State of the Union in Social Media

The 2010 Social Media Marketing Industry Report by Michael Stelzner of Social Media Examiner was released a couple of weeks ago. Stelzner interviewed 1,356 marketing professionals in order to understand how marketers are using social media to grow and promote their businesses. It confirms what many of us working in social media already knew, but also contained several surprises. 

A staggering 91% of the marketers surveyed say they are using social media for marketing purposes. That’s much higher than I think most people would have predicted. Sure, social media is hot right now, but many companies are reluctant to get started even if they feel they should. The common perception is that more B2C companies are using social media than B2B companies. It turns out that 79.5% of B2B companies use social media, with only 68.7% of their B2C counterparts on the bandwagon.

The majority of marketers are using social media 6 hours or more a week. This shows a growing number of businesses are investing their time in social media – and with great results. Over 73% of marketers using social media for over a year reported that it helped them close business, which is an increase of 12% over 2009. 

 

Additionally, businesses using social media saw the following results:

• An increase in their search engine rankings
• Greater exposure for their business
• Created new partnerships
• Generated qualified leads
• Reduced overall marketing expenses
• Increased website traffic

 

Naturally Twitter, Facebook and LinkedIn are the most used social media tools. Look to blogs and YouTube to make big strides in the coming year as many of the marketers surveyed planned to increase their usage. But the tools they really want to know more about are social bookmarking sites (i.e.; Delicious) and smartphone marketing. 

Social media is quickly becoming a marketing staple, which means your customers will be less and less forgiving if you don’t have a presence there, and potential customers may miss you altogether. If you aren’t developing a social media marketing plan this year, it will be harder to catch up. 

In our business, Facebook, Twitter and blogging have been instrumental in helping us make contacts and increase our footprint beyond what a small agency could normally create. But we’re always looking for innovative new ways to connect with people. What social media tools have you found particularly effective?

Stefan Halley is the Digital Project Leader for The Duffy Agency. He loves to talk about social media.

Click to read more ...

The top 5 Twitter apps for Android

The smartphone app battle has heated up with legitimate rivals to the iPhone hitting their stride. Apple’s App Store continues to overshadow the competition with downloads in the multiple billions, but Google’s Android Market has emerged with a strong collection of its own mobile apps, along with the advantage of having multiple mobile phone brands running the OS. With around 300 million downloads under its belt, Android Market is building up steam. 

Seeing that Android has a prominent place in the future of mobile devices, we picked up an HTC Desire to discover firsthand what it’s capable of. First order of business: finding the best Android app to run our Twitter accounts. What we found was there is no app that truly stands out as the best overall, but there are apps that excel at meeting specific needs. Below you’ll find 5 of the best apps out there and which type of Twitter user they best serve.

 

The Official Twitter App – For the user looking for basic functionality 
The official Twitter app is surprisingly bare bones, seeming to not even try to compete with the feature-rich apps from third party developers. But for basic functionality, it serves its purpose extremely well. Its interface is one the best looking of the apps we tried and everything works smoothly. Still, its lack of features is a big turn off for all but casual users. Twitter’s official app was only recently released, so keep your eye on it as they are sure to launch updates with expanded features. Since the HTC Android phones come preloaded with Peep, which has the same basic functionality, there is no reason to add this app.

Seesmic – For the user looking to balance features and speed 
 More often than not with mobile apps, having loads of features means sacrificing at least some speed. Seesmic manages to offer a host of functionality without getting bogged down. Some of these features include geotagging, lists, search and multiple retweet styles. Seesmic also gives you a widget for your desktop. There are a lot of features in there for free that usually only come with the premium version of apps. If we had to pick an over all best Twitter app for Android, it would be Seesmic. 

Twidroid – For the user looking for the maximum amount of features 
Twidroid boasts a wide array of functions, including the fan-favorite slidescreen integration. It also allows linking up with other services like TwitPic, Posterous and bit.ly, among others. But for the full experience, including multiple accounts and customizable themes, you need to upgrade to Twidroid Pro. Even the free version is far ahead of most other apps in the range of features, so if you’re looking for the app with the most flexibility, this is it.

Hootsuite – For the professional user with multiple accounts and tweeters 
Hootsuite is the best bet for professionals using Twitter for marketing. You can schedule tweets from your Android phone and manage multiple accounts, which includes the ability to give multiple people access to those accounts, adding and withdrawing access as you see fit. The Android version works best in tandem with the desktop version, so if you’ve been using Hootsuite to manage your accounts, this is the best way to go mobile with your Twitter use. And thanks to Hootsuite’s acquisition of Swift - the speediest Twitter for Android app around - the app doesn’t lag despite being feature heavy.

Touiteur – For the user looking for the prettiest interface 
Touiteur (which we eventually realized is supposed to sound like Twitter, but more French) has by far the slickest and most polished interface of any app we looked at. With animated menus and transitions in a compact, streamlined design, Touiteur is a dream to use. But the glitz comes with a couple catches. The features are quite limited in the free version – you’ll have to pay get link shortening, widgets and multiple account support. And if it’s speed you’re after, this isn’t the app for you, it’s noticeably slower than most of the others. But we’re almost inclined to say it’s worth it.

Developers are starting to put serious effort into creating apps for Android, as these great options showcase. Do you have a favorite Twitter app that we missed? Let us know.

Jason Ross is a copywriter for The Duffy Agency. He loves working on both traditional and social media projects and speculating on the future of the ad industry.

Click to read more ...

4 tools to keep your business going when a volcano erupts

The volcano currently dumping large amounts ash over Europe has ground traffic to a halt and left people scrambling. One of our managing partners is actually stuck in Stockholm right now. This got me to thinking about how people can keep their businesses going despite unexpected events keeping face-to-face meetings from happening. We put together a toolkit to help you out now that you won’t be flying to present your next project or having that important meeting.

Skype is the best way to communicate from long distance over the web, from daily instant messaging to making international calls to video conferencing. It also allows you to transfer files, which makes it even easier to have one-on-one meetings. The service allows you to send an SMS from Skype and has voicemail and call forwarding. It’s a must have for any business these days.

Gotomeeting.com allows you to conduct a webinar, conduct training seminars or have a simple business meeting. People can call in from a landline through the Go to Meeting software. It allows you to record the meeting, share applications and get feedback afterwards. Attendees can edit documents on screen, chat, and even view meetings through an iPad. It’s a great service that allows you to demo for 30-days or purchase a monthly or yearly subscription. I’ve attended several meetings through Gotomeeting.com and it works great. 

Prezi.com is a new site that allows you to create presentations online. If don’t have Keynote or PowerPoint, Prezi is your solution. The site is easy to use and the presentation navigation helps you move beyond a typical PowerPoint slideshow. The site isn’t for everyone, but people tired of the traditional slideshow style presentations will enjoy this unique site.

Thebox.net is your solution for file sharing from a distance. For $9.95 a month, the site gives you 10 GB of space and a 1 GB file size limit. This is a great way to save huge files you want to access while you’re traveling. If you need to send a group a large file, you can just save it to thebox.net. You can give multiple people permission to access files, which makes group projects with people from all over the world simple without having to set up a hosting server and FTP clients. 

The next time a natural disaster strikes, or life in general gets in the way, don’t worry. Just use these online tools and you’ll be able to continue your work without missing a beat. 

Stefan Halley is the Digital Project Leader for The Duffy Agency. He loves to talk about social media.

Click to read more ...

SXSW 2010 a bust for Twitter fans

 
Twitter unveils @anywhere, offering almost nothing new and avoiding the news everyone really wanted to hear

South by Southwest has become the launch pad of huge new social media services. Twitter and Foursquare both blew up after taking the city of Austin by storm. So this year, we were expecting some big news from Twitter. In particular, most of us were expecting to finally discover Twitter’s elusive plan on how they’ll monetize the service and make it a sustainable enterprise for the long term future.

But what we got was @anywhere. With @anywhere, you can easily follow people you read about on webpages and share articles or products you find with just a few clicks. You sign into the site you’re visiting with your Twitter ID and can then interact with Twitter without leaving the page. As Twitter CEO Evan Williams said during the unveiling at SXSW, “the big thing @anywhere does is reduce friction.” 

This should all sound very familiar since there were already loads of third party developers reducing the friction of using Twitter to almost zero. As I’m sure you’ve noticed, those “share through Twitter” and “follow me on Twitter” icons have been dotting thousands of websites for a long time and desktop applications have made it easy to share pics and links in a matter of seconds. A lot of people sitting in the packed auditorium durning Williams’ presentation thought it was familiar enough to walk out in the middle of the talk and Guy Kawasaki called out the presentation as “boring” during a later panel discussion. 

