Online networking communities play a key role in business these days. It helps the organizations to build their own space on the web and bring together the users. The cost-effective solutions offered by various groups to the business world to excel in online networking communities are social networking scripts.

Highly interactive social networks are built with this solution by either adding features to an existing website or by creating a custom community site for the business need. Any type of business network can be created like a professional community, friend’s community, technical forums etc. And the information shared across these communities can be monetized with appropriate marketing techniques.

The various features in these open source social networking scripts include modules for new chats, blogs, forums, ratings, guestbooks, and gift stores etc. They also come with Peer to peer messengers, instant messaging, Voice call facility, discussion boards and usage of smiley as well. Community websites would help the organization to efficiently manage the communities and can always be connected to the communities online. If a new business product has to be marketed, a community website would be the best choice. Certain solutions even offer safe codes for monetary transactions as well.

The open-source social networking script lets the user customize the community created, i.e. the source code is not restricted. Some scripting solutions offer efficient trading community pages as well which further increases the scope of the business community in generating revenue.

If the code is not open, making changes to the communities created may be difficult, so it is better to purchase open-source social network-scripts. Licensing of the script is yet another key factor. Dropping the business portal due to some license issues can affect the business badly. Almost every group that offers an open-source social networking script has its own forum or community to discuss the defects reported and offer customer support. These forums play an important role in the selection of the solution.