So for the purpose of this exercise I thought I would share with you my top iPad apps that I use to consume and respond to the social media channels in my life. This list is not in order of preference.

Social Media iPad Apps

Facebook – all things Facebook related
Twitter – all things twitter related
Hootsuite – I mainly use this app to schedule updates to my social channels
Showyou – a great interface to all video/YouTube content shared by your social community
WordPress – manages post updates and comments moderation for my WordPress blogs
Analytics Pro – a great tool I use to dive deeply into google analytics
Yammer – a fantastic internal social network tool that I use to keep my colleagues up to date on my work and actions as a colleague of theirs
Skype – the iPad is the best Skype tool in my personal opinion. Especially with a pair of headphones with a built in mic.
Flipboard – a great interface that I link to my google reader account to keep in touch with all my reading content everyday. I like this because of its Twitter, Facebook, LinkedIn,Read it later and email sharing tools. Just makes sharing content very easy.

Favourite iPad Apps for Social Media originally posted on Mike Saunders - Keynote Speaker and Social Media Coach

If you would like to know more about facebook, linkedin, twitter, MXit, blogging, websites, mobile media, internet advertising and online marketing, this is the app for you. An internet strategy consultant by day, and blogger by night, Mike is the guru on all things digital and provides training, presentations, and consulting. His vision for social media is to see organisations effectively using digital media to communicate online – increasing their reach, influence and productivity.

If you are on a Nokia Phone we would love to hear what you think.

Nokia Application launched for Mike Saunders Social Media Blog originally posted on Mike Saunders - Keynote Speaker and Social Media Coach

Insight into how Generation Y use social media originally posted on Mike Saunders - Keynote Speaker and Social Media Coach

The effect of mobile phones on social media originally posted on Mike Saunders - Keynote Speaker and Social Media Coach

So the question has become – is TV on the way out?

I would argue no. It seems that TV programs are actually experiencing an increase in viewership. So why is this happening if people are obviously spending more and more time online?

I would like to suggest that social media is shaping a new way of watching TV and that rather than phasing out TV it has chosen a symbiotic relationship. Here are a few quick thoughts about how this works:

1) Social media helps promote TV

Social media is often used as an outlet to express watt important to us. When people are excited about important TV episodes/programmes they will use social media to share their enthusiasm. The last Survivor episode, an important rugby match and the chilean miners rescue are all examples of TV being shared in excitement on social networks.

Once this excitement is shared more people are exposed to the TV event taking place and the potential of more people ‘tuning in’ increases.

2) Social Media adds a new layer of engagement

Once the game is on and people are sitting around the beloved box there is often a conversation that begins. It usually is focused around the game/event they are watching and the experience is more enjoyable. In other words, its more fun to watch a game of Rugby with friends than on our own.

Search Springboks on Twitter during the next Springbok game

Social media lets people take that conversation outside of the room, outside of the stadium and off the television. As people share their thoughts on the game the experience is now felt all over the world from anyone who is interested.

If you don’t understand what I am talking about here run a search on twitter the next time your team is playing a match and see what the twitter community is saying about the game.

3) Smart people – Smart Phones

Smart people take social media on the move. They pack it into their cellphone. Almost every social network has a mobile website and smart phones even have beautifully designed interfaces for these networks.

So as people are able to tweet and share on the go, it becomes easier to start or take part in the conversation online.

A new way of watching TV?

Does social media add a new dynamic to the way you watch TV?

Please leave a comment with your thoughts I would love to hear from you.

Is social media changing the way we watch TV? originally posted on Mike Saunders - Keynote Speaker and Social Media Coach

ALL social media websites are mobile ready and they present a product to our consumers that is so integral to their daily lives. A communication vehicle. Especially Facebook and MXIT who offer that communication with more people than any other network in South Africa.

Couple this thought with Authur Goldstucks research:

“The findings suggest, on the surface, that more than half of urban cellular users – 8.5-million – are capable of accessing e-mail on their phones, and as many as 60% – 9.5-million – are able to browse on their phones. The implications of these numbers are significant: in one fell swoop, they would turn the SA Internet user base from the 5.3-million reported by World Wide Worx at the end of 2009 to 9.6-million. Add Instant Messaging to the mix, and the total becomes 10.56-million – exactly double that of the Internet user base at the end of last year.”

Goldstuck also says ““The truth is, many people with these applications on their phones do no use them and do not even know how to use them,” says Goldstuck. “It is clear that the cellphone has the potential to take South Africans across the digital divide, but the phones themselves need to become more user-friendly, and a vast amount of consumer education is needed.”

With national mobile penetration well over 90% and the product offering (benefit) of social media, I believe that South African business will be able to speak to a larger audience in South Africa through social networks. Mobile websites seem like the obvious answer, but there is very little reason for a mobile user to visit your new mobi site. However, there is plenty of reason for them to join Facebook, or twitter or any other social network. We will then be able to engage this market through the social media platforms and “invite” them to our website.