@Anywhere’s advantage is that it was created by Twitter itself, and as such may gain traction with more major sites than the third party apps, despite offering pretty much the same thing. And that, in turn, will expose Twitter to many new web surfers and potentially lead to a new surge in its user base. There are 13 heavy hitters partnering with Twitter so far though some, like YouTube, already offered Twitter integration: 

 

The service does add a minor improvement to integrating Twitter into the main content of websites and finding new people to follow you may have overlooked, and it may well lead to new innovations by third party developers who take it and find creative uses. But it’s a lot less than we’ve come to expect from the social media pioneer and leaves us looking toward the Twitter developer conference Chirp for the big news we’ve been waiting for. As there’s a presentation on Monetization scheduled, we’re thinking Chirp will be the big reveal that SXSW 2010 was not.

Jason Ross is a copywriter for The Duffy Agency. He loves working on both traditional and social media projects and speculating on the future of the ad industry.

Click to read more ...

The 5 best ways to find people to follow on Twitter

You’ve followed your friends and co-workers, but who do you follow next?

I’ve been using Twitter for almost 3 years and I’m always looking for new people to follow and converse with. Even after all this time, it can still be hard to separate the spammers from the worthwhile people. There are scores of websites that have popped up over the past couple of years to help solve this problem. Here are the five best sites we’ve used for finding the most relevant people to follow on Twitter.
 

Twellow is one of the best of the Twitter directories. It’s easy to use and search. You can add yourself to their directory and search through more than 17 million Twitter profiles. The site is organized by categories, which makes it even easier to find new people to follow. It also allows new people to find you.

 WeFollow is my favorite of the Twitter directories. Organized by self identified hashtags, WeFollow allows you to find not only the most popular people in a category, but the most relevant as well. Since spammers can often be the most popular, it’s good know who people are actually listening to and talking with.

Twubble is a bit different. It recommends people for you to follow based on the people you are already following, recommending users that they’re following. This site works pretty well if you only have a few followers and want to get more, but if you have several thousand followers, it doesn’t work as well.

 Who Should I Follow looks at who you follow and makes recommendations based on popularity and location. You can adjust a slider to focus the results. The results were filled with people I would be interested in following and I ended up finding some great new contacts. 

It’s hard to recommend a Twitter people search site since Twitter severly limits bio information, but Tweepz does a great job of dealing with those limitations. Do a search of a keyword, location or a name and Tweepz pulls in the results. You can refine your search by the number of followers, following, language or additional keywords. 
 

Which directories are you using?

Stefan Halley is the Digital Project Leader for The Duffy Agency. He loves to talk about social media.

Click to read more ...

The essential Twitter toolkit

All the apps you need to successfully use and maintain your Twitter profile

Using Twitter is easy. Using Twitter successfully is much more difficult. You need a collection of tools to help you monitor, analyze, automate and share content. After reviewing Twitter apps and sites for the past seven months, we decided to put together one definitive toolkit that covers all your needs.

Desktop/mobile client

TweetDeck is our go to tool for Twitter monitoring and mobile access. It is an all-in-one tool that greatly simplifies using Twitter. Not only limited to Twitter, TweetDeck allows you to follow and update Facebook, MySpace and LinkedIn, as well as monitor keywords around your brand or industry. You can even view pictures and YouTube videos within TweetDeck and it auto-shortens urls. Best of all, you can access your account from multiple computers, which is great if you use separate computers at work and home.

Networking

When looking for new people to follow, We Follow is the best place to start. This straightforward site allows you to label your account with the keywords that best define your Twitter stream. Then you can search We Follow’s keyword database to find the most relevant and interesting people to follow. This is always the first place we start when helping a client identify key people of interest.

Media Sharing

Odds are you’re going to want to share photos from your smartphone, and there is no better way to do that than with Twitpic. Setup and use are a snap. It doesn’t even require you to create a new account – after logging in with your Twitter account you’re ready to start sharing pics from wherever you are.

Tweet Scheduler

You can’t tweet 24 hours a day (if you can, seek help), but you can schedule tweets to go out around the clock. The best way we found to do this is through Twaitter. Odds are, your Twitter audience isn’t just in your time zone, so it’s important to reach people when they are most likely to be online. Twaitter allows you to schedule tweets so when you’re asleep, you can still send your links out. They’ve recently added recurring tweets and the ability to add your RSS feed, so now your Twitter feed doesn’t have to miss a beat.

Analytics

After you’ve got a hoard of followers and have your stream going strong and steady, you need to be able to judge how effective your campaign is. Twitter analyzer does just that. This one site allows you to see how quickly your Twitter account is growing, how far your reach extends, who is following you and lots more.  

There are more tools you can use to enhance your account, but if you master these five, you’ll be a Twitter God before you know it. What's in your toolkit?

Stefan Halley is the Digital Project Leader for The Duffy Agency. He loves to talk about social media.

Click to read more ...

5 ways to create your own iPhone app

 With the explosion of smart phones over the past year, more and more companies are moving beyond websites and social media to embrace the mobile revolution. This year looks to finally be the year of the mobile phone that people have been predicting for the past five years. Last year, if you didn’t have a Twitter account and a Facebook Fan Page, you weren’t in the game. This year’s must have property is an iPhone app.

iPhone apps are a great way to enable brand/consumer interaction and building brand equity. Most businesses think an iPhone app is financially and technically beyond their means. The good news is both of those issues are no longer true. I looked around the web and noticed there are several sites that allow you to create your own iPhone app and publish it either for free or for a small fee.

I set out to discover what options non-developers have for creating iPhone apps without spending too much. I sat down with my co-workers and created a wish-list of qualities that businesses might want in an iPhone app-creating-tool. We wanted:

•        an easy-to-use interface for both creating and updating apps
•        to get the hang of it quickly
•        the software to be web based
•        to integrate Twitter (in-app)
•        to link in YouTube (in-app)
•        to link in Flickr (in-app)
•        Facebook groups (in-app)
•        to enable RSS-feeds (blogs)
•        a high level of customization (interface and design)
•        unlimited updates
•        analytics
•        the ability to make an Android version

The evaluation method was simple. I visited each site and registered. I took a screenshot of a relevant part of the interface and then spent some time playing around with it. A decent site should be able to explain itself in that time. After using the application, I rated each site against my wish list.

  

Buildanapp is a pretty barebones app-creating tool. It allows you to classify the app from 17 different categories, such as Professional Service, Government Organization or Business Directory. The customization is limited to being able to upload your own graphics, such as background and app icons as jpg files or by direct input. At the moment, RSS-feeds are not supported, but according to Buildanapp this function, along with Twitter integration, will be added later this month. Linking URL’s is supposedly supported, but I couldn’t get it to work.

 

Pros: Multiple platforms (iPhone, Blackberry and Windows based), easy to use

Cons: Too basic, no RSS, no natural way of integrating social media

Price: $7.99/update, $19.99 to post to Apple app store

Rating:
 

  

Kanchoo is rich in content management and text formatting tools, making the app well suited for news distribution. Graphics like button icons, backgrounds and splash pages are pretty much the only things you can customize, which is a shame since it’s an excellent way for a company to present themselves. Kanchoo takes some time to get the hang of and the interface is overly complex. To preview your app before you submit it, you need to download software.

 

Pros: Very useful if you’re working in the news industry

Cons: Takes time to learn, expensive

Price: Initial submission fee 88$. Hosting is 28$/month.

Rating: 

MobileRoadie creates apps for the iPhone and Android phones. The tool is highly customizable, allowing the creator to integrate the most popular social media assets, a store, RSS, a wall for user/brand interaction, geo segmentation and stats on number of downloads and what excerpts are most popular. A fun and easy app well worth checking out – if you’ve got a chunk of change to burn.

 

Pros: Easy-to-use, social media friendly, rich features

Cons: Too expensive

Price: setup fee $499. Hosting is $29/month.

Rating: 

 

 

Mobbase is an app positioned for musicians and their fans, but this web-based service includes many features applicable for brand promotion as well. The app is extremely customizable, allowing you to define all the graphics including individual backgrounds on every page, the design and layout of the buttons, splash pages, bottom bars, etc. The service integrates most of the desirable social media tools such as Twitter (sorting by username, @mentions and #hashtags), videos (YouTube: entire channel, specific video or tags), photos (“sets” if you’re using Flickr or Albums with Picasa), blogs and RSS (two streams) in a natural way, along with a few other interesting features.

 

Pros: Highly customizable, easy-to-use, social media friendly
 
Cons: Can’t change name of buttons, analytics only tracks number of downloads

Price: $20 activation fee + $5/month for first 500 downloads, $1/month for every 1000 downloads after that.

