It would appear that I have settled on Hootsuite as my all round social dashboard and Twitter app (Brizzly changed this a little but I’ll go into that some other time). The search was for a desktop/mobile combo and has mainly been between Seesmic, Hootsuite and Tweetdeck.

Just to give you a bit of a primer I use Linux as my main desktop so decent native applications can be hard to come by (I prefer web apps for their portability anyway) and I have an Android phone so until the other day that ruled out Tweetdeck. As for seesmic, I didn’t find the web app that exciting.

I’m not going to go into every functionality of Hootsuite, most of which every other Twitter app can do. I’m just going to pass on the things I find it does better than others and the reasons why I make it my number one.

The Mobile App

I know I probably bang on about Android a lot but bare with me for a bit. I’ve spend the last couple of months searching for a Twitter App I was happy with. I think I probably tried about 10. Some were great until you get round to using all the features and realise it’s either missing or performs those functions horribly. Quite a sizable chunk of the desicion was on the aesthetics of the App, I don’t want to spend my time using something that looks horrible or makes me sick. I wont mention the ‘sickening’ ones but the best looking by far would definitely be Seesmic.

The free version of Hootsuite provides me with plenty of functionality, for now. But seeing as I’ve settled on it I might pay for the full version to get the whole package and loose the promoted tweets. It would be great to have acess to Facebook like you do on the desktop version but it’s no deal breaker for me. I don’t even use the desktop version for FB much, only for admin on a couple of pages. So I guess it would be great to update those on the go from inside Hootsuite. Definitely something I’d pay more for.

Timeline Position:

This is an absolute must for me. Other apps provide settings to keep the timeline position from where you last left it but I found they all returned to the top either after a certain ammount of time of if there were too many tweets. Hootsuite was the only one to remain in place, even after leaving it for the best part of a week. Meaning I would never miss a tweet (not that I’d read a weeks worth of tweeting but its good to have the option.) It is a bit of an obsession reading every tweet, something i will inevitebly loose control of the more people i follow, but hey.

Save & Share Tweets:

This is a feature that I though of as pretty useless at first but now i’m using it all the time. Hootsuite allows you to save tweets then send them to other apps (email etc). I find this really handy in a situation when I have a lot of tweets to read but not so much time to get through them. So I skim through the timeline and when I find something which I think interesting/useful, say a tweet with a link, picture or any information, I save that tweet then carry on through your timeline. When I’m done I email them to myself to sift through later.

On the Desktop

Though this strictly isn’t a desktop application I use the application shortcuts in Chrome to make it feel like it is, and I’ve found it to have much greater functionality and control than most. Here are some examples.

Analytics:

This is a new edition to the desktop version. You simply add your Google Analytics key for your website and you can use it to track the number of visits to your site with an overlay of your number of tweets along with some other data such as traffic sources etc. I’ve found the more I tweet the more visits i get. Makes sense, especially when I’m promoting blog posts!  You can use it to track a number of websites (no idea what the limit is) and overlay tweets from any of the Twitter accounts you have. As you can see below.

Social Accounts:

The mobile app as Ive said is fine but the desktop version is perfect for taking control of your social profiles across the web. They’ve even added WordPress. I haven’t found it useful though as my WP posts are quite laboured, not something I can knock out in one go. It would be perfect for posterous though. I hope they add support for Posterous!

In terms of sheer number of accounts (Twitter, Facebook & FB Pages, MySpace, LinkedIn, Foursquare etc) Hootsuite seems to have edged ahead slightly compared to Tweetdeck and Seesmic.  I may be wrong but in terms of services that are useful to me, it is the best.

The Perfect Combo

So for the moment Hootsuite on the computer and on the go serves me very well. Particularly being able to track links with Ow.ly sent on the Dektop and Phone right inside the web version.

Hootsuite has announced it’s new pricing plans which will come into effect for current users in this next week. There is a still a free option and the other plans do come with free trials so I’ll probably give one a go and weigh up how much I’m willing to pay, if anything.

I’ve also been trying out Tweetdeck for Android and have quite taken to it. I’ll see how it goes when it gets a proper release. It might turn out the Hootsuite glove doesn’t fit so well any more.

I haven’t posted anything here for sometime so here’s a little something to keep you going. It’s also something I’ve been wanting to share.

PS: Anyone who is waiting for the SoundCloud review, don’t worry it’s coming soon!

In my recent refresher course in social media the thing I’ve taken to most is Twitter. What I’d like to do now is share with you five (relatively) cool things that have happened to me since I started using twitter. These will also help demonstrate the power and applications of Twitter.

#1 – Getting a Re-Tweet from someone important.

