'Net Features : cms

Make Your Website More Communal with DNN Social

Michael Garrity — Tue, 19 Mar 2013 18:45:00 GMT

Today, the Web content management system (CMS) DotNetNuke (DNN) announced the release of a new social software solution to help website owners optimize customer engagement and loyalty through the use of online communities, thus combining both content and community management in a single, easy-to-use solution.

The conspicuously named DNN Social product provides businesses with the ability to create and then manage social communities on their websites with the greatest of ease. In turn, the end users get a one-stop destination for consuming content, exchanging ideas and interacting with other members of the community.

Businesses that implement DNN Social can benefit from the ability to more effectively control the customer conversation than they would on a third-party social network like Facebook or Twitter, because now it will take place on a corporate website. Plus, introducing a thriving user community into a website can reduce support costs, drive product innovation and increase sales and brand awareness.

“Online communities represent a golden opportunity for you to deepen engagement with your prospects and customers in a leveraged, cost-effective way,” said Kim Celestre, the senior analyst serving technology marketing professionals at Forrester Research.

DNN Social comes with a number of features that will help enhance digital marketing, customer support, product development and e-commerce, including gamification, data analytics (along with a user-friendly dashboard), crowd-sourcing ideation and a “Q&A” customer service environment that allows users to submit, search for and answer questions.

Time for Another Look at Joomla?

Pete Prestipino — Thu, 29 Nov 2012 19:45:00 GMT

It's not often that you'll be in the market for a new content management system, but should you, Joomla might be one to make it onto your shortlist.

The popular open source CMS this week announced that it has been downloaded more than 36 million times. To put that into perspective, that means approximately 3 percent of the Web is running on Joomla. While difficult (though not impossible) to determine if those millions downloads are actually active websites using the CMS, it does indicate that there's some serious interest in the solution which will likely continue for the foreseeable future.

Joomla 3.0, which was released in September 2012, focused on optimizing the CMS for mobile devices. As the Web becomes increasingly mobile, businesses are looking for best of breed offerings and Joomla, which has a long list of Fortune 500 users and numerous governmental organizations, can certainly fit the bill. But it's mobile readiness isn't really what motivates designers and developers to choose a CMS - it's the functionality (and Joomla has plenty of it). More than 1500 extensions have been introduced since November of 2011, which many (including myself) will further drive interest in the platform.

"It is an exciting time for Joomla given its strong position powering almost 3.0 percent of the web," said Paul Orwig, President, Open Source Matters, a non-profit created to provide organization, legal and financial support to the Joomla project. "Joomla is truly a collaborative community-driven software project developed with the feedback gathered from nearly 2.7 million Joomla forum posts, more than 587,000 Joomla forum members and data from more than 10,000 Joomla extensions. We applaud all who have been involved and helped us reach this milestone."

Content Marketing from a CMS Perspective

Administrator — Fri, 09 Nov 2012 16:30:00 GMT

If any industry vertical stands to gain from the current content marketing and content development craze, it is the providers of content management software and solutions.

Content marketing has dramatically changed the digital marketing department yet many enterprises simply aren't prepared.

Website Magazine interviewed Ian Truscott, VP of Product Marketing at SDL Content Technologies Division, on the popularity of content marketing among brands, how content helps these brands build trust with consumers, and how marketers can add some sizzle and splash to their digital content strategy.

WM: Why has content marketing become so popular among brands? Haven't digital marketers been using content to drive website traffic and conversions since the 'Net's inception?

IT: I agree, but I think as we see our use of the Internet mature as a business platform and move away from a technical, task based function, we are seeing distinct business disciplines and best practices being defined. Web Governance, Content Strategy and Content Marketing are all examples of things that people have been doing that are now coalescing into these new professions.

WM: What is it about content that helps build trust with a brand? Is there any direct evidence that content marketing results in increased revenue?

IT: That’s an interesting question after your point that “digital marketers been using content to drive website traffic and conversions since the 'Net's inception?” The answer to your question about revenue is a very firm yes – it’s just we haven’t always called in Content Marketing.

I recently read a very nicely written blog post by Theresa Regli at the Real Story Group where she suggested that content sets the scene and the expectations for the brand before people experience it. She writes very eloquently about how she had an expectation about Provence, the sights and the smells, well before she travelled there. This is the role content marketing plays in projecting who you are, and the quality of your service and products.