Rating:
 

 

Swebapps is a rich app-creating tool intended for companies. Choose whether you want 4, 6 or 8 buttons and select among more than 30 features, including Facebook, a portfolio, Twitter and podcasts. There is an extra analytics feature called app-tracker that measures not only the numbers of downloads, but what buttons are used the most. The service is very intuitive and simple while still offering a lot. 

 
Pros: Intuitive and easy-to-use, good analytics, client signup, many RSS feeds

Cons: Rather expensive, can only add one Twitter account

Price: $50/button, $10 app tracker, hosting fee $25/month

Rating:

 

Conclusion:

All the app creating apps tested were useful, but it comes down to what your ambition level is, how much you’re willing to spend and who your target is. The most social media friendly were Mobbase and Mobile Roadie. These were also my personal favorites, as they enable a great deal of customization and have loads of interesting features to get my creative juices flowing. The other apps had some great features – especially the analytics with Swebapps. But Mobbase takes home the gold as Mobile Roadie and Swebapps are priced much higher without offering a whole lot more. 

Click to read more ...

5 Twitter Bookmarking Apps

If you’re like me, you find lots of great content online every day that ends up being fodder for Twitter. It can be hard to keep track of what you tweet much less the links you send out. Favoriting a link makes it easy to find later, but if you favorite a lot of links, it can be hard to find older links. If you want to tag your favorites, well forget that. Or how about searching other people’s favorites? Impossible at the moment. These frustrations sent me on a search for the best bookmarking Twitter tool. It turns out there are many more with a wider variety of features than I imagined.

I sat down with my co-workers and created a wish-list of qualities that we as marketing people want in a Twitter bookmarking tool. As usual, all the tools have to be free and not require a download. Beyond that, we wanted to be able to:

• have an easy-to-use interface
• get the hang of it quickly
• send updates to Twitter and other sites
• easily configure it
• shorten URLs, preferably with the ability to choose the URL shortening tool
• use analytics
• save links
• tag or categorize links
• link to other social media sites
• search through the collection of bookmarks


The evaluation method was simple. I visited each site and registered. After my profile loaded, I took a screenshot of the interface and then spent about ten minutes looking around the site. A decent site should be able to explain itself in that time. After using the application, I rated each site against my wish list.


 

 
 

Twitthat is a basic bookmarking site. It allows you to install a button on your browser’s toolbar and post any link from any website. It’s as base as you can get. It does store your links, but doesn’t allow you to search or tag them for easier retrieval. There is also a public timeline which allows you to see what’s being updated using the site and most read. It also displays the most popular tweets from the site.

 

PROS: Easy to use toolbar app that allows you to bookmark Twitter links.

CONS: Doesn’t do anything else. It could be much more functional if they added one or two abilities.

RATING: 

 


Yourversion is a mix between Delicious and a bookmarking tool. This has it all. After creating an account, you add five interests and then select from a pre-determined list of words. From there, you have the ability to add or delete other interests. The site is divided into six sections: discover, bookmarks, thumbed, shared, friends and profile. Discover brings you content based on your interests and you can view all of them or just view news, blogs, webpages, Twitter, videos and products. After you bookmark something, you can view the links and share them on Twitter, Facebook or email. It also lets you thumb up or thumb down content which allows the algorithm to learn your taste and deliver more focused content to you. You can tag bookmarks, browse tags and import your bookmarks from Delicious. It does a lot  more, like giving you a public profile, the ability to import contacts from Gmail and Yahoo and provides a mobile interface. 

 

PROS: It covers all of our requirements and fills some we didn’t even know we had.

CONS: No analytics so you can’t see your influence.

RATING: 

Sharein is similar to Yourverision with two notable exceptions: it doesn’t bring new content to you and it has impressive analytics. Both sites have the same basic features and interaction and ability, but with Sharein, you can’t tag bookmarks as you save them, which adds another step. The real reason to choose this over Yourversion is the analytics. There is a very useful dashboard that shows retweets, user comments and reshares. By hovering over a link, you can see when it was shared, how many views it had, the reach of the tweet and number of times it was reshared. You can view activity in time intervals of 6 hours, 24 hours, month or a year. It’s the best way I’ve seen to measure your impact and influence.

 

PROS: Most of the features of Yourversion plus amazing analytics make this a great tool.

CONS: If they added the feature where they bring you information and the ability to tag bookmarks as you save them, it would be unstoppable.

RATING: 

 

   


Tweetmarks is a great idea. Why create a new website when you can modify an existing one. Get all the benefits of del.icio.us with a few extra additions. Tweetmarks will bookmark the links you use in your tweets to Delicious.com. There is no toolbar button or extra step. You can have the site add all links you tweet or just tweets with certain hashtags. 

 

PROS: Simple to use and works with a site on which you probably already have an account 

CONS: You’re limited to the features of Delicious which doesn’t allow you to post to Facebook or email and doesn’t have any analytics.

RATING:

 

Mister Wong is a bookmarking site that has released a Twitter app. All you have to do is attach your Twitter profile to your Mister Wong account and it brings in any tweet with a URL attached. The Mister Wong site allows you to make a comment on your bookmarks, tag them, decide to make the link private or public and share it on Twitter. 

 

PROS: Easy to share and save links. It lets you tag bookmarks, has a searchable database and gives you a public profile.

CONS: I tweeted several links and they never appeared in my profile. From what I can tell, the bookmarking feature through Twitter doesn’t work.

RAITING:

 

 CONCLUSION: This was a tough one to pick. Tweetmarks is great because if you already have a Delicious account, you don’t have to open another bookmarking account. However, Delicious lacks any way to share your bookmarks beyond its service. Sharein is also great. The analytics are beyond anything else I’ve seen but it doesn’t bring new content to you. My pick for this week’s winner is Yourversion. It imports your existing Delicious account (making Delicious redundant), serves up content to you that might be of interest and has a mobile interface. It’s got some great tools that other sites should add to their list of features.

Stefan Halley is the Digital Project Leader for The Duffy Agency. He loves to talk about social media and won't shut up about Twitter.

Download the Slideshare version of this blog post.

Click to read more ...

What’s in a name? If the name is iPad, a great big joke.

Steve Jobs helped menstrual humor go mainstream. That’s probably not what you’re looking for when you launch a new product.

 

Apple has been grooming the public over the past decade. With the release of the iPod Touch and the iPhone, we’ve been subtly conditioned by Apple to use the iPad. From initial reports, using the iPad is just like using the iPhone, only bigger. With 75 million iProducts sold, Apple has a built-in audience virtually guaranteeing success. 

But that doesn’t mean they’re invulnerable. In 2009, we saw Tropicana redesign their brand and suddenly disappear from the market as people couldn’t find their distinctive logo. Gatorade changed their logo to a big “G” and fans were not amused. Now Apple has launched the iPad. For those of us not baptized into the Cult of Apple, it’s easy to sit back and laugh at the product and the somewhat unfortunate connotations the name brings to mind.

When it was still rumored, the iPad had lots of names including iTablet and iSlate (both of which would have been a better choice). It’s curious that Apple would pick a name that could so easily be mocked and linked with feminine hygiene products. In a blog post on the New York Times, Claire Cain Miller goes into detail about how women have cringed at the name. On Twitter, the word “iTampon” is more popular than “iPad”, with the hashtag #iTampon hitting the top spot for trending topics. Here are some of the funniest tweets: 
 

@celeva93: Uncomfortable cramping and bloating? There's an app for that 

@godispretend Steve Jobs, I'ma let you finish, but Moses had the greatest tablet announcement of all time. #itampon

@melizeche "I'm not buying an iPad. Period." #iTampon

@kathycacace: Okay, just one more. The iPad: protecting your data from embarrassing incidents. #iTampon 

@Johnpapa: "64 gig iPad will forever be known as the heavy flow model." #iTampon 

@Lymed: Does the Period Tracker app come free? #iPad, #iTampon

@NellMood: It's so beautiful when an electronics company finally becomes a woman... #iPad #iTampon

@vlvtjones: So will iffy Wifi coverage be called iSpotting? #iPad #iTampon

@DaniGray: You can do things with #iTampon that you just can't do with #iPad - like biking, horseback riding and swimming.LOL

@Knightd427: Please follow all safety precautions when applying iPad. Remember, iPad does not protect against STDs such as SYFY. #itampon

And then there was the obligatory “Hitler responds” video:

Someone even found a MadTV sketch from 2006 that featured an iPad from Apple, though it has a slightly different use.

Apple had to have known they were going to alienate women and become the source of ridicule for others. The connection is to obvious. The question has been jokingly asked, “Are there any women on the marketing team for the iPad?” You have to wonder if they were there, why didn’t any of them object? The good news for Apple is they have such a strong brand that most of the criticism will have no long term effects on the sales of the product, but if a weaker brand had released this, it would probably have sunk the product before it went out the door.

