• E-mail
• Print
• Comment
• Font Size
• Digg
• del.icio.us
• Discuss article

Gather.Com Launches Free Social Networking Solution for Groups, Organizations and Clubs

Posted on: Tuesday, 21 March 2006, 09:00 CST

Gather.com(TM), the place to find and share the best user-created content online, today announced the launch of Gather Groups(SM), a free social networking solution for groups, organizations and clubs. This free service helps groups set up their own unique branded community on Gather to grow virally while increasing participation and affinity. Gather Groups connects members to one another through interactive, multi-directional communication that extends beyond the one-way communication inherent with today's Internet.

A common objective for all types of groups - non-profits, corporate organizations and others - is to increase member participation to increase loyalty and contribution. More often than not, however, driving participation has been left to the group manager and remains an enormous undertaking. Gather Groups provides these organizations with the platform and capability to allow group members to interact and communicate around shared interests in an environment that cultivates activity. Instead of one-way communication from the group to its members, Gather Groups enables members to interact with one another through compelling, member-created content such as articles, photographs, profiles and messaging, strengthening the overall community.

"Today, organizations lose the interest of their membership as soon as the meeting ends," explains Tom Gerace, Gather.com Founder and CEO (tom.gather.com). "With Gather Groups members are constantly connected, which increases and maintains group affinity and activity."

Anyone can start a group on Gather.com and each group has its own unique URL. The group owner determines who can post, who can moderate, and what specific permissions members have (e.g., posting articles and images, inviting members, moderating content and members, etc.). Members of the Gather.com community can easily search for and find a group through keywords, tags or the group's homepage. While other websites like Google, MSN and Yahoo! isolate groups, Gather.com integrates groups within its site. Integration enables communities, large and small, to find and grow an audience, thus driving membership and strengthening affinity.

"Gather Groups has enabled us to bring those involved with our organization together in a way we had previously been unable to achieve," states Cynthia Close, Executive Director of Documentary Educational Resources (http://documentaryfilm.gather.com). "We've created a high energy environment around a shared passion which has only fostered further membership participation. Being part of the overall Gather community has helped draw attention to our documentaries and brings our members new perspectives, ideas and experiences."

For more information on Gather Groups go to http://www.gather.com/viewGroups.jsp

About Gather.com

Gather.com (www.gather.com) is the place to find and share the best user-created content online. Gather.com members are rewarded for their participation with Gather Points(TM), or even cash for top contributors. Gather.com is led by an all-star team of industry veterans with extensive experience in building highly successful, Internet-based companies and creating relevant content. The Gather.com site was named the winner of the Media/Portal category in the Massachusetts Innovation & Technology Exchange (MITX), 2005 annual awards - the largest awards competition in the country that recognizes achievements in the development and implementation of interactive technologies. Gather.com is a privately held, privately funded company headquartered in Boston, Massachusetts. For more information, visit www.gather.com or call (617) 720-4000, x1032.

Gather, Gather.com, and Gather Points are trademarks of Gather Inc.

Source: Business Wire

More News in this Category