The fact that we are now recognizing Content Marketing as a business discipline (and have far more tools and data available) means we are also measuring our content marketing success – not just through revenue uplift or website clicks – but through brand sentiment and brand metrics that the big data of social enables us to tap into and are essential as we engage with our consumers across multiple channels.

WM: How should a brand approach content marketing? What should be the primary objective and what's the best way to measure success or failure?

IT: I am a big fan of Robert Rose who writes on the subject of Content Marketing and I strongly recommend his book. I follow his view that the primary approach is to define and then tell your distinct and differentiated story or stories. When doing this, organizations need to take an outside-in approach and put their audience at the center of that story. You then need to figure out the best way to get that story across, based on where your audience is - on a Facebook page, Twitter, your website, an email or a combination of these.

The objective and measurement metric should be no different to whatever reason you are doing any digital marketing – content marketing is not separated from that, it’s a defined tactic that is part of the overall marketing mix. One thing I would say on that though is that those metrics should be considered very carefully as they can be divisive and drive skewed behavior not in-line with the broader business objectives. If for example you measure website hits, then why not just publish a video of a cat playing the piano on your homepage? Because that’s not necessarily going to drive sales of widgets or raise brand awareness of you being a serious law firm.

WM: How does a marketer create "sizzle, flash, and the occasional splash?" in the content marketing efforts? Any best practice guidance you could share from your own or your clients experience?

IT: HA! I like that “sizzle, flash and the occasional splash” - sounds like a great title for a blog post. If I can turn your question around slightly, I think perhaps you need to ask whether your audience wants “sizzle and flash.”

In our own experience we sell Enterprise software through a B2B channel to two primary IT and marketing buyer audiences. The influencers in our market are looking for different qualities in us like dependability, trust and a level of thought leadership that results in a business partnership with us that will remain contemporary and relevant to their challenges in engaging their audience.

Therefore the primary tactic for an organization such as ours is to establish credibility. And we do this through recognition by industry analysts and trade publications; by building commercial credibility with customer case studies/references and technical credibility and by building a community that makes developing on our software becomes an aspiration. And then sharing these stories.

WM: Tell Website Magazine readers about how SDL supports brand's content marketing initiative.

IT: SDL has a range of products that touch the customer journey at various points that we describe as Global Customer Experience Management; from managing and publishing content through our SDL Tridion product, to content translation through our translations services and technology, to our FredHopper content recommendation engine, to gaining insight through social intelligence technology (SM2) and managing the whole campaign and analytics.

Social CMS in the Cloud: DotNetNuke Delivered in Azure

Administrator — Tue, 16 Oct 2012 15:15:00 GMT

DotNetNuke, a Web content management system for Microsoft .NET, recently announced an alliance with Microsoft to offer its Social CMS software through Microsoft's Windows Azure Cloud. DotNetNuke will also receive an investment from Microsoft to support engineering, sales and marketing.

By running DotNetNuke in the Azure cloud, users will be able to install and manage the software and hardware required to run the platform and will have access to the full feature set including site and document management, social collaboration, security, workflows, page and module caching, analytics and even mobile site management.

"Social experiences are ideal for cloud computing; they are consumed across many devices and browsers and they also need to scale based on fluctuations in usage," said Kim Akers, General Manager of Microsoft. "With Windows Azure developers can build social experiences that take advantage of a reliable cloud backend and a scalable way to manage and continually refine their sites. DotNetNuke's Windows Azure-based offering is designed to make it easy for organizations to build and deploy websites."

DotNetNuke began offering Windows Azure-based trials of its professional edition software worldwide, localized into five languages, earlier this year. The company today opened up registration for a beta version of its cloud offering that will be available in Q4 2012. DotNetNuke is scheduled to make the service generally available in early 2013, with service plans for mid-sized businesses and enterprises.

DotNetNuke began offering Windows Azure-based trials of its professional edition software worldwide earlier in 2012 but the company has now officially opened up registration for a beta version of the cloud offering that will be available in Q4 2012.

Toward a More Social CMS with DNN 6.2

Pete Prestipino — Wed, 30 May 2012 16:30:00 GMT

How social is your CMS? If you’re like most digital Web workers, the out-of-the-box CMS you use each and every day is likely not very social at all.