A couple of posts back I wrote a brief review of AudioBoo. I shared this post on Twitter and shortly after I was notified of a Re-Tweet. “That’s not so special” you might say, but the RT actually came from the founder of AudioBoo; Mr Mark Rock. His remarks, and I quote; “Nice review”.

Yeah, check that one out!

Ok so he didn’t say “Amazing review” or “Best review ever” but that’s not the point. It could’ve said “Terrible review” for all I care and I’d be just as happy. The fact is he found it and actually read it. Which I think you’ll find is due to the awesome power of Twitter.

#2 – Getting your first #FF or #FollowFriday

It’s a big milestone for any Twitter user to have someone else recommend you to their followers. Not something to be taken lightly. To date I’ve only had one #FF and it was a sound related Tweet so I must be doing something right. Thanks again @BenoitMoi

#3 – Using hashtags to participate in an event.

Following hashtags is great for keeping up with events. Most recently, here in the UK during the general election (see #GE2010 or #ukelection) and obviously the rather tongue-in-cheek #ashtag.

I participated in celebrating Record Store Day which took place on 17^th April 2010. On that day you would’ve found me queueing up outside Piccadilly Records in Manchester at seven in the morning. A hashtag had been created for the event which spread quickly: #rsd10.

While in the queue (for three hours by the way!) I had quite some time to waste. So I started Tweeting about what I was up to and I signed off all my Tweets with #rsd10 #Manchester. Before long people who were following the hashtag were replying to me and I ended up talking to people who were at the back of the queue or on their way to the event asking how long the queue was.

This is another great demonstration of connecting with people you may never have met through Twitter.

#4 – Getting added to a Twitter list

This may not be so significant but it’s still another mile stone for a new Twitter user and it does help show how you are received by other Twitter users in how they go about categorising you.

Some lists I’ve been added to:

@BenoitMio/sound

It’s a good feeling to be added to a list of a topic on which you are really interested in.

@thedharmablues/manchester-collective “The Greater Manchester Collective – People/Organisations from in and around Manchester.”

This one happened after Tweeting about Manchester based events like ‘Sounds From The Other City‘

@Farske/sound-design

This is an interesting one because I don’t follow @Farske and they don’t follow me. I can only guess they added me to a list because they want to keep track of me but don’t want me to clog up their stream.

#5 – Social Metrics?

This last one is a bit of a weird one but does show how once you tweet something you no longer own it as it’s released into the public domain.

I was looking at some social analytic and metrics tools and typed my name into www.HowSociable.com then found that one of my Tweets was on an aggregated list of updates about Synth Britannia, with mine at the top none-the-less. What a crazy world!

I hope you enjoyed reading this as much as I have writing it. For those of you who aren’t into Twitter, if this doesn’t sway you a little bit it will at least explain why I like it so much.

Recently, on my virtual travels I came across this article titled ‘Is Twitter Replacing the RSS Reader?’. It got me thinking because in my current situation this is what is actually happening.

RSS made our lives easier by bringing the news to us rather than having to go out looking for it. But now (although not working in the same way) Twitter can distribute information at a much faster rate, it also gives us a better chance of finding things we may not have come across before.

When I started out with Twitter and was looking for people to follow, I took inspiration from my RSS feeds. Now many people tend to advertise their blog postings through Twitter and as the RSS feed is already bringing in the new content there is this duplication occuring. Because of this I find I’m not relying on my RSS reader as much any more. In fact as it’s been so neglected that things have gotten completely out of control, to the point where I’d have to delete huge streams of updates as I’d never have the time to browse through them all.

This is a shame as I now don’t know what I’ve missed out on or if it could have been useful to me. At least with Twitter, if you miss something chances are if it’s of any use you’ll come across it again. Twitter has far more to offer as you can get more effective recommendations on content through re-tweets, trending topics and and memes. You could even set-up a search using Twitter and use this to aggregate content relevant to you.

I’m don’t think Twitter can replace RSS entirely (as it’s well established, universal and very useful) but I do think it will certainly change the way we use it.

Does anyone have any thoughts on this or are you having a similar experience?

OK, originally this post was meant to be about SoundCloud, then it was going to be on AudioBoo. In the end I though why not talk about both and give a rundown of their individual features, a comparison of the two and what you might be able to achieve using the two together. This will be a two part post, bringing you AudioBoo in the first half and SoundCloud in the second.

What we have here are two audio-based social networking sites at quite different ends of the scale…

AudioBoo

AudioBoo is micro-blogging that is focused around the spoken word and also has an emphasis on ‘being mobile’. It’s all about sharing audio whenever and wherever you are as easily as possible. This means the mobile apps (currently only iPhone and Android) are very important.

