Business Pages

    • 6 posts
    October 20, 2018 12:59 AM EDT

    What is the best way to let members create business pages? A custom profile is a good start. But it still has a friend option on it. People don't want a business to read their private profile info and posts. A business page needs a like and follow button rather than a friend button. Is there a good plugin for this or what's the best way to achieve this short of writing our own plugin? I am completely new to SocialEngine. 

    • Moderator
    • 6923 posts
    October 20, 2018 4:29 AM EDT

    Hi Gary! Welcome aboard. 

    On my author site, we use Groups to make our author pages. Perhaps you can use Groups for that.

  • gs
    • 857 posts
    October 20, 2018 3:43 PM EDT

    Below are two excellent Plugins by 2 different 3PDs that offer what you're requesting plus a whole lot more.  Both 3PDs also offer Page and Group Plugins with similar functionality.  For ex, on my site I use Groups/Community for groups and communities, a Business Plugin for Causes and Campaigns ('business' can be renamed to whatever you need, such as Causes in my case), and Page Plugin for businesses and entities (similar to FB 'pages').  I'm not sure if the below are Certified, but are excellent products by excellent 3PDs nevertheless.

     

    https://www.socialenginesolutions.com/social-engine/business-directories-plugin/

    https://www.socialengineaddons.com/socialengine-directory-businesses-plugin

    • 6 posts
    October 20, 2018 11:35 PM EDT

    Thank you gs. Those are good leads, and your endorsement helps.

  • gs
    • 857 posts
    October 21, 2018 12:21 PM EDT

    You're quite welcome.

     

    I believe both 3PDs offer demos of the linked products, so you may wish to go to their respective websites and check them out.  If there's anything else specific (i.e. requirements/expectations), feel free to ask me here or (preferably) PM me, and/or contact SES/SEAO directly. 

    • 6 posts
    October 21, 2018 12:42 PM EDT

    Just bought Social Engine Addon's business pages package for $299. I'm excited to install and play with it.

     


    This post was edited by Gary B at October 21, 2018 1:28 PM EDT
    • 6 posts
    October 21, 2018 10:15 PM EDT

    SocialEngineAddOns Bad Experience
    Well SocialEngineAddOns "Directory / Business" plugin was a bust and a waste of 10 hours. An install process that created eight steps per module, and there were 18 modules! Bugs everywhere. Poorly written instructions on both front end and back end. Can't find an activity feed of any use. Businesses can't seem to comment or post as businesses. Only their employees can post for them using their personal profiles. I am glad I purchased their $300 business package before I sprang for their $1K store option. Too bad. I really wanted it to work.

    SocialEngine Solutions Looks Wrong for Business Pages
    After my horrible experience with SocialEngineAddOns, I suspect that SocialEngine Solutions business directory is a bad option for serious business pages, too. It puts the name of the person building the page front and center with the business page. As the owner of a marketing agency that helps businesses with Facebook every day, I can tell you that businesses will refuse this outright. If the intention is just creating a directory, maybe. But if the intention is to give the business a place to post announcements and engage with customers as a business, then no.

    Business Pages Shouldn't Be Based Off SocialEngine Groups
    The problem with both of these is it looks like they are based off the main groups apps. That's a bad starting point. Developers should be basing their business pages apps off of profiles. Starting with profiles would give automatic access to all other apps (groups, posts, events, polls, vanity urls, etc.) You wouldn't have to create a new extension for every function. The main thing you would have to do is make a button labeled "Follow" and use it to engage the core code's one-way friend protocols. 



    This post was edited by Gary B at October 21, 2018 11:11 PM EDT
    • 348 posts
    October 22, 2018 1:40 AM EDT
    Gary B said:

    SocialEngineAddOns Bad Experience
    Well SocialEngineAddOns "Directory / Business" plugin was a bust and a waste of 10 hours. An install process that created eight steps per module, and there were 18 modules! Bugs everywhere. Poorly written instructions on both front end and back end. Can't find an activity feed of any use. Businesses can't seem to comment or post as businesses. Only their employees can post for them using their personal profiles. I am glad I purchased their $300 business package before I sprang for their $1K store option. Too bad. I really wanted it to work. 


    Hi Gary,

    Businesses can't seem to comment or post as businesses >>

    This feature is dependent on our Advanced Activity Feeds/Wall Plugin and Advanced Comments Plugin which are in the process of getting certified and will be available on SocialEngine marketplace very soon.

    An install process that created eight steps per module, and there were 18 modules! >>

    We have introduced an alternate solution for quick installation and activation of the plugin. For more explanation, we will update you in the email thread where you have contacted us.

    Best Regards,

    Team SocialEngineAddOns

    • Moderator
    • 6923 posts
    October 22, 2018 4:53 AM EDT

    Just to chime in again as I am still on data due to the hurricane damage so I wasn't on much this weekend. Please be aware that plugins not in the certified marketplace can contain source code edits and database edits. We recommend checking there first as we've tested all of those. 

    For plugins purchased elsewhere, it's not easy to remove them if you don't like them so I hope you installed them on a development site. Otherwise you'll need the experts to remove them if you don't want them.

  • October 23, 2018 2:16 AM EDT
    Gary B said:


    SocialEngine Solutions Looks Wrong for Business Pages
    After my horrible experience with SocialEngineAddOns, I suspect that SocialEngine Solutions business directory is a bad option for serious business pages, too. It puts the name of the person building the page front and center with the business page. As the owner of a marketing agency that helps businesses with Facebook every day, I can tell you that businesses will refuse this outright. If the intention is just creating a directory, maybe. But if the intention is to give the business a place to post announcements and engage with customers as a business, then no.


    @Gary: There is a setting in admin panel to Hide the identity which you can easily configure from Global Settings as per your requirement. If you want an admin demo, you can let us know. Also, if you want to try the plugin on a staging server, then also please let us know and we can provide you a staging at our end and provide you admin access for the same to test our plugins.

    Our plugin even have a Page Roles, Post Attribution setting which is like Facebook wherein users can choose to comment and post as their Businesses. This works in our native iOS & Android Mobile apps also.

    You can contact us at support@socialenginesolutions.com for demo.

    Regards

    Team SES (SocialEngineSolutions)


    This post was edited by SocialNetworking Solutions at October 23, 2018 2:17 AM EDT