Friday, July 15, 2011

Oneforty launches small biz version of SocialBase

By Rodney H. Brown

Cambridge-based social media site Oneforty Inc. has taken its money-making strategy to the next step with the launch of SocialBase Handbooks, a less expensive version of its recently announced complete social media productivity package, aimed at small business.

The move is a continuation of a strategy to go beyond a focus on Twitter that Oneforty announced in February. In June, Oneforty launched the enterprise version, SocialBase On Call.

According to Oneforty founder and CEO Laura Fitton, the SocialBase platform is more than just a management dashboard or a metrics dashboard but contains ”the measurement tools, the engagement tools, the contest tools – everything.”

In addition to all of the tools, the new small business offering contains a series of six “expert-configured Handbooks” that help a company plan out and establish a social business strategy. Oneforty is offering SocialBase through a SaaS model contained within the oneforty.com website itself, a key element according to Fitton.

“You have access to all the rest of the site, which is actually really important,” she said.

SocialBase Handbooks will be sold directly on a monthly subscription basis for $20 for a solo account, $80 for a group of five and $150 for a team of 10, with larger user groups available on a custom pricing basis. In addition to direct sales, Oneforty plans to tap marketing and communications agencies and firms as potential resellers.

If that strategy pays off, Oneforty could be faced with a need to expand rapidly, but Fitton is pretty comfortable with the idea, even if it means a need for more financing.

“If you are growing like a rocket and there are tons of orders coming in, generally the funding will take care of itself,” she said.

Fitton, who was named a 2011 Mass High Tech Woman to Watch, founded Oneforty after establishing herself as an early presence on the social microblogging service Twitter, under the handle, “@Pistachio.” Oneforty focused on being an aggregator and recommendation service for Twitter apps until it expanded to a wider social media circle in February.