Setting up an AudioBoo account is really easy, especially now you can login using your Twitter account. Something most users will probably already have. Once you have your account up and running you can administer it through the web interface which is much like Twitter as it has a similar layout and shares similar features: You can follow people, comment on other peoples ‘boos’ etc.

‘Boos’ are limited to 5 Minutes or 50MB, so this really is mirco-blogging. Well, micro-podcasting might be more appropriate. Using the web interface you can create a ‘boo’ by uploading an existing audio file (a good mix of file formats are accepted), or you can even record straight into your web browser. The latter of which is convenient for those who don’t have specific audio recording software or happen to be using a computer other than their own.

Going Mobile:

As mentioned earlier there are there are apps available for the iPhone and for Android and this is where the technology really comes alive. The apps allow you to do everything you can on the full website. You can attach an image to each ‘boo’ to give an idea of the content of the audio and are geo-tagged so listeners know exactly where the content is coming from. This has the opportunity to up into the world of news coverage and even featured in the G20 riots.

The option to upload existing files may be particularly handy for those who record on location but would rather use a dedicated recording device to maintain a higher level of control and quality. In this case the audio file could be uploaded by transferring it to a netbook or to a device which is running one of the mobile apps.

There is also a mobile site, and though it works very well is unfortunately quite limited in features (on my phone at least), and is lacking the most important feature of all; you can’t upload ‘boos’ through the mobile site. This is a real shame.

It would be really handy, and i’m sure quite simple to add the ability to upload on the mobile site. Users with less-able phones could then record using the voice memo function, something which most phones have these days, then simply upload the file.

AudioBoo has released an API so I’m sure as the site gains popularity we’ll be seeing plenty more applications; hopefully for Symbian, Blackberry and maybe even a Java app sometime in the near future.

So in a nutshell AudioBoo provides the ability to podcast straight from your mobile phone and takes all the hassle of it by providing RSS and iTunes feeds for you. Nothing could be simpler than AudioBoo, all you need now is something to say!

In my next post I’ll bring you part two of this article, which will be an overview of SoundCloud.

UPDATE:

I’ve recently discovered Twaudio, which describes itself as Twitpic for audio. This is a perfect description, as that’s exactly what it is!

This may be a more atractive option for those with older mobile phones as uploads can be sent via email. There are a couple of drawbacks: Only MP3′s are supported and at a maximum file size of 10MB, you do get podcast feeds like you do with AudioBoo though. So this makes it a direct contender for the podcasting crowd.

Twaudio basically fills in the gap AudioBoo has missed out on by making itself universally accessable by allowing uploads via email and integrating itself with Twitter even more tightly. However, if you can’t live with the 10MB limit or MP3 as your only format then AudioBoo is still for you.

Twaudio is only in it’s early stages but it’s definitely one to look out for.

Flickr Batch:

User-Generated Content, as the name suggests allows anyone to create their own content. This has come about through the improved technology of hand-held devices like digital cameras and mobile phones which, can be used to capture this content then distributed worldwide thanks to the on-line revolution using sites like YouTube.

This readily available, convenient and increasingly cheaper technology is a means to capture any moment imaginable: When a News or Television crew maybe nowhere to be seen there will always be plenty of cameras and mobile phones within range and ready to capture the event in an instant.

The true power of User-Generated Content has the potential to reshape everything that it comes into contact with; It has already had an effect on news reporting and is being experimented with in advertising and film making.

After seeing Shoot the Summer (BBC, 2008) where Hugh Gary gave out mobile phones to people at various festivals to capture the event as they saw it I was only mildly impressed. Conceptually it was a brilliant idea and a great example of how we can use these new technologies but I hardly think this idea will take off and we’ll be seeing many more films created on mobile phones by the general public. Maybe I’m missing something though.

Never mind, could UGC be better suited to advertising?

As shrewd as businesses are they always manage to turn things to their advantage and many companies have recently setup advertising campaigns based around competitions where they ask the general public to create an advert for their product in return for some form of prize. This works incredibly well for the businesses as the competition itself will generate some hype, they also get to tap into a massive pool of creativity and end up with a relatively cheap, effective advert made by their customers and for their customers. Everybody wins!

Can we can find an even better use for UGC though?

The real place for stuff like this I believe is in news coverage. We’ve all seen the examples on the news of the poor-quality footage captured at terrible and freak events by witnesses and bystanders on their mobile phones. It is through this we are able to get a valuable insight into what is actually happening so we can see it for ourselves: A graphic insight which we traditionally may not have have gotten. In the case of the G20 protests in London last year this footage has even been used as evidence.

