Drupal 7 Social Networking

In DetailDrupal is ideally equipped to serve as a base system for creating a custom social networking site like Facebook or MySpace. While these large social networks have their place, niche social networking websites can help promote businesses, products, projects, and hobbies of any nature.Drupal 7 Social Networking provides careful instructions and clear explanations to take you through the setup and management of your social network site, covering topics from users, to marketing, to maintenance. It will help you create your own social networking site, suitable for whatever audience you choose!Starting from the very basics of both Drupal and Social Networking, right through to more complicated aspects, you will progressively learn how to add to and expand your social networking site and add more features. You will learn how to secure your social network, deploy it on the Internet, and keep it running and well maintained. As social networking sites rely on the participation of their users, this book helps you to structure your site in such a way so that users can easily and enjoyably contribute, thus creating a powerful social network.A complete walkthrough for creating, developing, growing, and maintaining a Social Networking website using Drupal 7ApproachThis book is packed with clear instructions and careful explanations for creating a powerful social networking site using Drupal 7. With each chapter, you add new features and content until your social network is ready to be released to the Internet where it can grow.By the end of this book, you will have a powerful social network which you can either choose to model on the case-study, or create to your own unique design.Who this book is forThis book is aimed at anyone looking to create their own social networking website, including:Businesses - building a social network around a product or service can improve your company profile and increase customer loyalty, while an internal social network gives you employees a place to keep resources, discuss ideas, raise concerns, and keep up to date on company policies.Hobbyists - create a community around your hobbies and interests; create a local or distributed user group.Organizations and charities - raise your profile, promote your events, services, and fundraisers, and get help from the community in organizing them.Families - for large families based across the country or across the globe, keep up to date with everyone, and let everyone know what you are up to.You don't need any experience of Drupal or PHP to use this book. If you are a Drupal user you will find this book a great way to rapidly tailor an existing installation into a socially orientated website.