Early reactions to the iPad have been mixed. Gizmondo is giving it a big thumbs down but TechCrunch has been very positive. It’s too early to tell if the iPad will be the big hit Apple hopes it will be or if it will be another toy used by a few to feel more elite. In the meantime, there is a heavy flow of jokes to be made at Apple’s expense while we wait to get the product in our hands.

Stefan Halley is the Digital Project Leader for The Duffy Agency. He loves to talk about social media and won't shut up about Twitter.

Click to read more ...

A complete list of Apple iPad features

Steve Jobs’ latest creation has the tech world in an uproar, but will it really revolutionize our lives?

 

The level of excitement surrounding the release of Apple’s newest product, the iPad, is normally reserved for the likes of Star Trekkers, comic book geeks and sci-fi convention goers. The Cult of Apple is strong among those that consider themselves to be hip and trendy. There are very good reasons for this fanboy behavior. Over the past decade, Steve Jobs has taken his company from the brink of collapse to one of the strongest and best known brands today, launching products that have helped shape our modern lives. Coming off a string of hits like iTunes, the iPod and iPhone, Apple’s iPad is sure to be a must have product.

The internet has been a buzz with rumor of what exactly this product will be and tonight the rumors can end. Jason Calacanis leaked many features earlier today through his Twitter account. Jobs has finally revealed his latest brain child and the list of features is even more impressive than we expected. 

• .5 inches thin
• 1.5 pounds
• 9.7 inch IPS display
• powered by 1GHz Apple A4 chip
• Available in 16 GB, 32GB or 64GB 
• Bluetooth 2.1 + EDR
• full capacity multitouch
• WiFi 802.11n
• Accelerator + compass
• Speaker
• Microphone
• 30 pin connector
• 10 hour battery life, with a month of standby
• resizeable apps
• runs all iPhone apps
• apps bought for iPhone can be transferred to iPad without additional cost
• iPhone SKD support the iPad
• built in iTunes store, YouTube and YouTube HD
• smooth iPhone like scrolling
• built-in calendar
• click through photos and email like iPhone
• change view screen from horizontal to vertical by movie iPad
• menus pop down from the top
• onscreen popup keyboard
• iPhoto access with Google geolocations tied in
• iTunes access is similar to the laptop interface
• GPS
• built in painting app
• live video within apps
• iBooks, Amazon Kindle like book reader. They have deals in place with Simon & Schuster, Penguin, HarperCollins, MacMillan and Hatchett Book Group.
• changeable font in iBooks
• iWorks redesigned for iPad
• iWorks apps will be priced at $9.99 a piece
• projector connection
• syncs to iTunes like iPod and iPhone does via USB
• $14.99 for up to 250 MB of data
• $29.99 for unlimited data
• free use of ATT WiFi hotspots
• iPad 3G models come unlocked and uses new GSM micro SIMs
• international deals by June/July
• pricing starts at $499 up to $699
• shipping in 60 days
• keyboard docking station
• Kindle like case can be used as a stand
• no multitasking
• no phone
• no camera
• no built in DVD player

Only time will tell if the iPad will be the next iPhone or the next Newton. All signs point to it being the former, but there’s certainly room for failure. It’s not a cheap piece of hardware (and there’s a bit of a recession going on, last I heard), and exactly what it’ll do for your average Joe to change their day-to-day life isn’t crystal clear. The iPod let us carry thousands of songs in our pocket. The iPhone turned mobile phones into mobile computers. What mobile need is the new tablet really satisfying? The need to carry an entire mobile entertainment center with us wherever we go?

If you’re planning on buying an iPad, leave a comment and tell us why you think it’s worth putting down your hard earned cash for when you’ve already got a laptop, an MP3 player and a smart phone. As for us, we’re still debating whether or not to join the fans camping out overnight to get one the day it’s released. Maybe we’ll see you there. 

APPLE FACTS:

250 million iPods sold

284 Apple Stores

50 million visitors last quarter

140,000 apps

3 billion downloads

50.6 billion in revenue last year

World's largest mobile device company

Click to read more ...

Rumored Apple Tablet Features

 

The highly anticipated Apple Tablet/iSlate/iPad is being announced today.  Mahalo founder Jason Calacanis on his Twitter profile leaked some of the presumed features of the new device. He has been playing with one for the past two weeks. If what he says proves to be true, then Steve Jobs will once again have out done himself. But, the road to success hasn’t always been an easy one for Apple and their list of bombed devices almost out weights their successes. Jason lists the following features.

• connects to other tablets over wifi for gaming
• two cameras for video conferencing, one in the front and one in the back
• solar panel to help recharge the battery
• thumbpads on each side for mouse gestures
• fingerprint identification
• runs multiple apps at the same time
• OLED screen
• price will be $599, $699 and $799 depending on size and memory
• built in HDTV tuner and pvr
• wireless keyboard and mouse for TV

Fans have their hopes set so astronomically high there could well be a major letdown looming. But if it can do everything we're dreaming it can, maybe it will be that next leap forward.  We’ll have to wait and see what materializes later today. 

You can watch the big reveal at these sites.

Macrumorslive

Engadget

Gizmodo Live

Svenska Macworld

Slashgear

Click to read more ...

4 tools to add your RSS feed to your Twitter profile

With so many social media websites, the more you can automate your processes, the easier it is to stay on top of things. If you create a lot of content in a week, you can spend just as much time promoting your work as producing it, and who has time for that. 

RSS feeds give you a great solution for reducing this workload. Every blog these days has an RSS feed built into it. With it, you can update your Twitter, Facebook, LinkedIn or MySpace account with your latest updates instantly. But not all RSS feed tools were created equal. 

I sat down with my co-workers and created a wish-list of qualities that we as marketing people want in an RSS feeder tool. As usual, all the tools have to be free and not require a download. Beyond that, we wanted to be able to:

• have an easy-to-use interface
• get the hang of it quickly
• send updates to Twitter and other sites
• easily configure it
• add hashtags
• determine the number of updates
• change how often it updates our accounts
• have some form of useable analytics
• selectable URL shortening software


The evaluation method was simple. I visited each site and registered. After my profile loaded, I took a screenshot of the interface and then spent about ten minutes looking around the site. A decent site should be able to explain itself in that time. After using the application, I rated each site against my wish list.

 

TwitterFeed is probably the best known of the RSS feeder tools. Signing up is simple and they allow you to use OpenID to register with the site. This means if you already have a Gmail account (and who doesn’t these days), you don’t have to create a new account to use TwitterFeed. You can add as many RSS feeds as you want and they can feed any number of Twitter, Laconica, Ping.fm, Hellotxt and Facebook accounts. You don’t have to worry about flooding your audience with information as it allows you to choose how often it updates and how many of your posts it pulls. You can also change what content gets posted – title only, title & description or description only. There are 21 different shortening link settings and you can add either a post prefix or suffix to make use of hashtags.

PROS: Very easy and highly functional RSS tool. Lots of features and the ability to add multiple accounts and limitless feeds make TwitterFeed an extremely effective single feature site.

CONS: The built-in analytics on the site don’t provide much insight. It’s best used in conjunction with another site like Bit.ly.

RATING: Thumbs Up

RSS2 Twitter is very similar to TwitterFeed, except it’s more limited. You add an RSS feed, decide what to include (title, description, or both), which Twitter account to update, filter keywords and add a prefix. It also automatically shortens URLs and provides analytics on the number of clicks you get from your links. The site uses OAuth to login, which makes it easy to login without a needlessly elaborate form. 

PROS: Easy to use and customizable. The analytics look good with an easy to understand chart.

CONS: Needs more features. Hopefully RSS2 Twitter will add more customizable features to their service. Doesn’t allow you to add additional social media sites. Doesn’t allow 3rd party URL shortening.

RATINGS: Thumbs down

Hootsuite is basically a browser based version of TweetDeck. The site allows you to monitor and update your Twitter feed, create columns to monitor based on hashtags or keywords, has built-in statistics and you can update multiple social networks. Hootsuite is a great online tool and one that makes monitoring your Twitter profile from any computer very easy without having to use a downloadable client, like TweetDeck and Seesmic do. 

PROS: Easy to use, lots of features and the ability to add multiple RSS feeds and social media accounts makes it a great way to update your Twitter profile via RSS feed.

CONS: Hootsuite will only allow you to use their Ow.ly url shortening. This can come into conflict if you’re using Bit.ly or other URL shortening tools. There is also no ability to add hashtags to your post. 