So UGC is beginning to transform the media and has led to the likes of the BBC and CNN to setup their own dedicated departments for aggregating this content and incorporate it into their news gathering. In this article about the BBC launching the first UGC News Programme, members of the public who submit material which is “particularly editorially important or unique” receive payment for their contribution. So now we all have the potential to be journalists.

So far all of this is good stuff, but I think there comes a point where it becomes too much. Take YouTube as an example, the ratio of ‘quality’ to ‘crap’ content is insane! When news programmes and topical shows ask viewers to send in their pictures and videos on any mundane subject just to fill air time, there’s just no need. Keep it useful!

Charlie Brooker gets the point across in a far better and more entertaining way on Newswipe as he goes through UGC and the participation of the public in news reporting:

On my first post I talked about my digital identity and mentioned my very limited use of Twitter. I thought I’d give you a quick update as recently things have changed. After learning more about how it works and what can be done with it I’m making regular constant use of Twitter and slowly but steadily building up my followers. The micro-blogging site has me hooked!

I’ve heard people describe Twitter as a constant stream of status updates, ‘like Facebook’. Which is in some way true and probably is the easiest way to describe it to somebody who, like my former self doesn’t yet understand it, but ultimately misses the point. Anyway it was indeed Facebook which modeled their live stream of status updates on Twitter but the difference isn’t in the way it works, it’s in the content.

In my world the difference between Facebook and Twitter is quite simple. Facebook is personal: Meaning only close friends, not so close friends and work colleagues etc. It is my personal space to keep in touch with the people I know. I don’t generally reach out with Facebook looking for people and I certainly wont accept requests from those I don’t know. Twitter as I see it is a professional space: I can broadcast my work and events, find out from like minded people about their activities and more importantly reach out to find more of these people.

One of the reasons for this is because Facebook updates are only available to the ‘Faces’ in your ‘book’. It provides a ‘safe-zone’ if you will, which can be a benefit: I don’t necessarily want the world to know about my events last Friday night (not that I have anything to hide ). Tweets however can bounce around the Internet for all to see. In fact once you Tweet something you have no control over where it ends up, which is kind of exciting; the possibilities are endless!

My Facebook news feed consists mainly of pointless day-to-day activities that are meaningless to me. (I guess you can choose your friends but you can’t choose what they say!) On Twitter the people I follow give me updates that mean something to me, be it links for tutorials, news, reviews even just a solitary insight into their mind. Ultimately I wouldn’t necessarily be Facebook friends with everyone I follow on Twitter because these are two parts of my digital self.

Twitter’s winning formula is in it’s speed and simplicity (even though it often suffers from site overloads). The limit of 140 characters makes you refine what you are trying to say so it counts that little bit more. In an attempt to sum things up one thing I can say is that I think Facebook is more about who you are and Twitter is about what you say. This might not be the case for everybody though.

What do you get when you cross social media with research into soundscapes?

Don’t worry it’s not a joke. The answer is something we’re yet to find out but recently I had a glimpse into the work being done on the Sound Around You project. Nearly all of the data for this project is coming straight from the hands and ears of the general public.

The project’s aim is to collect as many samples of peoples listening experiences as possible, and what better way to do this than to let anyone who is willing to take part do so by simply using the one thing we’re never without, our mobile phone. Software was developed which anyone could download and then use to record what they hear. This was then sent off with the answers to a very short questionnaire.

While being my favourite bit about the project, the use of mobile phones isn’t the only slice of genius. Awareness of the project has been raised through the use of social media. Everything from the big three (MySpace, Facebook and Twitter) to specialist sites such as Amazee were called upon.

This generated plenty of interest and brought in a huge amount of data not only from around the UK but across the world. The sheer volume of samples coming in helps fight against errors in the data, as there is literally no control over the recording process and no knowledge of the participants aside from the six answers from the questionnaire.

This may go totally against the grain with the traditional approach to scientific research where only total control over the conditions brings accurate and usable results but I don’t think you can discount what is being done here by any means. In the field of acoustics, subjective studies or at least the importance of subjective data is becoming more prominent. After all objective data can only tell us so much. This venture into subjective studies brings a crossover of the old school, fundamental approach to science and the newer approach which uses elements of psychology and social science. Hopefully we’re heading towards a happy medium.

On a side note it would be really cool to see a Facebook application work in the same way as the mobile phone software; Users could upload their own recordings which would then be sent off, along with some basic data on the participant such as age, gender and location. I can see a lot of privacy issues with this idea but most people don’t seem to mind handing over all kind of rights when they use games and various one-use applications on Facebook so why would this be any different?

This project could be seen equally as an experiment as well a research project. These are new technologies and this is the first time they’ve been used in this way but I’m sure it wont be the last. It’ll be interesting to see the outcome of this project and where the research goes in the near future.