I first heard about Amplify earlier this year; I believe it was at the January chapter meeting of IABC/DC Metro.
My friend (and client, but he’s a friend first) Shashi Bellamkonda is, I think, genetically-wired to try and talk about new things – no doubt why he’s Network Solutions’ “social media swami,” and he mentioned it.
So of course I checked it out.
Image: Matthew Smith via Flickr, Creative Commons
Can you say “love at first byte”?
As the year went by, I found myself playing more and more with Amplify and now it’s become one of my top three social networks. I’ve often thought about writing down why exactly it is that I love Amplify, but never got around to doing it.
Since I’ll be on Joe Hackman’s Ampalooza tomorrow (3-4 pm ET) talking about Amplify with Tinu Abayomi-Paul (one of my Women Grow Business contributors and one of the most social media & SEO-savvy people I’ve met), Alex Schleber (Joe calls him an Amplify power user, and he really is), and even Eric Goldstein (Amplify CEO), I figured it was now or never.
Just why do I love Amplify so?
1. It’s easy.
It integrates with Twitter, which was the first reason I took to it. I didn’t have to set up a different user name (that drives me crazy, I mean how many user names can I have?!). So when I post to Amplify, it posts to Twitter as well (assuming I’ve set up the sync) – and I can post to as many Twitter accounts as I like.
2. It really is a conversation platform.
As much as I love Twitter, and have come to enjoy Facebook more recently, each of these platforms has its limits. What’s really cool about Amplify is that when you want to start a conversation, you have 1,000 characters with which to do it.
Over and above that, whenever you “clip” a post to share with others (nifty plugin for Firefox et al), you can add your own perspective to it. More often than not, I’ve found sharing those thoughts is what sparks conversation.
3. It syncs with several platforms.
As of now, I have Amplify set up to auto-post to Twitter, Facebook (I can sync it to either my personal or business page, or both) Google Buzz and Delicious. There are several other options, such as Flickr, Tumblr, WordPress, Blogger, etc… even Ping.fm.
I don’t auto-post to all of those, but it’s nice to have the option.
4. You can set up your own blog.
Just like Posterous, you can use Amplify as your primary blogging platform, as well as auto-post to your own blog. I personally don’t use this option, but it’s there for those of you who are into that kind of thing.
5. You can schedule posts to Facebook.
Can you say OMIGOD?! This is a real boon. I know we can do that for Twitter through HootSuite, etc., but one of the major grouses I have with Facebook is that you can’t schedule posts directly, assuming you’d want to.
Now, I don’t schedule a lot of posts, but say there are two or three I’d like to promote through the day, and not all mine. Wouldn’t scheduling make it handy, in case I can’t post them exactly when I’d like to?
Amplify lets you do this. And it’s the one platform I’ve seen that will use your own comment/perspective (see #2 above) as your Facebook “comment.” That’s really nice.
“Well, I can do this through HootSuite, etc.,” you say.
Ah, but does the image accompanying your blog post show up? No. And if you’re sharing someone else’s post, as long as you “clip” the image as well, that will show up too.
This is important to me since I’ve noticed people tend to interact with posts that include visual material much more, be it images or videos.
(What I’d love to see if they can pull off, is for a way for people to tag Facebook friends through Amplify. Now that would really be something.)
6. Responsiveness.
I have never – NEVER – seen the top folk at startups respond to the questions and requests of the “every day people” who use their services.
Most of them: if Scoble says “jump,” will say “how high?” (At least, that’s the sense I get).
But every time any of us have suggested changes to Amplify, Eric and Chris Parandian have welcomed, listened and… implemented them!
And Amplify has all the other bells and whistles we’ve come to expect thanks to Twitter: tagging people using their Twitter handle (my suggestion!) so that they’re alerted to those posts, using hashtags to call out and index conversations, a widget that you can add to your blog, posting to multiple “Amplogs” (the sites you set up on Amplify, though as of now, you can’t do this at one go), and more.
7. It really is a community.
I think what delights me most about Amplify is that there really is a community sense to it. Perhaps Twitter was like this in its early days; but more often than not, when I ask a question on Amplify, people will respond thoughtfully – not always agreeing, but always respectfully.
I’ve been experimenting with Quora as well, and in my opinion, it’s a far cry from Amplify.
