ping.fm: Update all your social networks at once

Sites like Twitter have scores of competitors and it is possible that for someone to effectively socially network, they will have to use sites other than their preferred one. It is obviously quite a chore to have to update Twitter, Facebook, Pownce etc separately.

Commenter reactive pointed out ping.fm, a website which in fact I use. Ping.fm allows you to update one site, through a variety of means, which will then pass those updates on to 32 other websites.

ping.fm amazingly allows updates to be textual or graphical (you can set ping.fm to upload images to Flickr etc.). The ability to send videos is going to be launched soon.

The site will 'ping' most major social networking sites updates: Twitter, Pownce, FriendFeed, Facebook, MySpace, del.icio.us and Jaiku. Smaller ones like Kwippy are also supported.

Updates can be sent through instant messaging (GTalk, MSN, Yahoo! or AIM), unlike Twitter at the moment, from iGoogle, Facebook, an iPhone, WAP or SpinVox (a service which allows a voice to be converted to text on a phone). This is in addition to email (and therefore MMS, and on some carriers SMS) and the web.

With ping.fm it's just as quick to update all your social networks as it is one. It is only one way however, and other peoples' updates will not be received using it. Another similar service, which is a little more complex is imified.

Update: Please note that ping.fm has closed down and is no longer available. There are alternatives available though that you can make use of instead. While they may not work in the same way, the result itself is, as you can push updates to multiple social services from a single website.

Composer supports several high profile networks including Facebook, LinkedIn, Twitter, Tumblr and WordPress. It is free at the moment but that may not be the case forever, as the company notes on the pricing page on the official website. For now though, you can use the service for free.

Hootsuite is a professional service that comes with a free plan that enables you to post to up to five social profiles. Pro and Enterprise options are available which raise those limits and improve other features such as message archiving, unlimited use of RSS feeds, and the addition of team members.

Onlywire finally is a commercial service that allows you to submit posts to up to 50 networks for $49 per year. It includes tracking and analytics so that you can measure ROI and engagement.

Advertisement