Web content management system DotNetNuke hopes to change all that with the release of DNN 6.2, a more social CMS designed for enterprises to configure and deploy social collaboration solutions and communities for their key audiences.

"Building an effective online community is a proven strategy to improve productivity and get closer to your customers,” says Shaun Walker, CTO and co-founder of DotNetNuke Corp. “Businesses now have the capabilities to deploy online social solutions much faster, that are fully integrated with their external and internal websites, without the high cost of customization associated with current enterprise offerings in the market."

The product capabilities, particularly for a content management system, are impressive. DNN 6.2 features activity feeds that power user interactions, social groups and forums to increase collaboration, social logins (Facebook, Twitter, & Google+) to drive participation, friend and follow controls to encourage social relationships, and much more including private messaging, interactive user profiles, a member directory, a social API, Sharepoint integration and several localization offerings.

"While major social media sites like Facebook are great, many businesses and organizations need their very own community and social collaboration tools directly on their own websites," says Tom McAllister, sales manager of LRS Web Solutions, a DotNetNuke partner. "We are impressed with DotNetNuke 6.2 and the enhanced integration of so many social tools. This will not only benefit us as DNN developers but also will help our customers get social sites to market quickly and affordably."

DotNetNuke 6.2 is available now and is offered in three versions: Community (free), Professional, and Enterprise Editions. Pricing starts at $2,499 for an annual Professional Edition subscription.

Related Stories on DotNetNuke from Website Magazine:

- InnestoNuke Module Brings E-Commerce to DotNetNuke

- 10,000 Apps in DotNetNuke’s The Store

- DotNetNuke Acquires Active Modules

Student Developers Try to Crack Joomla's Core

Michael Garrity — Thu, 10 May 2012 19:00:00 GMT

The widely used open-source content management system (CMS) Joomla will be participating in the Google Summer of Code program to allow students 18 and older to contribute to the company’s CMS core.

Google Summer of Code is an international program that gives students stipends (up to $5,000) to write code for open-source projects.

Eight different students will each be working on a separate project, and when they’re finished their work will be considered by Joomla for inclusion in its platform. Among the assignments are creating APIs for integrating Facebook and Google services onto a Joomla-powered website, MediaWiki APIs and multi-language options for Joomla installation.

Summer of Code ends on August 24, but the codes won’t be moved immediately into the Joomla CMS core; rather, they will continue to be developed, and may even be used by extension developers. Many of the projects involved in the program are focused on the Joomla platform, providing the infrastructure for the future development of the CMS and other applications that build upon it.

The Joomla platform generously allows developers to create multi-purpose and multi-device apps (including mobile and cloud computing applications) and enterprise systems that can be run independently of its core CMS offering.

Students working on Joomla projects span the globe, coming from Brazil, Sri Lanka, the United States, Romania and France.

FormTek Brings Five New Extensions to Alfresco

Administrator — Tue, 20 Mar 2012 14:59:00 GMT

Content management receives only modest attention from the digital media community. The role that the software category plays however in the management of digital assets (like content) is of immense importance to the efficiency and productivity of an enterprise. The system you choose (and it’s one of the most important decisions) should be able to fulfill all of your needs. When they don’t, you’ll need to turn to third-party extensions.

A good example of this can be seen in the release of several new software extensions developed by FormTek for the Alfresco Open Content Platform. The extensions include:

- an auditing extension provides an audit log for every file and folder within Alfresco
- a file linking extension that allows a single document stored in Alfresco to be accessible from multiple locations without the need to duplicate the file
- an association extension which enables users to establish relationships between documents via Alfresco Share
- a security extension which allows file and folder access control on a per-user and per-group basis
- and a browser extension that allows users to select older document versions, view its Web preview and associate metadata.

"Our Software Extensions for Alfresco have been developed based on the knowledge and experience we've gained through two decades of successfully implementing ECM solutions for our customers," said Ed Kay, Formtek Vice President, Services and Support. "We also provide full support for the Extensions, including ongoing product maintenance and updates, via our dedicated email and toll-free phone number, as well as via the Formtek Online Support Web portal."

What’s New in Joomla 2.5

Pete Prestipino — Tue, 24 Jan 2012 19:27:00 GMT

Open-source content management system Joomla has released version 2.5. Joomla has adopted a six-month release cycle recently so expect future developments (and coverage) to come more often.