RATINGS: Thumbs Up

Twt.sy is another solid entry into the RSS feeder category. The site allows you to add multiple feeds and Twitter profiles. It doesn’t allow you to add additional social media sites. When you add an RSS feed, you can adjust the tweet update times, what to include in the tweet and any prefixes and keywords to filter by. The main asset of this site is a dashboard that shows the number of clicks, the most popular clicks from that past hour, the most recent links and the links that have the most clicks. You can also see where clicks are originating from thanks to their mashup with Google Maps. It’s a unique feature to Twt.sy. 

PROS: Good use of analytics that no other site has. You can add multiple twitter accounts and RSS feeds.

CONS: Doesn’t allow for updating to additional social media sites. Doesn’t allow third party URL shortening. Needs to add more customizable features. 

RATING: Thumbs down

CONCLUSION:

All the sites in this category are useful tools. It comes down to personal taste and needs. I like to have as many features as possible and that’s why for an RSS feeder, I have to choose TwitterFeed. True, Hootsuite has more overall features but just looking at the RSS features, it falls a little short. If you’re not already using a Twitter interface client, I would recommend using Hootsuite because it will cover all your basic needs and then some. If you’re already using TweetDeck or Seesmic, the extra features aren’t necessary and TwitterFeed’s excellent abilities will more than meet your needs.

Stefan Halley is the Digital Project Leader for The Duffy Agency. He loves to talk about social media and won't shut up about Twitter.

Download the Slideshare version of this blog post.

Click to read more ...

6 ways to visualize your Twitter stream

Sometimes you need a visual aid to get your head around what’s happening on Twitter

Trying to explain Twitter in a presentation or grasp how popular a keyword is can be tricky. Fortunately, there are several sites that show what’s happening on Twitter in a fun, visual presentation. They can strengthen your presentations by illustrating how Twitter works or make a more compelling event by dynamically showing people what’s being tweeted about.

I sat down with my co-workers and created a wish-list of qualities that we as marketing people want in an Twitter visualization tool. As usual, all the tools have to be free. Beyond that, we wanted to be able to:

• have an easy-to-use interface
• get the hang of it quickly
• stream tweets based on keywords
• easily configure it
• make our tweets visually interesting
• have adjustable settings


The evaluation method was simple. I visited each site and registered. After my profile loaded, I took a screenshot of the interface and then spent about ten minutes looking around the site. A decent site should be able to explain itself in that time. After using the application, I rated each site against my wish list.

Tori’s Eye  takes an origami approach to Twitter visualization. The site is highly visual and easy to use. Enter the word you want to track and watch the blue birds float by as the occasional cloud passes in the background. You can see what tweets are wafting by by holding your cursor over the bird. You get the Twitter account name, a link to their profile, when it was said and the tweet.

PROS:
Easy to use and very visual.
CONS:
No features outside of the ability to search on a word. It would be nice to see tweets maybe trailing behind the birds instead of having to click on the birds to read the message.

RESULTS: Thumbs Up

Twittospheric works the same way as Tori’s Eye. You enter a keyword and the site searches Twitter for the results. Except it doesn’t work very well. Initially it looks impressive. The Twitter bird slides past the screen and the user profile image appears, a link to the tweeter’s profile and their tweet appear in a little box. When you do a search, it appears to break the site. The birds still fly by but they no longer display any tweets.

PROS:
Easy to use and visually interesting
CONS:
Once you add a search word, the site quits working. I waited for about 20 minutes and then moved on. It went into a search mode but never displayed anything again.

RATING: Thumbs Down

TWITTERMOTION

TwitterMotion is an interesting concept done horribly wrong. It presents the tweets in an interesting way. You enter your Twitter name and password, then your tweets fly by in oversized text. Initially it looks quite fun but then you realize that you can barely read the tweets as they fly by. It’s worth looking at once but the gimmick wears thin quickly.

PROS:
Visually interesting way to display your tweets.
CONS:
Hard to read and understand what you’re looking at.

RATING: Thumbs Down

Twitt3D this black and white site is visually interesting but difficult to use. After logging into the site, it displays the most recent tweets from your followers in a 3D block. Focusing in on a tweet takes a bit of playing with to get the hang of. The tweet shows up on the vertical plain, while the tweeter is on a 90 degree perpendicular angle. There is also something called a Bird’s Eye Map but I never figured out what it was for.

PROS:
Visually interesting and fun to play with.
CONS:
Difficult to understand how it works or what you’re looking at. Once you submit your Twitter username and password, it runs its search and then never updates again. I’m not sure what the point of the site is except to present tweets in a convoluted fashion.

RATING: Thumbs Down

Twittearth is a cute view of the world with little monsters representing tweeters in different parts of the world. As new tweets appear, the globe spins to show where in the world the tweet is coming from. It takes a random sampling of tweets to display. You can login to your Twitter account to display the tweets in your Twitter stream but it appears to be broken as I could never login.

PROS:
Simple and fun to use. Watching the world spin around as new tweets pop up is fun to watch.
CONS:
It’s worthless if you can’t control it. You can’t login to display your Twitter stream and you can’t enter a keyword to track.

RATING: Thumbs Down

Twitterfall is the most adaptable site. You can select a current trend, a list, do a search, or show tweets based on geolocation. As each tweet appears, you can DM, follow, retweet, reply and more. They also give you customizable setting such as speed at which new tweets appear, the fall size, language selection, text size and more. It’s a great site with lots of features to make it more useable.

PROS:
Despite having a ton of features, the site is simple to use and easy to understand. The waterfall effect as new tweets appear keeps new tweets easy to read.
CONS:
You have to refresh the page to get new searches to work sometimes. Not very visually exciting.

RATING: Thumbs Up

CONCLUSION: The clear winner here would be Twitterfall. It’s not the most creatively visual, that would be Tori’s Eye, but it offers the most features and customizability with six different ways to change your viewing experience. Nothing else even comes close...or works. How do you like to see Twitter visualized?

Stefan Halley is the Digital Project Leader for The Duffy Agency. He loves to talk about social media and won't shut up about Twitter.

Download the Slideshare version of this blog post.

Click to read more ...

7 social media predictions for 2010

2009 was a great year for social media. Twitter went mainstream and Facebook dominated the world, replacing social networking websites that had a strong foothold in their country. As the world became more aware of social media and web 2.0 techniques, we saw some interesting marketing efforts from Pepsi, Fiat and Pringles, among others. With the new year upon us, let’s take a moment to look ahead at what we think will be the big game changers of the new year.

Micro communities - Facebook, MySpace and Twitter are the big impersonal dogs that dominate the social media world as we know it. People are starting to look for smaller, more relevant communities in the coming year. 2010 will see the rise of Ning, Xing and Linked In, as well as location based communities like Foursquare and Gowalla, which will be purchased and incorporated into Facebook and Google in 2011.

Facebook starts to slip - After obtaining the seemingly impossible in five years (350 million members), Facebook has justly secured their place as top dog in the social media world. There is no where to go but down from here. While expanding their functionality and destroying their credibility through poor decisions on how to handle user privacy, Facebook will lose members as users become overwhelmed with follow requests, app requests, security settings and a million other little things.

Google makes search more relevant - Google released real-time search at the end of 2009, but it’s not as refined as it could be. Google will continue to refine their search techniques based on the personal experience of the user. This means my search for a thai restaurant in San Francisco could be completely different from your search. Google rushed real-time search out in order to beat Bing to the punch, but expect it to be streamlined by the end of the year.

Gaming becomes more social - We talked about console gaming going social in our hugely popular blog post last month, but it’s just the tip of the iceberg. 2010 will be a rebirth in gaming with games not just linking to Facebook, Twitter and YouTube, but by allowing users to create original content through them as well. Add to that online gaming companies like Zynga, Playfish and Crowdstar who are expanding the capability of their games. Also, expect mobile gaming to go to great heights with the iPhone and Android phones changing the way we envision mobile gaming.

Big Brother won’t have to watch us – we’ll do it ourselves - In our ever expanding need to feel relevant and hip, we now do what people a decade years ago would have viewed as implausible. Privacy isn’t an issue like it used to be. We now tell people where we are and what we’re doing every moment. Thanks to Foursquare, Google Geotagging, Gowalla and Britekite, we can automatically update our location without lifting a finger. Expect this trend to continue, and get much more invasive, before it gets better.

iPhone loses ground to Android - Sure, the iPhone is great, but it has one major drawback: it’s only available on one phone. Now imagine the same software that makes the iPhone great spread over several phones with cheaper price-tags. The Android has the potential to be a game changer in next gen phone development. With several phones coming out in 2010, the huge market share that the iPhone now controls will quickly erode.

