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My 6 Essential Apps for Life

May 17, 2012 By 9 Comments

Ok, when I say life, I mean the kind of life I lead. A life that includes lots of marketing, content and a never ending supply of information. Hopefully you find this list useful. Please do feel free to add your suggestions in the comments.

Tweetbot

Platform – iPhone/iPad

It has taken me a long time to find a Twitter app that I really, really like. Then I found Tweetbot. I love it because it looks damn good but also uses touchscreen tech in a clever and genuinely helpful manner. Once you learn the various gestures, you’ll be zipping around your Twitter world faster than a trending topic. One thing that it does not let you do is schedule tweets, this would be a handy addition, but I believe it is something to do with server calls. Whatever they are. All in all a fantastic app that enhances the Twitter experience no end and very rarely breaks.

Reeder

Platform – iPhone/iPad

I don’t care what anyone says, RSS is still a brilliant way of getting your daily fix of blog posts delivered straight to your devices. I’ve been using Reeder for years and am likely to keep doing so for a long time. Its merits lie in simplicity and the fact that it always sinks across devices and the web. I have mine hooked up to my Google Reader list and it works like a dream. It allows you to easy share posts across the social web or send them to tools such as Evernote. I’m not sure it will ever be beaten.

The Tweetbot. Freaky.

Pocket

Platform – iPhone/iPad/Web/All

You know when you find a piece of content but just don’t have the time to read it? Well, Pocket (formerly Read it Later) allows you to save that piece of content (including video) to your own little Pocket of content that can be read at any time on pretty much any device. You don’t even need to have a web connection. One of the key features of Pocket is the fact that it is integrated with many of the apps you may use to read content in the first place. Oh, and it looks so fresh and so clean. Watch the video:

Evernote

Platform – iPhone/iPad/Web/All

Without Evernote, I’d be a mess. I write blog posts in it, get my thoughts and ideas down and even use it to collect web pages that I know I’ll refer to in the future. Everything it saves in the cloud, meaning you can access it from anywhere. If you pay to be a premium member, you can access your notebooks offline too. I know I sound like I’ve drank the Evernote Kool-Aid. That’s because I have.

Analytics Pro

Platform – iPhone/iPad

Google Analytics is the daddy, but I find it a little clunky when trying to use it on my iPhone/Pad. Analytics Pro is the perfect solution to this. It syncs up with all of your GA accounts, meaning you can keep an eye on your data will on the hop. It creates nice looking graphs and charts and holds all of the data you need to drive your extra-special insights. It does cost £5.99, but it is worth every penny.

Sprout Social

Platform – Web/iPhone/iPad

The Social Penguin Blog is an official partner of Sprout Social and it’s service we genuinely love. We wouldn’t partner with it if we didn’t! It is quite simply the best social media management dashboard out there. It does all the basics very well – monitoring, responding, scheduling etc, however it is the stunning reports it produces that keeps me going back. Beautiful, colourful reports that allow you to easily grasp growth, engagement and demographics. It hooks up with Twitter, Facebook, location apps and Google Analytics. Give it a go!

What apps are must haves for your life? Do share!

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Filed Under: Apps, Mobile Web, Social Media Skills, Technology Tagged With: ,

Is Amen The Future of Consumer Opinion Gathering? (Apps)

May 7, 2012 By Leave a Comment

Take a look at Twitter at any given moment and you will see vast amounts of people sharing their opinions on everything from the latest celeb gossip, to the pizza they’ve just eaten. This is all well and good, but it can be hard to pull this opinion together and also to gauge the reaction from others to said opinion. Well, a new iPhone app called Amen may well be the answer. Amen works on a very simple premise – it allows you to give an opinion on anything and share it with other Amen users and of course, key social media platforms such as Facebook and Twitter. Once an opinion has been posted, the community can then ‘Amen’ (endorse) the opinion or give it a big fat ‘Hell No!’ if they believe the opinion to be wrong. If the user contests the opinion, they can also suggest an alternative.

Looking Good!

The mechanics of this application are very simple and this is augmented by a pretty sexy (yes, I said sexy!) interface:

Starting the opinion giving process...

The app will search for possible for entries for each of the sections you have to fill in, however, if it doesn’t find anything, you can add your own:

Our biased opinion of course!

Once you have created your opinion, it’s very easy to share it with your peeps over on Facebook and Twitter. Browsing and inputting to other people’s opinions is a simple and enjoyable:

Users can add photos to their opinions too.

A Potential Opportunity/Threat for Brands?

Amen is in its early stages, however with peer recommendations being such an important factor in the consumer decision process, apps like this may well play a part in the consideration process for an eager consumer. I wonder if Amen may start to use the data from within the app to create charts of the products, services etc that are getting the most positive (and negative!) feedback? One to watch for sure!

Are you using Amen? Enjoying the experience?

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Can Weathermob Use the Crowd to Deliver Accurate Weather Forecasts? (Apps)

May 2, 2012 By 2 Comments

Weathermob is a new weather forecasting application for iOS. Doesn’t sound particularly ground breaking does it? Well, Weathermob is different – it wants you to be the weatherman/woman. The app allows you to create a weather report while on the go, meaning you can let other users know the situation within your geo-location at any time. Why would you bother, I hear you ask? For a start, the app is beautiful to look at and it is actually good fun. It is also pretty social, you set up your profile and people can follow (including people within your immediate locale) and comment on your reports.

Simple Interface

Creating a report is very easy, using an interface not unlike a slot machine roller…

You can also add custom text to your report, a photo and even a video.

Once you have compiled your report, it looks like this (assuming you’ve added a photo).

Pretty huh?

Not Just About the Crowd

Anything that is crowd-sourced depends on people’s attention being maintained and a constant flow of updates. My thoughts are that the long term viability of this app will depend on the success of the social side of the experience and also the user’s willingness to share their reports across other social platforms, as that may well be the action that alerts other people the existence of the app in the first place. The app doesn’t only rely on enthusiastic citizen weather people, it holds data for the majority of the planet, and again this is represented in a very visually satisfying manner.

What do You Think?

Are you likely to use Weathermob to send micro weather reports? Maybe you are experiencing app/social platform overload? Do tell…

You can download the app here.

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