Several new features have been released in this version including advanced search functionality (including natural language search, auto-complete and stemming), automatic notification of Joomla core and extension updates from the control panel, and most importantly, the CMS now includes multi-database support with the addition of Microsoft SQL Server (previous versions were compatible only with MySQL databases).

“Multi-database support is a huge step forward for Joomla, which is already powering more than 1.6 million websites worldwide. It ensures companies and organization, both large and small, will save even more money and time by adopting Joomla,” said Ryan Ozimek, president of Open Source Matters.

“No longer will Joomla developers be tied down to a particular database or have to spend more money and time integrating other software to get Joomla to communicate with their database. This enhances Joomla’s scalability immensely.”

Best of 2011 - Content Management Systems

Michael Garrity — Wed, 28 Dec 2011 23:00:00 GMT

The right content management system (CMS) can make all the difference in the world when it comes to Web success, especially for small businesses without big budgets to dedicate to IT and Web development (although some of the largest brands in the world utilize content management systems as well, so it’s hard not to stress their importance).

If you’re not already using a CMS, you probably should be (considering it, at least); and if you are, are you sure that it’s the best option? Here are five CMS companies who had great years in 2011, and could be your saving grace in 2012.

Joomla
You’ve probably at least heard of Joomla before. Because it is a free open source website creation tool, it often gets compared to Drupal as a sort of WordPress.org knockoff, but in reality it is a much better system. Like both WordPress and Drupal, Joomla allows you to build websites and Web applications, and you can increase their functionality and flexibility by adding “extensions” (feature add-ons similar to WordPress plugins). As a plus, the most updated version of Joomla is even easier for new users to manage thanks in part to refined admin panel, which makes it ideal for some not-so-savvy business owners looking to make it big on the Web.

concrete5
Though aimed at marketers, this free open source CMS is a useful tool for any Web professional, specifically because users are able to edit content on the site directly from the page. This primary feature provides “blocks” that can contain text, images or more complicated content like image slideshows, comments systems, file lists, maps and more. The CMS also allows users to connect their websites to the concrete5 Marketplace to automatically upgrade software and downloaded or purchased add-ons.

ImpressCMS
This simple, secure and flexible community-developed CMS is a great fit for businesses of any size. It is database-driven and fully modularized so that users can install the modules that possess the features they need and don’t have to bother with those that they don’t. It also features multi-byte language support, a theme-based skinnable interface and worldwide support through the ImpressCMS community.

CMS MadeSimple
CMS MadeSimple is a free, lightweight content management solution that is especially applicable for smaller sites. Its robust user interface includes a Web-based administration section for theme, template and stylesheet development, the installation (and updating) of add-on modules, configuring blocks of content on a page and managing user groups and permissions.

Etomite
For those who need to bolster their SEO practices, Etomite is the ideal CMS. Because it allows the end user to control almost everything about a website, from layout to meta tag generation, users can more easily optimize their sites for search engine results pages. Some of the key features include: Word processor-like (WYSIWYG) document editing to add tables, images and formated text to a page without HTML knowledge, a modern and intuitive interface, template-driven page design and free support. In addition, this CMS can also be incorporated with AJAX functionality without any AJAX system knowledge through a backend editor.

Content Migration with Sitecore and Kapow

Pete Prestipino — Tue, 13 Dec 2011 02:00:00 GMT

If you've ever transitioned to a new a content management system you know how difficult it can be. For those with thousands of pages and a variety of content assets however it can feel nearly impossible; so much work is involved in fact that I have personally seen many end up not changing at all and sticking with their legacy systems. Is there a better way? You bet and it's called automated content migration.

One of the most reliable tools/resources/services I am aware of to support this immense challenge and transition is Kapow Software and what I hear from other web professionals is that it is indeed well worth the cost. Last week, enterprise content management solution Sitecore and Kapow Software announced they have partnered to make migrating legacy digital assets a little bit easier.

Customers can now automate the migration of content from multiple content management applications into Sitecore's Web CMS using the Kapow Katalyst Application Integration Platform. The Kapow Katalyst Platform extracts content and metadata from existing websites, unstructured files, databases, and other sources, and then apply business rules to transform and map source content to Sitecore's content templates, loading directly into Sitecore's CMS.