Companies discover how to use social media - 2009 was the year that businesses discovered that the internet isn’t just a children’s toy any more. 2010 will be the year that companies finally start using social media as an important marketing tool and will devote more of the advertising funds to online efforts. 2009 saw some interesting uses of Twitter, Facebook and iPhone apps as companies dipped their toes in the pond. Now that they’ve explored a little, expect some interesting online campaigns.

Click to read more ...

The Best Twitter Apps of 2009

 
Welcome to Twitter Tuesday. Every Tuesday we will post about Twitter. Stop by for advice and how to's for marketing professionals. Every other week we will post our AppQuest Edition featuring a review of Twitter applications.

For the last three months, we’ve been reviewing various online Twitter applications. We’ve covered five different subjects so far. Now that 2009 is coming to an end, I thought it would be a good idea to go back and look at our picks. Were we correct with our picks? Did they deliver the way we expected? Have we changed our minds from our original picks? In some cases, the sites worked better than expected and in other cases, we ended up using one of the other sites.

Back in September, we kicked off Twitter Tuesday: AppQuest Edition with a look at Twitter scheduling tools. What was our verdict?

Twitter Scheduling Apps

THEN: Overall, Twaitter came closest to my wish list. It did almost everything I wanted it to do. First and foremost, it’s very easy to use and understand. While it does a lot, it doesn’t overwhelm you. The designers really thought through the issues and how to solve them. But in the final analysis, I will go with Tweet-U-Later for one reason: It is the only app I found that makes it easy to have recurring tweets on the same day. When working with followers in different time zones this is essential for me. Coming in at the bottom of the list is Dynamic Tweets. Too many of the options that they want you to pay for can be found on other sites for free. Social Oomph needs to rethink their site design. It’s too cluttered and every link feels like it takes you to a sales page for the pay version. There’s a great looking user interface on Twit Robot, it’s just too bad programming glitches prevent you from using them.

NOW: Twaitter has become my first choice to schedule tweets. It’s easy to use and allows you to schedule Tweets at any time across any time zone. They disabled the ability to do recurring tweets due to Twitter concerns about spamming. These are valid concerns, but that doesn’t mean you can’t schedule recurring posts individually. In leu of a recurring tweet option, it would be nice to see a way to duplicate a tweet you want to repost. The RSS feed manager is still coming soon, but there is no word on when that will be implemented. 

Twitter Follower Management Apps

THEN: Refollow and Tweepular were the hands-down winners. Refollow slightly edged out Tweepular due to the variety of filtering options and the ability to tag and comment on user accounts. This is a great site for beginners as well as super users. Tweepular’s colorful design, broad functionality and suggested user tab make it a strong runner up. This is still a wide open field as the top two sites are miles ahead of the rest. I wouldn’t be surprised if there were more contenders in this arena soon that offer even more features.

NOW: After trying Refollow for a few days, I found that it didn’t work as well as I thought it did. When I went to look at the number of people that weren’t following me back, the list of people was never as big as I would find on other sites. This leads me to believe that it doesn’t pull in all your followers so you can manage them properly. Instead, I’ve turned more and more to Tweepular. It doesn’t have as many features, but I know it works like it should.

Twitter Profile Analyzing App

THEN: While TweetStats and Twitalyzer both had very useful analytics, neither came close to the depth and variety of Twitter Analyzer. Twitalyzer’s benchmarking tool is a great way to set goals for yourself. Combined with Twitter Analyzer, you have all the software you need to mount a Twitter campaign and measure its success. Because the analytics are live, you can make course adjustments on the fly to optimize your Tweeting.

NOW: Twitter Analyzer is still the best Twitter profile analyzer out there. It shows amazing amounts of analytics and information. They sometimes lose data, but some of that could depend on the whims of Twitter. They are still going to release two sections – Trends and Fun – but there’s no mention of what they will contain. I’m not complaining, though. For a free app, it’s one of the best available. In fact, it’s my favorite free Twitter app of 2009.

Twitter Polling Apps

THEN: While there were some sites that were easy-to-use, one trick ponies, it became clear it was worth putting a little extra effort into polls with the sites that offer more functionality. Twtpoll edged out Twttrstrm as it provided nearly all the features we wanted, while still being simple to use and visually appealing.

NOW: There is no comparison here – Twtpoll is hands down the best. The simple fact that it allows you to create 17 types of polls puts it in a class by itself. We’ve used it twice ourselves to poll our followers, and it didn’t disappoint. Check out this Twtpoll on the best ad agency blogs (which we just happened to have won). 

Twitter File Sharing Apps

THEN: TwitFS and FileTweet did the best, with TwitFS ultimately having the best features. It’s simple to use, accepts the largest files and allows you to share the file across multiple networks. Best of all, it works without any problems. FileTweet is good for a quick send if you don’t care about sending the file again or being able to delete it from the site’s servers. FileSocial is also recommended for its ability to view the files without having to download them. 

NOW: TwitFS is still really great. The shear amount of features is still pretty amazing, like the ability to email from the page, view the shared content online, download, html code to post your shared item on Twitter, blogs, Facebook, MySpace and message boards along with a page url and on-page embedding code. Next to Twitter Analyzer, it’s my favorite free Twitter app of 2009.

Looking into the new year, what are some free Twitter apps you would like us to review?

Click to read more ...

We wish you a social Christmas!

Our 5 favorite social media creations of the holiday season

As you’ve probably noticed, people are more reluctant than ever to send Christmas cards, whether it be for their wallets or the environment. But social media is picking up the slack to keep the holiday cheer running strong. Here are my five favorite ways to use social media to either send Christmas greetings, or just to inject some fun into the holiday season when it starts to wear thin.

Santa Yourself
I had nearly given up on finding something interesting among the hundreds of uninspired Facebook Christmas applications, but this one stole my heart. Mostly because you can make Santa look really creepy while going right to town in his dance number. It’s not Christmas until Santa makes children cry.

Redneck Christmas gifts
For the distinguished Southern gentleman or lady, here we have an exclusive selection of gifts for their refined tastes. Make their holiday season special with a ginger bread trailer home or a decorated outhouse.

Santa shoot-em-up

If an evaporating bank account and endless family gatherings are making you feel the need to shoot something, take out your stress with a Christmas flash game. My favorite is Deep Freeze – how can you go wrong with a heavily armed Santa and lots of cannon fodder?

Find out what list you’re on
Worried you’ve been too naughty to get any presents this year? Just ask Santa to check your tweets and he’ll let you know. He’ll send you a tweet with the verdict and what punishment/reward you get, all the while swaying drunkenly to some jovial music

Christmas cocktails
Speaking of swaying drunkenly, this iPhone app is ready to serve up a tasty holiday drink recipe whenever the occasion demands. Search by ingredient or give it a shake for a random suggestion. Just try not to embarrass yourself too badly in front of the in-laws.

Those were my favorites. Did I miss yours?

Jason Ross is a copywriter for The Duffy Agency. He loves working on both traditional and social media projects and speculating on the future of the ad industry. 

Click to read more ...

6 iPhone apps for mobile tweeting

 
Welcome to Twitter Tuesday. Every Tuesday we will post about Twitter. Stop by for advice and how to's for marketing professionals. Every other week we will post our AppQuest Edition featuring a review of Twitter applications.

What are the best Twitter iPhone clients?

Modern life is becoming increasingly mobile. To keep up with our on-the-go lifestyle, being able to call people is now only one entry on a long list of mobile functions that come with cell phones. Which is great because our escalating involvement in social networking sites makes it nearly impossible to be in front of a computer often enough to keep pace with the flow of conversation. But there are so many apps for mobile tweeting, it can be a bit of a headache to find the right one. We decided to figure out which Twitter apps for the iPhone were really worth our while. 

I sat down with my co-workers and created a wish-list of qualities that we as marketing people want in an iPhone Twitter app. As usual, all the apps have to be free. Beyond that, we wanted to be able to:

• have an easy-to-use interface
• get the hang of it quickly
• manage multiple accounts
• have a search function
• save searches
• retweet/reply/favorite
• see mentions/direct messages
• update location with map
• tweet pictures
• tweet videos
• shorten URLs
• have other fun features


The evaluation method was simple. I download every app to my phone, added my Twitter account details and took a screenshot. I played around with each app for 20 minutes. This time, it was more than enough to determine if the app was worth the download or not. Then, I compared it against my list and rated it.

 

 

TweetDeck is my personal favorite of the applications. It has one of the best user interfaces – instead of just using one column, it emulates the desktop version by having multiple columns. If you use TweetDeck on your desktop, the iPhone app is perfect for you. You can actually sync your desktop groups to your phone, but only up to six due to 3G connection issues. So if you’re used to the desktop interface, there’s basically no learning curve for the iPhone version. And if you want to manage multiple accounts from an iPhone, this is the right application.