I’m not on Amplify every day; mostly because when I clip posts, etc., I want them to be posts that I think others will enjoy. If I don’t find ’em, I don’t clip ’em.
But when I am, I really enjoy it.
If you’re not yet on Amplify, I strongly suggest you check it out.
To get started, listen to this interview Joe did with Eric a few months ago (and I wouldn’t have met Joe had it not been for Amplify, and now he’s becoming a good friend and someone I rely on for advice).
I can’t guarantee you’ll like it, or even “get” it at first; but I do think you should give it a chance.
And hey – do tune in tomorrow to the Ampalooza, won’t you?
[…] first, it’s an interesting premise. But more than that, I thought this was a good example of using Amplify in a smart way (when you read it, you’ll see that the bulk of the post is an Amp that Gautam […]
[…] has a lot of potential, so I will see how best to use add to Twitter, LinkedIn and my […]
S- Okay, now you’ve given me a blog idea. Etiquette about when and where it’s okay to drop links to your own blogs. IDK.. per my own blog, I have CommentLuv installed. I would not object to anyone adding links, provided they are on topic. Funny, the few times I have added links, they’ve usually been to OTHER people’s posts. Anyway, you got me thinking.. like you do. ;-)
Yay blog idea!
For the record, this was a rarity for me, since else I almost never do this (I love the CommentLuv you have installed, but I love LiveFyre more, so I’m waiting until they deign to send me an invite, @ginidietrich didn’t twist their arms hard enough ;P).
Specifically, it was on a blog purportedly on analytics/intelligence, that raved about the Digital Death campaign, citing huge views, clicks, etc., as “success.” This was after Rohit, I & many others had railed about it. To each their own, but it didn’t even look at opposing points of view (plus it was posted quite late); it just seemed like a very cursory and, frankly, lazy post. I was so disgusted that I posted a link to my post (because it was one of the first from the “PR world,” I believe) and to my BNET article, which had a slightly different bent, to give my comments additional context.
When I do post links (I rarely do), they tend to be to others’ posts as well. So I’m like you in that.
Etiquette? I don’t know. I’ll wait for your post to opine. :)
Yikes, now I have to actually do it. Have some ideas kicking about, which will follow up on today’s Christmas post.. when I finally hit PUBLISH. Hmmm….
If the @ mentions (including in comments) on Amplify were really your suggestion, Eric and the team owe you big time, because that is actually one of the absolute genius features of Amplify at this point. Without it, we’d see only a fraction of the conversation that has developed.
It’s like bringing full-context conversation to the speed of Twitter (where on Twitter itself it is lacking simply due to the 140 char restriction and the hobbled “memmory”/persistence issue I’ve been railing about for a long time).
Looking forward to the Amplify postcast this afternoon!
Well, then, Alex, you owe me. :) Here’s the exact conversation that sparked it, back in April: http://shonali.amplify.com/2010/04/29/169/ How they implemented it is their brilliance, but I can lay claim to sparking the idea; you’ll see what made me think of it when you read that post.
I’ve also suggested:
1. Posting to multiple Amplogs simultaneously, http://shonali.amplify.com/2010/10/01/266/ which idea Eric seemed to like as you can see from his response (and this is also where I suggested they re-work the tabs slightly, though I can’t claim any credit here, since I honestly don’t remember what they were like before now, LOL); and
2. Incorporating hashtags being used on Twitter into Amplify: http://amplify.amplify.com/2010/09/17/amplify-now-supports-hash-tags/ when they introduced hashtags to Amplify. You liked this idea too, btw. :)
It’s amazing how far Amplify has come. And the fact that Chris, Eric and Dave all stay so engaged with it – that’s really wonderful.
I find Amplify has the potential to become a “gateway” social media resource in my social media process development.
I’ve only been active for a few weeks but find it is still a community that fosters interactions amongst a wide assortment of individuals who bring different backgrounds and experiences to share with one another.
As one of the first 100 or so members of Plurk and early adopter of Twitter, in fact, I found myself chuckling when I saw the recently published graph of Twitter’s growth http://sysomos.com/insidetwitter/twitter-stats-2010/ and placed my start date of July 22, 2007 on the timeline – I posted an image of my welcoming email from Biz Stone and crew.) I can see tremendous potential for Amplify in the days ahead. I view Amplify as a triggering device leading into points for social distribution; which fosters social aggregation; and ultimately to social endorsement and social action.