"Having the right content at the right time in the right place is critical to any business," said Rory Byrne, vice president of business development, Kapow Software. "Migrating legacy Web content presents many challenges, as migration scripts and manual processes reduce accuracy and stretch project timelines. By integrating with Sitecore CMS, the Kapow Katalyst platform can extract, transform, and migrate data and metadata from any content management system automatically, and load it into Sitecore in a fraction of the time and cost."

CMS Watch: Here Comes Joomla

Pete Prestipino — Wed, 07 Dec 2011 23:00:00 GMT

Open source content management system Joomla has had quite the year, announcing today that downloads have risen 38 percent from December 2010 to December 2011, brining the total number of downloads to a whopping 27 million.

It's not just the downloads, the rest of the Joomla ecosystem seems pretty healthy too. Joomla extensions developed by outside vendors increased by 41 percent annually to 8,475 as of October 31, 2011, and the number of forum users jumped 23 percent annually as of October 31, 2011, meaning more and more people are interacting to help shape Joomla.

"We've seen double and in some cases triple digit growth in Joomla's adoption since 2007," said Ryan Ozimek, president of Open Source Matters, the not-for-profit created to provide organizational, legal and financial support to the Joomla project. "Part of what's driven this massive number of downloads is an explosion of community involvement in the project."

Drupal-driven Sites Fare Well in New Report

Michael Garrity — Mon, 19 Sep 2011 23:00:00 GMT

A new study reports what is being labeled as an "identified trend in corporate website governance", concluding that more high-profile and scalable websites are moving to the Drupal platform.

The study was conducted by Volacci, a search engine marketing company that leverages the Drupal content management system (CMS) technologies for "superior search performance and profitability," in an effort to see which websites are currently built using the Drupal CMS.

Though Drupal typically sees a very small share of the market, with only about 2 percent of all websites currently running on the platform, the company has been seeing more significant increases in the corporate world, with a larger percentage of these websites adopting Drupal's CMS.

In August, the Inc. 5000 was announced, which is a listing of America's fastest growing companies. The number two company on the list, Solazyme, is one of the many sites using the Drupal CMS. Other Drupal sites on the list include Goldline (180), Accuvant (1800) and WellMed Medical Group, all of which saw their positions on the list increase compared to where they were in 2010.

Over the last few years, Drupal has seen a variety of corporate, education and government enterprises, among many other industries, begin to utilize their CMS platform to create their websites. Volacci says that this is an attempt by these companies or organizations to establish "a robust, SEO-friendly presence on the Web."

Joomla! 1.6 Arrives

Pete Prestipino — Tue, 11 Jan 2011 04:08:00 GMT

Popular open-source content management system Joomla! has made available Joomla! 1.6.

This version of the CMS delivers a variety of new tools to improve website management and access, a more robust organizational structure for content control, and various other user-experience improvements throughout the software.

"Joomla 1.6 has evolved to become the most user-friendly and powerful tool yet for developing a web presence,” said Ryan Ozimek, president of Open Source Matters, which provides support to the Joomla project.

Noteworthy features in Joomla 1.6:

- New Access Control System - Allows site administrators control over who can view and manage content.

- Unlimited Depth Organizational Model - Gives site administrators and content creators user-defined category levels that allow for the creation of a category tree with as many or as few levels for organizing articles and other content as needed.

- One-Click Extension Updates - Allows users to keep sites secure and controlled by simplifying the process of updating extensions.

- Semantic XHTML Layouts - Provides a better baseline for content presentation.

- Multi-language Functionality - Allows site builders to implement a multi-language sit

It is the "one-click extensions" that caught our attention in this release. Our upcoming issue (March 2011) has an article about some of the most important extensions for Joomla users. Definitely don't miss that issue - request a pro-level subscription to Website Magazine today.

E-Commerce Meets CMS at Sitecore

E-Commerce Express : feature — Thu, 18 Nov 2010 16:33:00 GMT

.Net Web Content management system (CMS) released an E-Commerce platform. What does a CMS know about e-commerce software? It turns out, quite a bit courtesy of the company focus on marketing automation. What makes this e-commerce solution different (and...(read more)

DotNetNuke WCMS Gets Serious with v5.6

Software Everywhere : feature — Thu, 18 Nov 2010 16:10:00 GMT

Popular .Net web content management platform DotNetNuke released version 5.6 of its professional edition and enterprise edition. The new version includes a new Site Search feature (which includes for Boolean searches, phrase searches, relevance searches...(read more)