Vignette launches community products

Web experience management and delivery specialist Vignette has announced the availability of Vignette Community Services and the upcoming availability of Vignette Community Applications.

The new community products enable organisations to add social computing capabilities to their websites to help strengthen their brand, increase loyalty and drive revenue.

Additionally, the suite of products seamlessly integrates with Vignette's Web Experience foundation, making it easier for customers to quickly add engaging social elements and Web 2.0 capabilities to their sites.

"High-value activities such as innovating, collaborating, leading and learning have individuals at their centre, and they often take place in a social context made up of informal exchanges, brainstorming, exploration and cross-fertilisation," wrote Nikos Drakos, research director at Gartner.

"Social software applications, such as wikis and blogs, attract and empower these individuals together with user-friendly and flexible ways to aggregate, organise, share and amplify the value of their personal, and often unrecorded, knowledge and experiences".

Web users today rely more heavily on their peers for advice on which companies to trust, products to evaluate or buy and services to select.

According to the 2008 Edelman Trust Barometer, "a person like yourself" is often viewed as an organisation's most credible spokesperson.

Vignette's Community product line enables organisations to give a voice to this group of peer influencers, driving new levels of audience engagement on anything from content reviews to product development.

Vignette Community Services can help organisations connect with and engage key audiences by offering ratings, reviews, commenting and tagging capabilities, similar to the services found on YouTube and Netflix.

Users are demanding that organisations offer these services so they can share ideas and learn from their peers: for example, a travel company that allows customers to comment on recent vacation experiences and rate particular hotels or holiday packages online, can help prospective customers better set expectations for an upcoming trip.

Providing insights gleaned from peer experiences help customers make more informed decisions which often result in increased purchases, greater brand loyalty and satisfaction.

According to a recent study by Avenue A/Razorfish, "Digital Consumer Behavior Study", 55 per cent of surveyed internet users consulted other people's opinions online, making reviews the top resource for product research.

Vignette Community Applications enables organisations to add features like blogs, wikis and forums to any web property to improve transparency, increase interaction with and build customised communities to better engage their target audiences.

Additionally, these organisations can leverage user-generated content and peer influence to create valuable online communities.

For example, a software company may leverage forums or blogs to solicit feedback from customers throughout each phase of a product lifecycle.

"Social computing and community capabilities encourage users to contribute content and exchange ideas, often leading to increased loyalty and innovation," said Mike Aviles, president and CEO of Vignette.

"Other vendors may offer community products like wikis and blogs or ratings and reviews, but Vignette provides customers with a single platform for their web experience requirements".

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