profile updated Dec 9, 2008, 1:15 PM
After more than two decades in the mortgage loan business, most recently as founder of Equaloan Mortgage Services, Richard Nacht jumped into social media launching BloggingSystems LLC. The since renamed company (Respond Media) provides the technology for companies to offer blogs, social networks and online communities.
Since launching in 2007 the business model has changed. Now a company can license a complete set of network and community tools for its own use or sponsor a career channel on the publicly available Career Connection Network.
Companies sponsoring one or more career channels getting the opportunity to exclusively connect with the participants and present their job openings on the site. Think of it as My Space for the employed. There's also echoes of LinkedIn about it, though it's more about discussions than collecting connections.
When we first reviewed Career Connection in 2007 we thought it a promising approach to building a company brand and finding passive candidates. But it's a competitive market out there and Career Connection has yet to build an audience. Not only must it contend with Facebook and MySpace, but there are hundreds of professional associations and societies that already have some form of social media.
On the other hand, companies that want to get involved in some form of community building, but need some handholding should consider licensing the tools.
News & Updates 
Products & Services
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Career Connection Network
Social media and networking platform that is career oriented. Categories are highly niched to specific jobs in specific industries. Companies can sponsor these niche group sites, presenting their jobs to the group members and having access to their contact information. Requires active company engagement in order to be successful. -
Respond Media
Service provider and advisor in the community networking area. The company was previously BloggingSystems, but changed names in 2008 to reflect its new SaaS approach to providing community building tools to companies and organizations. All the necessary bells and whistles are there to create a robust community. What's also there is the advice and handholding that you won't get with any of the free tools.