You might be using LinkedIn to stay connected with your business contacts, but there are alternatives on the Web that will help you network and enjoy some extra features while you're at it. Whether you want to hang out at some professional parties or you're more interested in sharing best practices, there are some really neat business-centric social networks on the Web you'll want to visit.
Go pro with these social networks
Focus If you're looking for answers to important business decisions, Focus is the social network for you.
After signing up for Focus, you can immediately start researching topics that have some relevance to your business. From finance to customer service, the site is filled with professionals both asking and answering questions on topics that impact business. To push its social element, Focus allows you to write a blog, connect with others in groups, or simply post comments to discussion boards. If you're looking to learn more about your industry and you want peers to help you do it, Focus is for you.
Focus will give you some insight on important business topics.
(Credit: Screenshot by Don Reisinger/CNET)Netparty If you're a young professional, networking is one of the most important elements of your career. If you don't know colleagues, you might lose a competitive advantage over others vying for the same job. That's where Netparty comes in.
Netparty's goal is to connect young professionals in a party atmosphere. The site arranges networking events for young professionals in several cities across the U.S., Canada, Europe, and even South America. It sets up parties at different places around the city you live in, charges an admission fee, and even gives you directions on getting there. From the site, you can buy tickets and get on the V.I.P. list, so you don't need to wait in line. It's a great service. More young professionals should be using it.
Netparty connects young professionals in local hot spots.
(Credit: Screenshot by Don Reisinger/CNET)
(Credit:
Dong Ngo/CNET)
Backing up data is important and should be done often. But remembering and knowing how to do it is a different story.
With this in mind, Memeo--an online digital company that offers a variety of online services such as photo sharing --has released a backup solution for business users that will help keep track of backing up data. Memeo Backup Professional 4.5 is tied to an online console, from which an admin user can remotely view the status of backups of other users. This means that once it's installed on network computers, a single admin can oversee the backup status for the whole business.
The admin user can send the remote user, via e-mail, a license to download or software to install. After that the admin can view the status and then contact the user of a particular computer if something is wrong, or to make sure that the user is backing up data regularly.
Unfortunately, for now, there's not much else the admin user can do. It would be much more helpful if he or she could initiate the backup itself or make the software send a pop-up message to remind the local user to start a backup. Memeo's representatives say that this is along the lines with what the company is working on for future releases of the software.
Other than that, Memeo Backup Professional 4.5 is a standard wizard-driven backup software that offers a variety of backup options, including backing up to an FTP server and to Memeo online storage. Backup to an FTP site offers an option for you to make a personal "online" backup. It also allows for differential backups and backups to local/network folders or removable drives.
Memeo Backup Professional 4.5 works with all versions of Windows 32-bit and 64-bit and is available now for $76 per license, which is rather expensive considering the limited functionality of the online console. However as this online console feature is rather unique and if you are an existing customer of Memeo's online backup service, this software will make a good addition.
If you just want good backup software, I would strongly recommend GFI Backup Home Edition, which, apart from the online console and the tie to Memeo online storage, offers the same options and more, including the ability to back up to an FTP site. Best of all, it is yours for free.
Reminder service ReQall is launching a new "professional" service aimed at business users. The service, which costs $2.99 a month, or $24.99 a year, lets users integrate their ReQall tasks and reminders with both Outlook and Google Calendar. It also organizes and groups together tasks and items by location, and has a new memory jogger tool that guesses which of your tasks will be forgotten and gives you an extra reminder.
Of all of the features, the calendar integration is likely to be the most alluring. It lets you use multiple devices to manage upcoming tasks. It also makes it easier to use additional third-party scheduling services without having to worry about having to re-enter the data in ReQall.
The memory jogger is also a great idea, although could be hit or miss depending on how good you are at keeping to your schedule. Proper planning on your part can help avoid missing a deadline or forgetting to do something, although a good nag at the right time is what the service is all about. For now the tool employs SMS messages, e-mails, and instant messages to send these alerts, however only pro users get access to SMS. Apple iPhone users can expect to see a move to free alerts once Apple releases firmware 3.0, which has free push notifications for applications baked-in.
Another feature included in the pro service is e-mail integration that lets you create reminders by sending an e-mail to a private ReQuall address. It pulls time and date information from the context and lets you click on it to jump to that person's contact information or map location (kind of like the iPhone does). It also pulls out names, phone numbers, and addresses from ReQall items based on the contact list on your phone, which is now accessible through the app.
Not to be left out, free ReQall users are also getting some new goodies like a new contact management interface, and the capability to make recurring events then share them with contacts who are not ReQall users.
Previously: ReQall 2.0: Now somewhat smarter
Last week Web-hosted documents service Issuu launched a brand-new service for business users who want to host document files without Issuu's branding or advertising. Users who subscribe to this model can be billed by the page view, all the way up to a million views a month, with a special viewer that can be both integrated and branded to match the site.
Additionally, pro subscribers get document SEO, reader analytics, and a bulk uploader to send up files in large batches. Of the three, SEO is likely to be the most attractive since documents that have been posted can bring readers back to other pages or get indexed into a site's search tool.
Still missing is a way to embed rich media elements in the docs, which despite running in Adobe Flash, cannot run Flash movie or music players. However, according to the pro service FAQ, this feature is coming.
Issuu is offering anyone the option to use the pro service free of charge until January 1, 2009. After that, you'll have to pick one of the six plans which range in price per page view from $19 to $1,140 a month.
Previously: Issuu is like Scribd's hotter cousin
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