I look forward to both observing and participating in the future growth of Amplify and hope to make the Wednesday call.
To everyones continued growth and success,
Dr. Ron Capps the NicheProf
It is really quite incredible, Ron (or should I call you Doc? :) ). Calling Amplify a “triggering device” is interesting. I’m still trying to wrap my head around what exactly I’d call it, but that’s a good one. Thanks so much for stopping by!
Ron, I also like gateway, triggering device. Plus if you don’t cross post the same URLs, it’s a good way to see which platform drives more traffic, builds connections, Amplify or Twitter.
Davina, I think you can do that even if you use the same URL by looking at Google Analytics.
Here is another analogy: I believe the old model “each person (personal blog) is on his/her own island” is no longer valid. Now, you have to get on the boat and travel out of your island to visit wherever there is something happening. You may visit the places you feel comfortable with and are used to of, or you may just wander around. Sitting on your own island and waiting for the conversation to happen, is no longer an option.
However, it is fine to make your island your base which you leave everyday to travel abroad and then come back to it at the end of the day.
My island (base) is my Amplify site.
Interesting Arif, I have thought about blogging only on Amplify but I opted not to for 2 reasons. The first is that I use Amplify for different content than I blog about. The second is that I am becoming more of a control freak about my “island”. I want to control my assets, including (recently) my own url shortener. :)
You are definitely someone I’ve also gotten to know over time on Amplify, I always enjoy our discussions. – Joe
Joe, Arif, that was another reason that I don’t blog on Amplify; one is the time issue, and the second is that as far as a “blog” goes, I already have one. While I can’t control the conversation taking place where it does (and it’s interesting to follow it and see it on different platforms), I can control where I publish my original content. And I don’t see the point of unintentionally undercutting a platform that is already active.
Great article! And Amplify.com truly brings together all the aspects of social media blogging with an integrated community interested in finding and discussion the best of the information and sites the web has to offer.
You can post, re-post, discuss, and RSS broadcast to all your favorite sites including FB, Twitter, and Linkedin or even other blogs you might have all from that one site.
And Amplify makes it easy to set up and even simpler to post any way you like including templates that give any of a set of looks to you posts.
So take a converts suggestion and try it out for a few days you’ll not regret it I’m sure.
Oh and be sure to say to @kstaxman when you stop in.
That was a really nice welcome to Davina, Frank. Thank you!
Thought I’d chime in on sharing your personal blog posts on Amplify. I think it is perfectly appropriate and I appreciate it when my sources share there because with so many connections I am not always following their blogs. When they have something they want me to read, I want to check it out. People will definitely visit your blog if you are engaged on Amplify. Most importantly you will make higher quality connections than you do elsewhere because of the nature of the platform. It sounds silly but it is like a “family” of sorts where you are often sharing ideas and things at the dinner table. (Thank Eric for the analogy, he mentioned his family discussions in our first interview). RE: sharing, one thing further I definitely recommend is using #hashtags and @ tagging people. I encouraged everyone to tag me when they want me to see something. Otherwise I will miss out on good stuff.
I’ll leave you with this – Not every blog can be the center of conversation but any blogger can be on Amplify.
I do like the analogy of the family, Joe. I wonder, though, if some of the other networks, notably Twitter, were like it in the early days. I’ve heard from many of the Twitter “early adopters” who reminisce in that vein. I still get a lot of value from Twitter (as you know, I’m on it quite a bit!), but I do like the somewhat smaller network I’ve developed in Amplify.
The thing with Amplify is that it really gives someone a chance to showcase themselves; and frankly, it surprises me how many do so very poorly (IMHO, of course). When I get a “follower” notification from Amplify, I check them out. Nine times out of 10, if they haven’t filled out their profile, if there’s no URL, if their posts are sales-y, etc., I don’t follow them back. So I am following far fewer people on Amplify than, say, compared to Twitter. This might be one reason why, when I’m on there, I enjoy it.
The other thing that I’ve seen is that if I find someone interesting on Amplify, I invariably follow them on Twitter as well. It doesn’t matter to me if they follow me back; for me, it’s a way of widening the avenues of communication down the road.
As someone just becoming familiar with Amplify, it might be helpful to have a suggested steps or process in setting up one’s account. There are so many nooks and crannies in the backend it is possible to overlook the sidebar area for the details.
