wheresitworking?

Skittles New Site All About Social Media

If you haven’t seen the new Skittles.com I highly suggest you check it out.  It’s a fascinating concept that is pretty much entirely focused on Skittles presence in social media sites, rather than the Skittles domain itself. The “Products” links all direct to Wikipedia, the “Friends” link takes you their Facebook page, and the main underlying “home” page is Twitter search.  “Media” links to “Photos” on Flickr and “Videos” on YouTube.

What is remarkable about this is as much the concept as the faith in the Twitter search application not drastically changing in the near future.  Many of the rumors about Twitter’s monetization needs are centered on creating revenue from the search application in some way.

Another concern Skittles may have is the ability for anyone to spam their “home page” by simply including the “skittles” keyword.  There is a splendid example in the screenshot I captured.

Regardless, hat’s off to Skittles and whatever agency developed this concept.  I submitted a contact form on the “site” to see who it was, but no reply yet.

Tags: branding, social media, social media marketing, Twitter search

Update All Your Social Network Statuses with HelloTxt

Statuses is the correct plural form of status, and you likely have more than one status (or microblog) that you update on a regular basis.  Facebook, Twitter, MySpace, Identi.ca, etcetera.  You may also now be yapping away into your webcam for regular updates on Seesmic, 12seconds.tv, or the other video-oriented networks, adding to the number of sites you need to visit, or tabs you need open in your browser.  HelloTxt (HelloTxt.com) is an app I’ve been using for a year or so.

There are a number of aggregators out there, some web-based and some installed, so the concept isn’t anything new.  However, I really like the simplicity and ease-of-use of the HelloTxt interface, and I’m really impressed with how quickly they add new networks and functionality to the application.  I have been using it for a year or so now, and it just keeps getting better.  The CEO, Fabrizio, is a bit more soft-spoken and does less self-promotion than some other network heads (he’s no Loic Le Meur); unfortunately this probably hampers the adoption of HelloTxt a bit.  However, Fabrizio is incredibly responsive to support emails, and definitely in touch with end-users’ needs.

I honestly don’t use HelloTxt too much for my personal account, but I find it the most useful app for marketing outreach.  As a personal application, it doesn’t allow for the back-and-forth that comes with working directly in a network – responding to others’ updates, and reading their responses to yours.   However, the “Friends Status” page on HelloTxt hints that this is coming, and truthfully, it remains to be seen if any aggregator really can achive this in a single tab or window.  However, for business accounts, where you may be just announcing offers and tidbits of news about your brand or product a few times a day or week, HelloTxt is perfect.  Likewise, whenever I want to update all my statuses simultaneously, I use HelloTxt.

One thing that may change use of HelloTxt dramatically is the recent changes to Facebook’s API that are designed to really expand users communication through statuses in Facebook.  I imagine Fabrizio and his team will be quick to integrate some changes into HelloTxt to take advantage of this.

The integration of media sources like YouTube and Flickr is great in HelloTxt is something that many other aggregators fail to accomplish.  As you can see in the screen shot, I can easily add a Flickr photo from my account (or anyone’s Flickr account) into my update.  Likewise, Fabrizio has support for Seesmic now, allowing you to capture your video and update all from HelloTxt.  I imagine 12seconds and the other video networks will be available on HelloTxt soon as well.

Finally, HelloTxt updates aren’t restricted to the web interface; updating from email, SMS, mobile apps, and a Facebook app are are all options also.

Check out HelloTxt and let Fabrizio and his team know what you think; as I said, they listen to users and strive to meet their needs.

Tags: social media marketing, social networking aggregators, status aggregators, status update applications