Befriend a brand on Webjam

Written on 10th September 2008                                                                                                              1 COMMENT
Ernst-Jan Pfauth, editor in chief

So far, London-based Webjam has resisted the temptation of going after the Facebook-kinda audience and remained the focus on B2B. I wrote about this start-up in July, when they closed a €1.9 million round of funding. The BBC once called the iWeb-like community builder “better than Facebook”, and this could have distracted them from their real objective: mobilizing the crowd for companies and organizations. They’ve now released a product that brings this goal closer, called Branded Services.

Brand managers can use the tools and structure of Webjam to give people an opportunity to “befriend” their brand. Sort of like a Facebook company profile, but then with more control for the brand manager. If you look at the page of The Other Side Magazine, only the top bar gives away that we’re dealing with a Webjam page.

Although larger companies won’t feel the need to join Webjam, simply because they have their own outlets, smaller companies might be interested in creating a Webjam-based community. Instead of hiring a developer and designer, The Other Side Magazine only had to subscribe to Webjam’s services and
now their members can write their own blog posts, comment on almost every piece of content, maintain their own profile, publish their own “art”, and have discussions in the forums.

So while many social networks are struggling with their advertisement-based business models, Webjam will happily sell licenses to mid-size companies.

bbc, Brand, facebook, london, Other Side Magazine, social network, united kingdom, webjam

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DIY social network service Webjam raises €1.9 million

Written on 15th July 2008                                                                                                              5 COMMENTS
Ernst-Jan Pfauth, editor in chief

Webjam, a London-based B2B interpretation of Ning, has raised €1.9 million dollar in series A, led by I-Source. The start-up offers companies a simple – iWeb-like – way to build a social network. Although the BBC once wrote about them as “particularly useful for those who want to create a webpage for a society, club or hobby but don’t know how to do it”, I’d recommend that these entrepreneurs focus on businesses. Since the D.I.Y social network market for fraternities and clubs seems saturated with players like Ning and newcomer Neeetz (review here).

Go for the companies

The British, Spanish and French founders (see picture) seem to realize this, as they call their market B2B2C – yet with the BBC calling them better than Facebook, Webjam seems to be tempted to try to conquer this market as well. Don’t do it guys, just offer ready-to-go social network packages to companies. The product is good enough, with the well-functioning drag ‘n drop interface and the clean look. And the result looks ok, as you can tell by this Webjam-powered site. Go get the cash Webjam, then think about threatening Facebook.

b2b, b2b2c, DIY, funding, ning, social networks, webjam

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