PROS: Simple interface, syncs with the desktop version, status updates with your location, can tweet pictures and video, shortens URLs, quick follow and easy to manage replies, DMs and RTs

CONS: Need to manually create new columns for mentions, direct messages etc. for each account, no automatic landscape function

RATING:

Twitterrific one of the most popular mobile Twitter clients, but to me the interface is needlessly confusing. It’s not clear what the icons mean and the navigation is not intuitive. It took me a while to figure out how it works, but when I did it worked very well. It also has some cute quirks like flicking through profiles or double tapping to change views.

Quick search, view trends and nearby searches, change text size, multiple account management, easy to reply, caches tweets so you can read them even if you lose wireless connection

PROS: Quick search, view trends and nearby searches, change text size, multiple account management, easy to reply, caches tweets so you can read them even if you lose wireless connection

CONS: Free version has ads, interface is confusing, premium version far too expensive, everything on timeline so there’s no digging back

RESULTS:

The free version of TwitBird tries to differentiate itself from the other Twitter apps by using a main page layout that looks similar to the iPhone’s regular interface. The layout is nice, but the user interface makes you go back far too often. It’s useful to see the tweet and response in one frame, but it also means you have to do a lot more scrolling to read through recent tweets. TwitBird features nearby tweets, Twitter search, Twitpic support and the ability to create groups. One feature I really loved: Tweet what you are listening now, which tweets the song you listened to most recently or are listening to right then.

PROS: Clean design, takes a bit of time to learn, can tweet video and photos, use maps, shorten urls, use hashtags, cool extra features

CONS: Doesn’t support multiple accounts, impractical navigation



RESULTS:

This is the app version of the Twittervision website. It only has basic Twitter features, but it’s cool to watch the tweets pop up from across the globe. If you use your Twitter account in a more “serious” way, Twittervision isn’t something of practical use, but it’s good for entertainment value.

PROS: A fun, cool way to visualize tweets from around the world

CONS: Lacking a lot of Twitter functionality, plus my app crashed every time I tried to login with my Twitter details



RESULTS:




 

SimplyTweet Lite  has a bare bones interface, which is good as it makes the tweets easy to read. Tweets are displayed as little speech bubbles, which makes sense given the app’s focus on following conversations. If one of your followers replies to a tweet, you can easily see the entire conversation timeline with two quick taps. But it’s annoying that you have to scroll to the top of your Twitter feed to hit the refresh button.

PROS: Map, photo/video, nearby search, trends, clean design

CONS: Does not support multiple accounts, can’t save searches, impractical navigation



RESULTS:
 

Echofon (free) is the simplest and easiest to use app I tried out. It’s perfect for beginners. Navigation is a snap and the icons are all labelled, so there’s never any confusion about what they do, but it doesn’t stack up well against TweetDeck or Twitterrific. It uses a bright color scheme and new tweets are highlighted in an ugly blue/green. It’s easy to tweet, RT and send direct messages, but ultimately too basic compared to other Twitter apps to be something you’ll want to use in the long run.

PROS: Clean and easy, map, photo/video, easy to write replies



CONS: No extra features, no group searches, doesn’t support multiple accounts, ugly design



RESULTS:
 

CONCLUSION: There are some great free apps that give you the functionality you need, but you can’t get the really comprehensive stuff like Tweetelator Pro or Tweetie without paying. Among those that are free, many offer cool features, but aren’t practically useful. TweetDeck gets my pick as the best of the free apps because I’m a big fan of the TweetDeck desktop application, I can easily sync it with the mobile version and I can manage different accounts in a very organized way. 

Download the Slideshare version of this blog post

Click to read more ...

Is Facebook wearing out its welcome?

Musings on whether the good in Facebook will keep me coming back or the bad will annoy me away

As I’m sure you’ve all heard by now, Facebook has hit 350 million users. That’s well over the entire population of America. Not bad for something created 5 years ago in a dorm room.

This monumental success got me thinking about the great things Facebook has given us, and the not so great stuff that has tagged along with it. I’ve found myself growing out of Facebook recently because the annoying things are so persistent. But the good things that have hooked me, and hundreds of millions of others, keep me returning. For the time being, at least. I’m very curious to see if the increasing tedium of the social networking site won’t start to push those huge numbers back down in 2010, or at least slow its growth as users turn elsewhere.

Here are five reasons I keep visiting the world’s 2nd most visited website, and 5 things I could definitely live without.

I come to Facebook to …

Keep up with friends in other countries
As an expat, Facebook has been a godsend in making it easy to stay up to date on my friends’ lives from across the Atlantic, even salvaging some sense of the intimacy that was lost when I moved.

Share my internet finds
At the moment, Facebook is the most effective way to share funny/interesting videos or articles I find with all my friends at once. I don't want them to miss out on gems like the literal version of Under the Bridge, after all.

Check out and share photos
Photo tagging is a great idea. Not only can I share photos with friends and family, I can see all the ones I’m in and the ones my friends are in. It lets me look into their lives with minimal time and effort. The upcoming photo tag search will make this even better. 

Easily organize events
Right now Facebook provides the easiest way for me to organize a party, as trying to get each and every person on the phone individually is always a chore. Things like this are what Facebook should be all about - making people’s lives easier by connecting them in a useful way.

Remember people’s birthdays
I used to forget everyone’s birthday, but Facebook tells me every day whose is coming up next. It’s a little thing, but a big help for someone as forgetful as me.

And leave because of the …

Unchecked narcissism
This comes in many forms, from picture after picture of someone showing off their muscles (or muscle cars), to constant updates about every little thing someone does, to shameless self promotion. Many, many people can’t resist shouting LOOK AT ME every five seconds when they’re given an audience, and Facebook provides them with an audience around the clock. This is undoubtably why millions of people are clamoring for an “unlike” button.

Mafia Wars and other irritating apps
I actually kind of miss seeing inane updates from friends in my mini feed, because now it’s full of ‘accomplishments’ they’ve achieved in digital farming or pretend mafia warfare. Moreover, the novelty of seeing what people are up to has worn off and I hardly read updates at all anymore. Even more annoying, Mafia Wars has spilled over to Twitter as well with people tweeting their accomplishments and sending DM’s requesting I join. Please, give it a rest. I don’t care and I never will.

Utterly pointless content
I’m sure glad to know my friend Stefan is a fan of grilled cheese sandwiches and Carlos is a fan of the cold side of the pillow. I get that these are more gags than anything, but my tolerance for such a large amount of fluff content is decreasing as social media platforms become more refined and focused.

But it does look all melty and yummy...

Too-much-information status updates
This is another reason I hardly look at the mini feed anymore. There’s so much info in there that I don’t need, or want, to know. But on the plus side, TMI updates have given us facebookfails.com.

Reads best in valley girl voice

Overbearing dominance
Like it or not, you’re pretty much forced to be on Facebook to stay in the loop. Even my most stalwart friends who resisted for ages have given in and created profiles. Hell, my grandmother even has one. Somehow the fun and novelty of the whole experience is lost when it nears mandatory status.

It seems hard to believe right now that Facebook will just fade away, but it’s happened before (I’m looking at you, MySpace) and it could happen again if Facebook isn’t careful. I used to think life without Facebook would suck, but now I’m feeling ready for something new to come along. But maybe it’s just me. Do you see yourself still visiting Facebook every day a couple years from now?

Jason Ross is a copywriter for The Duffy Agency. He loves working on both traditional and social media projects and speculating on the future of the ad industry. 

Click to read more ...

Social media tools to help you sort through the Cyber Monday chaos

There was a time when the after Thanksgiving price dropping frenzy was confined to the US. But a few years ago, some enterprising marketers went and created Cyber Monday – the online equivalent to Black Friday – letting shoppers across the world wide web get in on the action.

While the online slash fest is a great opportunity for every Christmas shopper on a budget, the vast amount of offers is staggering. To help you find your way to the deal you’ve been dreaming of, check out these social media tools that that help organize the madness into digestible chunks. 

Apps
The DealNews.com iPhone app was originally only geared towards Black Friday, but it’s now expanded to send the best Cyber Monday deals directly to your phone, minimizing the time you need to spend searching yourself.

If you’re in the States and combing the stores today, TGI Black Friday is a huge help in comparing deals on the go. It’s also useful for Monday, as many sellers feature the same deals online on Monday as in stores on Friday.

Twitter
Another way to have the deals sent directly to you is by following the Twitter feeds dedicated to finding Cyber Monday’s best deals. CyberMonday.com and Dealighted both provide nice feeds with frequently updated info and links to coupons. 

http://twitter.com/cyber_monday
http://twitter.com/dealightedcom


Facebook
Many retailers are using their Facebook pages to announce Cyber Monday deals early, so it could be worthwhile to join some new fan pages to get a head start.

