On Portal networks are owned and controlled by the brand. For instance, www.newsroom.firstdirect.com and community.manutd.com. Advantages of On Portal networks are that the brand can choose their moderation options; implement as much governance as they wish and have full flexibility over all aspects, from user interface design through the data management – i.e. they are fully customisable. In other words, the brand has full control over their community offering.
Off Portal networks are hosted by a third parties, such as Facebook or Twitter. The major advantages of a brand moving into a third party environment is the size of the user base. Facebook boast 600 million regular users. Grabbing even a tiny percentage of these users’ attention, or persuading them over to your Off Portal solution can generate a lot of traffic.
Linking On Portal and Off Portal solutions are APIs. Many brands think of using a Facebook API for Facebook Connect or a ‘Like’ button. However we think of APIs as two way – such as creating a Facebook App that connects to your Off Portal solution.
Finally, another major advantage of an Off Portal solution was raised by one of our customers recently – they block all the major social networks on their corporate firewall. So there’s no point them creating a Facebook page which can’t be updated while their staff are at work. Unless of course, they realise that their staff still connect on their smartphones – that’s another story altogether.
Photo courtesy of Beck Tench on Flickr.
