In the battle of the social media sites, the two that seem to be everywhere these days are Facebook and Twitter. The hardest part of immersing yourself in any type of social media, be it for fun or for business, is managing it well. With all of the web based options available, most are geared towards managing a single site or account; it’s great to see Seesmic stepping up and making a very user friendly solution to manage multiple accounts for Facebook and/or Twitter.
The Seesmic desktop app is a free cross platform Adobe Air based application. This very usable Adobe Air based desktop application was designed by the same folks that made Twhirl. If you have used the Twhirl app before, you should definitely give the Seesmic app a try. It is a happy medium between having too many features which can make it hard to use, and too little features which would make it not very helpful.
In a nutshell, the Seesmic desktop application allows you to save searches, post to multiple accounts, make user lists and see one or many streams of updates through multiple columns. I know this may sound a little too simple, but that is kind of the point. Other desktop or web based apps out there might have more features or a shinier packaging, but do you really need the extras? The main reason why people dread social media is the time that it takes to keep up with it; having a simple set up with pretty much everything you need and nothing you don’t is a good thing, isn’t it?
Here are some of the features:
While looking at the column of tweets and Facebook updates, if you see something that interests you, you can open another column. This is done by selecting a person, doing a search for a keyword or looking at a userlist, then clicking on the detach column button at the top. You can open several of these columns side by side, usually two or three in addition to the main column will probably fill the screen left to right.
If you have an account for a specific URL shrinking site, Bit.ly for example, Seesmic lets you log in and use your own account. Some of the URL shrinking sites give you stats on the links you post.
Notifications come via a Growl-like pop up window at the bottom of the screen. In the settings menu, you have the option for the duration the window stays on the screen and whether or not it makes a sound each time it pops up.
Much like on the Twitter site, you have a search option. Unlike the Twitter site, you can save searches. This gives you a list of of past searches right in the side bar. Having selections in plain view makes it easy to compare keyword searches to a new topic or hashtag.
Adding media to a post is drag and drop simple. Much like the URL shrinking sites, you can choose what image sharing service to use.
Like most things these days, there is an iPhone app in the works. There wasn’t any information on the Seesmic site about what you would be able to do from your iPhone, but I would venture a guess to say it will have pretty much the same functionality as the desktop application.
The folks at Seesmic are also working on a web based version. I like the way they decided to do the desktop version before the web version. It makes more sense based on the intended use to have a desktop application. Being able to log in while your at a different computer and manage your accounts is a good back up option.
How do you keep track of your Facebook and Twitter updates?
Trevor is a freelance writer covering topics ranging from the Android OS to free web and desktop applications. When he is not writing about mobile productivity, He is coaching and playing the world’s greatest game… Soccer.
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