Social publishing platform with Drupal

WOBURN, USA: One of the most hotly debated questions among marketers and company executives is “What does it mean to be a social business?”

Today Acquia, Inc., the enterprise guide to the Drupal social publishing system provides the answer and also reveals what Social Business Software vendors aren’t telling you: your investment in Social Business Software is at risk because it is only a one-sided approach to social business. Social publishing is the technology platform for true social businesses.

Social publishing, specifically Drupal, is the convergence of web content management software (WCM) and social software tools in a single, unified platform. As a result, Drupal transcends boundaries between internal Enterprise 2.0 applications and external Web 2.0 applications.

“Not all social business technologies are created equal,” said Tom Erickson, Acquia CEO. “Some vendors will tell you that social business is about internal collaboration; some will tell you it’s about external customer engagement. Our take: it’s truly both and Drupal social publishing is the right way to get your business engaged with all of its audiences."

He added, "The Drupal open source social publishing system gives companies the flexibility with their brands to capitalize on emerging opportunities.”

Based upon the experiences of a huge Drupal ecosystem that contributes new modules for every desired function back to the community, and Acquia’s own expertise in guiding companies with the Drupal open source publishing system, being a social business means:

* Accepting that everyone in your company is a marketer: from corporate communications to your engineering team, everyone has a role in how your business and brand are perceived.

* Understanding that collaboration with customers is only as good as your ability to connect your community with your primary web activities, and then tune the social media feedback loop inward and make real business moves in response.

* Realizing that the number one concern of everyone at the board room table is reputation management, and operating a responsive social business is the only way to address it.

"Just as the search economy up-ended the old outbound direct mail marketing economy, the new social web stands ready to transform marketing once again," said Tim O'Reilly, founder and CEO of O'Reilly Media. “If you’re not using technology to bridge the gap between Enterprise 2.0 and Web 2.0 you’re missing the boat. Look for solutions that turn customers into brand messengers and your employees into a multi-functional group of brand stakeholders.”