Personally, when I set up my profile, I noticed the other social services for posting but missed the profile area. Thanks to a comment from Viggo, I started poking around and located the area and filled in some basic info and contact points. I still have to go in and dress it up a bit and determine how to best integrate Amplify into my Social Media Process.
So, if any of you are interested in what, if anything, I can contribute to your communities or tribes, feel free to check me out at http://amplify.com/profile/nicheprof or just Google “nicheprof”.
Hope to connect with many of you on Joe’s BTR discussion today. – Ron
That’s a great idea, Ron.
I think if it’s done right (in a value added way) and not constantly, posting excerpts of one’s longer blog posts on Amplify is a great use case for the platform. Not everyone has the time to read your (or my :) ) several 1000 word tome, but Amplify can serve as a great appetizer and conversation starter.
One thing I have found also is that some very long/authoritative posts going through all of the nooks & crannies may not garner that many comments (despite decent readership), simply because people may not feel they have that much to add.
On Amplify, this problem disappears! One of my recent blog posts (uhm, I’ve been a bit of a slacker in the last few months with my main blog) where I applies this strategy got a very nice 1,500 views on Amplify. What’s not to like?
Alex, I agree if your post adds value and that’s not ALL you promote (yourself) it’s fine. I apply the same approach to Twitter. My catch is that I just don’t use it that often, don’t Amplify enough OTHER content.. yet. Great point about length of posts, Amplify offering enough to get people interested, conversation started.
@Davina, you said: “read and perhaps comment on the real article …which is kinda where the conversation is or should be happening?”
This is a significant point. I think conversation is where it happens and not necessarily at the original source. We now live in the world where “social-curation” has taken off and it is very logical to expect conversations happening where ever people gather to communicate.
Amplify is one such place where people gather to communicate, just as there are several other such places.
Arif – “conversation is where it happens.” Bingo. This was a HUGE a-ha moment for me this year. Try as I might to get people to comment on this blog, for example, I can’t really force them to.
However, if I take posts, thoughts, etc., to platforms where conversations are already happening, not only do I widen my circle, but increase my chances of building relationships with those people… who might then take an interest in my “own” platform and start engaging there. Full circle.
@Arif That is a good point, that the conversation can move which is inherent nature to social media. I have noticed it but I don’t think people “get it” that much when using Amplify, that you can discuss in more detail there. I’ll stay on the lookout for that.
@Shonali Like you I am trying to get a little conversation going on my own blog, so redirecting traffic elsewhere seems counterproductive. Plus there are too many networks.. I could spend all day reading, commenting and sharing news and posts (LOVING every minute of it) yet not get any “work” done. Stupid car payments ;-) Guess I need to find ways to integrate these networks better w/out feeling like a robot broadcasting the same stuff everywhere. *shrugs*
D – re: getting comments on one’s blog, yes, I know the feeling and agree!
Here’s what I realized, though; if I try to participate intelligently and generously (shades of “walking the SM talk” here), then I’m increasing my chances of more people getting to know me. After a while, they will click through to my blog and hopefully they will find something that will make them want to comment. If they don’t, at least the regular connection & conversation will continue to build momentum to the point where they WILL start becoming regulars… and then commenters… here. I don’t mean this just with Amplify, but elsewhere too. And this is just my observation/opinion, without implying that it is the only/best way, or that folks doing it differently are wrong.
I actually do a very bad job of sharing my own posts to Amplify; I should probably try to do that on a more regular basis. I just don’t want to come across as a self-indulgent ego-head (is that a word?). So for the most part I share others’ posts as a way of paying it forward, and do believe that comes back to me down the road.
The one Amplify facility I don’t use at all is the micro-blogging platform that’s built in. Not because it’s not handy; but because it’s beyond my bandwidth to do so. I publish/manage this blog as well as that of a client, and have to do my BNET posts on a regular basis. I just can’t do any more. But for folks who don’t have their own blogs, I can see that being an asset, just as Posterous sites are to many.
S- I also do a poor job of promoting my own blog save for a few tweets and LinkedIn updates. Even if it’s VERY on topic, I never leave links to my own posts in comments on other blogs (not sure of the etiquette there LOL). I read and share SO much more than my own stuff, mostly via Twitter. Since I do sorta use them for the same purpose, same audience I can see giving it another shot. I just added the CLIP function to Firefox, let you know how it goes.