Etsy is using Facebook to aggregate all their sellers for a huge Cyber Monday sale, check them out if you’re interested in handmade crafts.

If you need some gifts for the little ones, visit the Toys’r’Us Facebook page. They’re letting people vote on which toys they want to see go on sale on Monday.  

Deal Aggregators
And last but not least are the good old fashioned website aggregators. They let you search through deals from various stores by product category and price range. Cybermonday.com and cybermonday.fm are quite comprehensive resources for all your armchair shopping needs.

These were the best tools out there I could find. Do you have any social media tips for taking advantage of this year’s Cyber Monday?

Click to read more ...

9 Twitter apps that make it easy to share files

Welcome to Twitter Tuesday. Every Tuesday we will post about Twitter. Stop by for advice and how to's for marketing professionals. Every other week we will post our AppQuest Edition featuring a review of Twitter applications.

How do you share files on Twitter?

Growing your followers means you will move beyond the people that you personally know. I’ve met scores of people on Twitter that I will never meet in real life. I also don’t have personal contact information for many of the people I know on Twitter either. So how do you send someone a file online without their email address? Surprisingly, there are at least nine different sites that can answer that question for you. From presentations to mp3s to documents to zip files and anything else, they can now be sent via Twitter. This really opens up the use of Twitter from a simple communication tool to a new way to share large amounts of information.

I sat down with my co-workers and created a wish list of qualities that we as marketing people want in a Twitter file sharing tool. Of course, all the apps have to be free, easy-to-use and require no downloadable client. Beyond that, we wanted to be able to:

• store at least 15 mb of data
• share multiple file types: mp3, doc, ppt, zip, pictures, videos
• public and private tweets
• use OAuth so you don’t have to create a new account
• have it self-delete after a certain amount time
• share across multiple platforms

The evaluation method was simple. I visited each site and registered. After my profile loaded, I took a screenshot of the interface and then spent about ten minutes looking around the site. A decent site should be able to explain itself in that time. After using the application, I rated each site against my wish list.


 

Tweetcube allows you to upload zip, rar, pdf, jpg, png, gif, mp3 and txt files. Or at least it says it says it does. I could only get to step two and wasn’t able to upload anything. According to Tweetcube, you can upload as many 10 mb files as you want, and after 30 days they get deleted. Or you could if it worked. Ten megabytes seems to be the lower end of the uploading spectrum anyway. 

PROS: You can upload up to 10 mb, uses Twitter OAuth so you don’t have to create an account.

CONS: It doesn’t work. Tried several times over two days to use the site. At first it wouldn’t let me login. After I got past that, I was never able to upload a file.

RATING:

 

Tweetmojo allows you to share videos, photos, files and tweets of up to 1400 characters long. There is no mention of upper size limit on file sharing and a tweet to their Twitter account didn’t get a reply. I tried uploading a 36 MB pdf and after waiting 10 minutes, nothing happened. It didn’t give me any indication that the file is being uploaded, so I don’t know if I didn’t wait long enough or if it never tried to upload the file. The Twitter OAuth didn’t work either so I could never log in to post anything to Twitter. There is also a timeline so you can see what other people have uploaded from the site. Tweetmojo does allow you to record your own video and post it from the site by using the Viddler video recorder. That is, if the sign in feature worked.

PROS: Allows you to upload any file type and you can record you own videos from the site. Nice feature that allows you to add long posts without having to upload a file.

CONS: It didn’t work. I was able to upload smaller photo files and record a video, but could never sign in to Twitter to use it.

RATING:

 

Twi.tt gives you the ability to upload pictures, videos, documents, audio and create a poll. The screen is divided into tabs so you can select from which area you want to upload. Under each tab is a selection of options, such as upload from computer, get from website, capture from webcam or post by email. Most of the these options aren’t available yet but there is a message that it should “be added in just a few days.” You can choose between posting your file to Twitter or just putting it in the Twi.tt public timeline. There is no mention of file size or how your files are hosted on their system or for how long.

PROS: Hurray, it works! There doesn’t appear to be a file size limit and a 29 MB file uploaded just fine.

CONS: Most of the site’s features don’t work yet. It’s unclear what happened to your uploads after you share them.

RATING:

 

TwitFS offers a free non-account version, which is pretty good. You can upload up to 100 MB at once, you can share videos, audio, pictures and documents, and you can publish to Twitter, blogs, Facebook, MySpace, message boards and send via email. You can also store your file for 30 days, send a direct message to an individual or message everyone in your tweetstream. Once uploaded, your file gets its own page and you can share the url or embed it in another program. If you register with TwitFS, you can upload a file up to 250 MB, a file manager, a direct link to the file, parallel downloads and unlimited file storage. For a small fee starting at $0.99, you get up to 2.5 GB maximum file size.

PROS: It does everything we could want from a file sharing site. It’s worth registering with the site for added features.

CONS: Um....can’t find any.

RATING:

 

Filetweet is the simplest of the file sharing systems. You can send a file to an email account or a Twitter profile, attach a file, add a message and decide if you want to send a private message or not. It’s that simple, though it’s unclear how long the file stays on their servers. You can see recent uploads, but you can’t resend them or delete the files. Also, I received an error message every time I tried to send a file to an email account.

PROS: Very simple to use. Login with your Twitter account and you can send a file to all your followers or via direct message. The upper file size limit is 100 MB, which is huge. If you need to send a file quickly, this is the easiest way to go.

CONS: You can’t access files you’ve already sent. If you want to resend a file, you have to upload it again.

RATING:

 

Filesocial is the prettiest site of the file sharing tools. You can upload any file up to 50 MB and post it to your public Twitter timeline. The file is stored on their servers for an unknown amount of time. Filesocial sends out a message to your Twitter stream with a TinyURL. People can view your file, download it or leave a message on it. It also opens the file without having to download it. There is also a downloadable client that allows you to drag and drop files you want to share.

 

PROS: Easy tool that allows you to share any type of file on Twitter.

CONS: Filesocial only allows you to post to Twitter. You can take that URL and share it on other sites or post in an email, but you can’t do that directly from the site.

RATING:

 

FileTwt is another simple site. You enter your Twitter username and password, enter a 114 character message and upload a file up to 20 MB. The file then goes out on your public Twitter stream. The site creates a TinyURL that links back to a page where you can download the file. It works basically the same as Filesocial, but not as well. It also offers the ability to sign up for an account, which allows you to send private tweets, better storage and allows for creating a friend list to send files to. The friend list isn’t a complete list of your Twitter followers.

PROS: Easy to use and share files with a simple one step process.

CONS: You don’t get a link to your file unless you go to your Twitter stream and find the tweet. The registered version doesn’t pull in all your friends and doesn’t give you the option to add friends that are missing.

RATING:

 

TwitDoc uses the Twitter OAuth to log you into their account. You can upload up videos up to 25MB, documents up to 15MB and photos up to 10MB. I’m not sure why they are using different file sizes for each type of file. Once you’ve uploaded your file and sent your tweet, you get a TinyURL, which links to a page where you file is. It’s a simple site that gives you the ability to share files quickly and easily. There is also a downloadable client that allows you to use the site’s features from your desktop.

PROS: Easy to use single function site.

CONS: There is no list of all the files you upload. You can’t control the files once they are uploaded if you don’t have the URL. It doesn’t handle audio files.

RATING:

 

Acamin is designed with a nod to the academic community. That doesn’t mean it’s limited to that field. You can post files to your Facebook, Twitter or LinkedIn account. I tried adding a picture and was given a series of error messages before finally being told that my image was posted to my Twitter account. When I clicked on the URL to link back to the image, I got a “This file is not available!” error message. According to the icons on the page, you can attach a file to an email, publish it online, get the code to embed your file and convert it to a pdf.

PROS: The ability to publish files on Twitter, Facebook and LinkedIn, as well as being able to convert documents to a pdf file.

CONS: It doesn’t work. I counted at least six error messages before the site attempted to send the file, then got another error message after posting.

RATING:

Conclusion: TwitFS and FileTweet did the best with TwitFS ultimately having the best features. It’s simple to use, accepts the largest files and allows you to share the file across multiple networks. Best of all, it works without any problems. FileTweet is good for a quick send if you don’t care about sending the file again or being able to delete it from the site’s servers. FileSocial is also recommended for it’s ability to view the files without having to download them.  

Stefan Halley is the Digital Project Leader for The Duffy Agency. He loves to talk about social media and won't shut up about Twitter.

Download the Slideshare version of this blog post.

Click to read more ...