3 Time-Saving Reasons to Use Ping.fm

Oct 9th, 2008 | By Nate Moller | Category: SMO

I’ve talked about StumbleUpon strategy lately - hope that helped you “get it”. Facebook is another great source for socializing online. Twitter is another great tool to get the low-down on what others are doing.

However, with ALL these tools out there, how can any normal person find the time to use the social media networks…?

I’ve found an answer!

why ping.fm for social media

Ping.fm is a simple service

that makes updating your

social networks a snap.

Here’s why:

  1. All your social friends are now connected: one of the hardest things for me in dealing with all these social networking tools and social networking followers is that they all take tons - logging on to each site, updating your status, submitting new content and links, following your favorites - this can take forever. Since each community I’m a part of has different friends and people I follow, not all of them will see what I’m doing or know of updates unless I visit each website. Ping.fm aggregates all your status updates so you submit one time and all your friends in the different communities see what’s happening! This is such a time-saver!
  2. Twitter, Plurk, Facebook, Mashable, and more are now all together: here’s my list of must use social networks that are available on Ping.fm:
  3. Functional with Google Chat and direct email: yet another great way to save time with Ping.fm. I currently tie all my instant messaging together with Meebo.com. That way I get all my direct messages in one easy place. With Ping.fm, you can send instant messages to a chat box and it will blast all the updates to the different networks! Email is also an option but I’ve only tested it! Chat is so easy!

If you need help getting all this set up, check out this tutorial on Ping.fm that was created by Trevor. Just beware, some of the “triggers” are things I haven’t really tested yet - I’m sure they’re cool too though!

Let me know what you thinkabout Ping.fm!

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  1. Dan Patterson October 9th, 2008 9:58 am :

    Honestly I haven’t used it yet, but I have been meaning to check it out. Thanks for the tip!

    [Reply]

    Nate Moller Reply:
    October 9th, 2008 at 10:21 am

    Well get on it then! Thanks to Gary Vaynerchuk at Blog World Expo 2008 for his tip on this cool tool.

    Let me know how it works for you!

    [Reply]

  2. Andrew Melchior October 9th, 2008 10:15 am :

    I haven’t tested it either, but I can see how it would help. I have a hard time finding the time to stay current on all my social media sites and maybe this is the answer.

    [Reply]

    Nate Moller Reply:
    October 9th, 2008 at 10:27 am

    Maybe? This IS the answer you’ve been waiting for - and no, this is not a “Paid Plug” for a product!

    I know there is a lot more to it as well: triggers, API keys, Applications, etc.

    Let me know how it works for you, if you like it, or if you find something better.

    As all internet entrepreneurs should know by now, it’s all about testing, testing, testing!

    [Reply]

  3. Beau October 9th, 2008 10:25 am :

    I like the whole Ping.fm thing , very integrable tool! I will have to go and download it right now.

    [Reply]

    Nate Moller Reply:
    October 9th, 2008 at 12:22 pm

    Let me know how it works for you and if you discover any cool functions.

    [Reply]

  4. Ryan October 9th, 2008 11:24 am :

    I got turned on to Ping.fm because I wanted to explore Plurk but didn’t want to have to abandon Twitter. It’s nice because I don’t even have to pull Twitter, Plurk or Ping.fm up, I just use the GTalk bot. I used to try to maintain all the conversations that would pop up because of the updates but now I use it as a way to broadcast more general updates across a ton of networks. I’m still using Twitter for the back-&-forth type of interaction because 1) it has the largest audience and 2) TweetDeck, which is something ever Tweeter should checkout!

    [Reply]

    Nate Moller Reply:
    October 9th, 2008 at 12:48 pm

    Good call - you’re actually the one that pushed me through to actually start using Ping.fm. Gary V. suggested it, I signed up, but then kind of forgot about it.

    So, basically you and Gary V. are the same person! HA!

    One thing I recently found about Ping.fm is this:

    When I see someone post a message from Ping.fm to any service that I’m using (let’s say Twitter and FriendFeed), what I assume is that the person is not committed to any network in particular, and is sending the message out to all of them hoping it will stick on some and not on others. This makes the messages impersonal, uninteresting, and self-serving.

    from @msaleem post on Mashable.

    I think it’s a good idea to stay personal with many of these - maybe a routine check or something.

    What do you all think?

    [Reply]

  5. vinyl lettering October 9th, 2008 11:39 am :

    I’ll be using this, primarily I want to see if I can plug it into the backend of my WP blog so it pings my posts to ping.fm, and then have ping.fm feed them to my different social media sites…so that I save a lot of time….whichis one of the major roadblocks I face with my social media campaigns….time!

    [Reply]

    Nate Moller Reply:
    October 9th, 2008 at 12:53 pm

    Let me know what you find out about that idea. I know WP is one of the networks they offer but it looked like it was a wordpress.com connection.

    Twitterfeed is a good one for wordpress posts - it sends them to Twitter and Facebook (if you have it set up right).

    Look forward to hearing about your tests.

    [Reply]

  6. Nate Graves October 9th, 2008 11:56 am :

    Ping.fm is definitely a handy tool for keeping up with social media. Any time you can aggregate your tools into one place it helps save time. For anyone who uses a bunch of different chat clients I would recommend Digsby (www.digsby.com). It can handle all your different accounts with GTalk, Hotmail, Yahoo, AIM, Jabber, ICQ, Twitter, Facebook, MySpace, and any POP or IMAP email accounts. It makes my life a lot easier.

    [Reply]

    Nate Moller Reply:
    October 13th, 2008 at 8:25 pm

    Thanks for the response. Why is Digsby better than Meebo.com? or is it? or are they even in the same ball park?

    I’ll have to check it out.

    [Reply]

  7. Nate Moller October 9th, 2008 12:56 pm :

    I recently found this article about Ping.fm by Techcruch:

    …I do think Ping.fm can be used as an example of a problem many Web 2.0 services face. They can fulfill a substantial need, work properly, and even possess a real business model - but if they can be easily replicated by a larger, more established player then they probably won’t survive in the long run. That’s my view at least, and it’s corroborated by the advice I heard once from another entrepreneur: “don’t build your business around a feature”.

    Then again, people once thought Google was just a feature - nothing more than a search box. And it turned out they were so good at that feature that it became a sustainable product.

    Interesting take…

    [Reply]

  8. Todd Nuttall October 10th, 2008 3:58 pm :

    Nate:

    I know that this isn’t what your last post was about but I was wondering if you had any tips on how to increase the number of people that subscribe to my posts by email. I have the email sign-up form in a prominant place but I am not seeing the results I would like to see with sign-ups. Any suggestions?

    Thanks,

    Todd

    [Reply]

    Nate Moller Reply:
    October 13th, 2008 at 9:05 pm

    Are you giving them a good reason to sign up?

    Here are some “good reason” tactics:

    1. Good content
    2. Good content
    3. Good content
    :)

    Other reasons may include:

    1. A contest of some sort (although I’ve heard there can be legal ramifications if you’re not careful) Not sure why or how on this but one source said to ask before you do a “drawing” or whatever.
    2. Friends, family and associates: asking your friends to make comments, sign up, or whatever can help you get your feet off the ground and get the word spreading.
    3. Partner with an already established company that shares your target audience - use their database or get the company to send a dedicated email (that you write) to their clients.

    Hope this helps! Content is King!

    [Reply]

  9. Todd Nuttall October 14th, 2008 9:59 am :

    Nate,

    Thanks for the response back. As I was typing my initial comment I had a feeling that was going to be the response but it is a good reminder that we need make sure our content is worth something.

    Todd

    [Reply]

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