Re: links to own posts; I think I’ve rarely done that because it feels a little too much; I did do that earlier this week (or last week, can’t remember which) when I commented on a post that was so clearly UNinformed on the topic at hand, despite many people writing about it (and I was one of the first, though no one knows/cares about that). But mostly – I don’t do it either.
I LOVE the Amplify button for FF. Love love love it.
Well what I’ve found is that Amplify reaches a different crowd than my blog, FaceBook, Twitter feed, Linkedin, and the other sites I use and by allowing me to work much more from one location while posting and sharing across the different social media sites I am able to work much smarter and easier.
I still do posts to my blog that don’t come from Amplify and do things on Amplify that I don’t post to my blog and it’s a mix of all of those plus other content that I share on FaceBook, Linkedin, and Twitter but the option is always there to share from Amplify as much or as little as I want to what ever site I chose to also post too.
The proof of it for me as that my time spend posting to all the different sites is down yet the visits to all my blogs, face book pages, and Amps is up. If that’s being a mindless robot then I’m all for it but I just find it a smart way to manage my social media content while saving time.
Amplify.com has quickly become my social media dash board and together with HootSuite handles 95% of all my online posts and tweets.
Have you added Google Analytics to your Amplify, Frank?
Very much looking forward to the panel tomorrow Shonali. Excellent post!
Joe
Thanks, Joe – and thank you for being one of my best buddies, starting with Amplify!
Shonali, I am mixed on adding “yet another network or app” to the social portfolio.
Many of the pluses you mentioned do not apply to me. Cross posting: I guess I don’t get the redundancy. I don’t use FB for biz, FF is mostly tweets, LinkedIn I selectively post, etc. but like you said, nice if you want it.
Plus one peeve I have with any network like this or Digg, etc. is that it forces me to make an extra click or two. (I’m lazy and impatient.) The Amp’ed links make a few stops at other pages before I can get to, read and perhaps comment on the real article. Which is kinda where the conversation is or should be happening?
I do like that I didn’t have to use a different name to register and that Amplify imported Twitter connections. Like Jen I guess need to find ways to use it more, per the conversational aspects and my own style. FWIW.
To each their own, Davina. :) I’ve heard other people comment about the extra click with Amplify. At least with Facebook now, you can go directly to the source to read/comment there, which I think is very sociable of Amplify. What is neat about the options that Amplify offers is that it gives you another place to have the conversation.
For example, if I’m sharing a media story, chances are the reporter who wrote that story isn’t really going to interact with me, and more often than not, comments from a gazillion strangers on media stories devolve into inanity, slanging matches, or worse. Not to say that couldn’t happen anywhere else, but that’s what I’ve seen happen.
When I share a clip on Amplify, however, people who read it there and want to comment can actually start a discussion that I, as the “clipper,” will pay attention to. So to me, this is more conversational than anything else.
There you go, once again, lighting a fire under my ass. I tried Amplify after a call-out from you months ago and really enjoy it. Alas, I don’t use it enough. Thanks for the kick to use it more.
Funny, I’m finding I’m engaging more on Facebook lately, too. The ability to keep the conversation going compels me. Seems like Amplify is a great platform for my style.
Happy to oblige any time re: fire and a**es, Jen. :) I do think Amplify would be a great platform for someone like you. Like anything else, the more you use it, the more comfortable you become with it. It may turn out it’s not your perfect platform, but I, for one, really enjoy the conversations I have on it.
Funny you say that about Facebook; I’ve been doing that too (as you’ve probably noticed). For me, I can practically pinpoint why; just before Thanksgiving, I got a new BlackBerry (one that didn’t die every 20 minutes, and one that had a camera, yes, my previous BB was the Luddite-version). The minute I had that, I started taking photos with it and uploading them, once in a while, to Facebook. Apparently people on Facebook love photos – especially of dogs – so they engaged more with me, and hence I with them. The BB app is quite decent as well, so between the new phone, camera & app, I’m using it much more.
This is an excellent article about the 7 Reasons To Add Amplify To Your Social Networks. I have just recently found Amplify and I love it already!
So glad you’re loving Amplify, Sara. What in particular about it stands out for you?
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