces, Ning, Yahoo! Groups

Identity management. FreshAddress, Return Path, Ziggs

Identity protection. Cardcops, Debix, LifeLock, ReputationDefender, TrustedID

Blog readers. Google Reader

Face-to-face meeting facilitation sites. Evite, Meetup

Blog software. Blogger, Six Apart, Radio Userland, WordPress

Tagging/Bookmarking. delicious

 Virtual community builders. Affinity Engines, Groupee, iModules Software, Invision Power Services, Lithium, SelectMinds, vBulletin, Web Crossing

Virtual community builders focused on conferences. IntroNetworks, Pathable

Biography analysis. D&B, Hoovers, Implu, InsideView, Jigsaw, InfoUSA, Netprospex, Pipl, OneSource, iProfile, Spock, Spoke, Tracked, ZillionResumes, ZoomInfo

Executive appointment tracking.CTOs on the Move, DiscoverOrg, RainKing, Salesquest

Org Chart analysis. CogMap, Forbes Org Chart, TheOfficialBoard

Public social network mapping. Boardex, Capital IQ, LinkSV, Westlaw Peoplemap

Contact data management/CRM. Aptium, Best Software (Act), Frontrange (Goldmine), Salesforce.com, SugarCRM

Blog analysis/publishing tools. FeedBlitz, FeedBurner, Pheedo

Primarily Business Use

 Virtual communities / social network services. LinkedIn, Xing

Contact data synchronization. Plaxo, Spoke

Social network grooming. Socialminder

 Relationship capital management (enterprise-focused). BranchIt, Contact Network, Interface Software, Jigsaw, Leverage Software, Spoke SoftwareWorkflow. Basecamp, Groove, IBM Lotus Notes, iCohere, SilkRoad

Online Marketing Intelligence. BuzzLogic, Nielsen Buzzmetrics, TNS Media Intelligence/Cymfony, Brandimensions

Blogs. SixApart, Traction Software

Wikis. Atlassian, Google Sites, SocialText

Social network analysis/knowledge management. Autonomy

Competitive analysis. SpyFu

Job referral networks. Accolo, H3.com

Expert network research. DeMatteo Monness, Gerson Lehrman Group, Evalueserve Circle of Experts, Coleman Research Group, Guidepoint Global

Sales training. Miller Heiman

Sales support/lead gen/appointment setting. Vorsight, Evalueserve, SalesSupport360, GrowItSmart, CallBoxInc

Recruiting candidate support. eCyberGurus

Primarily Personal Use

 Blog publishing networks. b5 Media, Gawker Media, Shiny Media, Weblogs, Inc.Virtual communities / social network services. aSmallWorld, Bebo, Facebook, Friendster, hi5, Multiply, Myspace, Orkut,

Mobile social software. Plazes, WaveMarket

Photo-sharing sites. Flickr, Fotolog.net, WebShots

Dating sites. eHarmony, lavalife, Match.com, PerfectMatch, Spark Networks, TRUE, Yahoo! Personals

This table is very loosely based on earlier taxonomies by Geoff Hyatt, CEO, Contact Network Corp, and Stowe Boyd.

Following are some buyer’s guide for families of software referenced above:
Lead management software
Social networking software
Recruiting software
Online CRM software / Financial CRM software
Wiki software
Sales force automation software

Some other lists of social network sites:
Prelovac
theconversationprism
Social networking websites
List of social software
Traffikd
insidecrm