Ning blog

Do your Facebook and Twitter sharing buttons need some company? Now, add Google’s “+1” share buttons to every piece of content on your Ning Network, with a single click. Google’s +1 buttons “let people who love your content recommend it on Google search,” and share it on your stream with the new Google+ network. Just as with Network Like and Facebook Like, you can add a Google +1 button to:

If you’ve ever watched Project Runway, The Devil Wears Prada, or have been to a Barneys sample sale, you know that for many people around the world, fashion is king. Couple this passion with the dream of getting your 15 minutes of fame, and you’ve got yourself a competition that’s sure to cause a flurry of activity and drive engagement on your Ning Network.

We’re excited to announce that we’ve worked with SoundCloud to offer a brand-new integration for our Ning Creators.

Little more than a month ago, we rolled out sweeping changes to your Ning Network’s Terms of Service. As promised, I’m happy to announce that Networks Creators can now customize the terms that apply to your network and your members.

Here’s how it works.

Every Ning Network has a simplified, two-page Terms of Service at the bottom of each page. By default, these Terms include a number of items that aren’t ever permitted on the Ning Platform. You cannot edit these items. But you can now add additional terms that suit your Network’s particular design or focus. For example, a neighborhood-based network may want to limit membership to people living within a certain area.

We are happy to announce a new feature that allows you to make corrections and other copy editing changes to member content. This has been a huge ask from many Network Creators; to effectively manage your Ning Network, you need the ability to make copy edits and corrections to content your members create. Making such changes has been a very tedious process in the past. Your only options were to either contact and ask your member to edit the content (potentially a time consuming process) or delete the content (too strict in most cases).

I’m excited to introduce Leaderboards for your Ning Network. Leaderboards are ordered rankings of the top members and content on your Network, and they’re powerful for two reasons:

• For Creators, Leaderboards make it easy to discover and promote the best of your Network.
• For members, Leaderboards spark friendly competition, establish reputation, and encourage deeper, more persistent engagement.

With today’s launch, you have the power to make use of Leaderboards in the perfect way for your Network. You can view the latest trends on your Network Dashboard, add Leaderboard pages to your top-level tabs, and even add a Leaderboard module to your Main Page. Details below!

We’re getting closer to the launch of our new pricing plans on July 20th, and I’d like to take a few minutes to provide Network Creators with several additional details about the transition process for those of you who are interested in purchasing the Ning Mini plan.

For the launch of Ning Mini, Ning Plus, and Ning Pro coming up on July 20, we’ve been revisiting every limit that’s currently in place on your Ning Network today. And for each of these limits, we’ve been asking: Does it make sense?

We’ve shared many updates on our FAQ page in the past two months, but I wanted to dive in a little deeper here and explain why we’ll be removing limits that don’t make sense anymore and introducing a few additional limits that will ultimately improve the member experience.

If you’ve been reading along, you know we’re pretty excited about the ways we’ve integrated with Twitter and Facebook. Both services provide tremendous audiences for sharing and syndicating content from your Ning Network, but we also know they aren’t the only game in town, at least when it comes to social sharing.

Today, we’re rolling out a new Ning.com design with a new Ning Network discovery feature. Here’s the new Ning homepage:

This new design strives for a clean, simple and elegant design with pops of beautiful images to represent the diverse interests and passions across the Ning Platform. You’ll see these new visual changes across Ning, including the Creators, Developer, the Ning Help Center and here on the Ning Blog. Our new logo will also replace our old logo in the Ningbar you see at the top of your Ning Network. Here’s the new Ning About page:

Growing a Ning Network by populating it with lots of members is often considered to be the Holy Grail for many Network Creators. As a result, we see Ning Networks that are so excited to grow — and grow quickly — that their invitation lists more closely resemble the population of a small country. But, as the saying goes, it’s about quality not quantity. The key to building a vibrant Ning Network is to attract people that will love to be part of it and regularly contribute. Think before you hit send; are these invitees likely to be active, engaged members? That’s why it’s important to invite the right connections and friends that share your passion. To reach them, we’re highlighting four simple ways to best share with and invite the people that can make your Ning Network stellar.

Contests are a core way to drive participation on your Ning Network and keep members coming back. For example, the folks at My Kicks on Fire ran a contest to win a free pair of Nike Air Yeezy sneakers. To enter, members were asked to help get the word out via Twitter. Friends or Enemies launched a t-shirt design competition, where the winner had their design printed and sold in the FOE merch store. To participate, members uploaded their proposed t-shirt design to the group in the comments section.