The Jig is Up!

For some time now I had been planning to write about tools to manage social networking and media sites like Facebook, Twitter, etc., so when Tunisia exploded last week - in large part due to tens of thousands of tweets and an eruption of Facebook activity, I began to write the following article for those connected in these new social and even radical ways...

Of course, management tools for social networking websites is no requirement if you want to start a revolution and change the world, but it can’t hurt to have a few management apps on your mobile, tablet, netbook or laptop. Take for example the tens of thousands of mobile users who downloaded Facebook’s new mobile app that works on ANY phone, and is no longer limited to full blown smartphones like the iPhone 4 or Samsung’s Epic 4G.

As of January 20 2011, users of ancient flip phones and what the industry calls “baseline” phones can download a new Facebook app (built in conjunction with Snaptu.com) that won’t even charge data minutes to your account, provided you live in certain countries like Tunisia or Saudi Arabia, and have a provider like STC or Vodaphone. In other words, Facebook mobile is totally free and can be on any phone, regardless of horsepower.

But for those of us confined to the small inland island of Nepal, and using NCELL or NTC on our smartphones: the Android, RIM, and iPhone stores have a heavier version of the Facebook app that allows us to stay in touch with our Facebook friends – without any access to a traditional web browser. For example, I use Facebook Mobile on an iPhone to update my status, upload mobile pics, and to even chat with pals whenever I am standing in that long line at Standard Charter. (I’ve yet to download an app to fix that!)

But using Facebook or Twitter on your smartphone is nothing terribly new, nor is using Flickr, Picasso, Blogger, or even LinkedIn on a mobile platform, but a mobile app like Seesmic will aggregate all your social networking and media accounts into one. Now we’re talking! Instead of dealing with a half dozen apps - each with a unique userid and password - you just have to deal with one.

Apps like Seesmic (whose makers also maintain the popular Ping.fm website) make it easy to update your status to all of your online social places, all at once. Your tweet or status goes to all of your accounts with you only having to thumb it in, and then press Send. Blogger, Wordpress, and Tumbir accounts are also supported, so in other words, your words get out to everyone in the blink of an eye. To download this free and useful app, steer to seesmic.com.

Computer apps like Socialite (for Mac) and the dozen or so websites like Profilactic, ProfileFly, and MyLifeBrand, also aggregate your online social life in similar ways. Perhaps this is what is going on right now in Egypt...where a single twit can be heard around the country (or around the world) by thousands, millions even, all with just a few pokes on a mobile keyboard, or from a cheap app or free website. We do indeed live in amazing times, eh?

I was amazed to hear that the movie about Facebook - “The Social Network” - had made its way into the Oscar line-up this year (amazingly featuring Justin Timberlake), and also that only 30% of Facebook users live in America, with about 99.9% of Nepalese having a page in the FB. No, I just made that last stat up, but it might be possible considering that even my dog is on Facebook, and every single one of my cousin-brothers / cousin-sisters is there too.

Considering that Facebook is the fastest growing company in the world, and worth over 50 billion USD, and now playing a major part in multiple revolutions world-wide, as well as appearing in the Oscars, I guess it’s high time for everyone to stop reading this article, and jump right up and update their status.