The demand for closer engagement with customers and users is driving companies to use portals in new and interesting ways. Throw in all of the social networking sites like Facebook and Twitter, crossed with sales & marketing automation practices and technologies, and the opportunities for companies to use the web as one of their main “store fronts” are huge.

In this interview with Liferay‘s Paul Hinz, we talk about this use of portals, of course, involving Liferay. He spends some time talking about social product marketing, but also goes over the “good, old fashioned” portal features in the most recent Liferay offering, 6EE.

Also, I wrote up more on Liferay right after their West Coast Symposium, where this video was shot.

In addition to watching the video above, you can download the video directly or subscribe to the RedMonk podcast feed.

Disclosure: Liferay is a client, and sponsored this video.