Another interesting development is 0.facebook.com (http://blog.facebook.com/blog.php?post=391295167130) which offer free Facebook access to people over a mobile phone. This is not available in South Africa yet but should this technology be released in SA through a participating mobile carrier it has the potential to become the most used communication vehicle in South Africa.

Once again, in my personal experience, I have developed campaigns for brands that have been able to connect with young people who do not have computer access to Facebook. They are on pay-as-you-go cell-phone contracts and therefore prefer to communicate via Facebook. One particular campaign generated R 250 000, 00 worth of business after only six weeks of starting their Facebook Page. The business was closed directly over Facebook with very little traffic being driven to the website.

Does social media affect mobile marketing in South Africa? originally posted on Mike Saunders - Keynote Speaker and Social Media Coach

Great User Experience

The app probably has the most beautiful interface I have seen in a while. It uses the space of the iPhone screen very well and gives as much as possible to the content. The menu is a small button to the top left of the screen. This menu then allows you to move through the content of the app by overlaying the menu on the content. Very slick.

Supersport iPhone Application

The image on the right explains it a bit better.

The only problem is that it is not very clear that this little button opens up a whole new world of fixtures, logs, news and all the fine details of your favourite sport. A friend I met the other day was raving to me about the app and did not even know about the extended menu’ button.

Great Content

The content is fantastic. The makers of this app understand their audience well and have provided very detailed info on all the relevant sports. This includes Live Results that stream the scores of games that are currently being played. I cannot fault the design of this content in any way.

No Social Media Links?

Here is the biggest opportunity missed. In fact I find it hard to believe that someone can create an app with out the ability to post the articles all over twitter and Facebook. App like this are being used by people who have a strong inclination to using social media and they would most likely become the foundation point of making your content go viral. Especially content this great!

My advice to Supersport?

1. Make the purpose of the menu button more apparant
2. Link to social media PLEASE!!!

Other than those two small elements the Supersport app has a great user experience that is packed full of the content you are looking for in sport and is well worth it.

Congratulations Supersport!

I took a few screenshots for you to look at!

Thoughts on the Supersport iPhone App originally posted on Mike Saunders - Keynote Speaker and Social Media Coach

The average age of Facebook users in South Africa is 33; MySpace is 32; Twitter and YouTube come in at 31; and the youngest in the survey is MXit with an average age of 27. These findings dispel perceptions that social networking is for teenagers only.

Unbelievable! That means that people on Facebook, Twitter, MXit and YouTube could have more decision making power than we think. We may need to start changing the way we market to these networks because we may be missing the mark completely. Generation X are the ones we can meet with social networking. Very exciting news!

One question is begging though? Where are all the teenagers?

Forget teenagers! Generation X use social media in South Africa originally posted on Mike Saunders - Keynote Speaker and Social Media Coach

Read It Later

Still one of my favourite applications. Such a simple concept of being able to tag web-pages to ‘read them later.’ A new update has just been released which see’s the app take on a new look and feel. The app also seems to run faster and smoother than before.

WordPress

The wordpress app was rendered useless once I move over to a self-hosted wordpress platform. This was because the self hosted API did not allow for the remote access that the app needed to mange the blogs from the iPhone. A recent update to wordpress now allows remote access and now this app is back in my good books. I am able to manage and reply to comments, fix spelling errors and even write an entire blog post should I wish (although my html skills are not that great so hyperlinking and rich-text editing becomes a problem.)

Hootsuite

Hootsuite as a web-based application has grown leaps and bounds in 2009. Starting off as a way to update Twitter and schedule tweets the software has now extended to faceook, linkedin, ping.fm and a host of other services. The only thing missing (for me) was the iPhone app. Today I installed the app, and although it only allows access to updating twitter accounts for now it is great to start scheduling tweets on the fly. This has already become a time saver for me.

Shovebox

My new found software friend is Shovebox. Shovebox allows you to shove you ideas into a box for use at a later time. Ideas come to me at any given time and it great to be able to store them in an organised fashion for use at a later time. An example is when I have blog post ideas – I can shove the ideas for another time when I am lacking inspiration. Of course the iPhone addition to this Apple software make my life even easier.

Things

The most useful application I have ever used on the iPhone. It’s desktop counterpart is also the most used software on my mac. Things is the best task management system simply because it allows for complete flexibility, task scheduling, and the classic GTD inbox used to make sure you don’t forget the little things. The iphone app has also seen numerous upgrades in 2009 and has allowed for more and more control over task management straight from the phone. I have actually got to the point where I no longer need to take my laptop into meetings because of this application.

News24

A direct feed of collective news in South Africa. The application allows you to customise your news feed choices and saves you having to buy a newspaper to stay up to date. In addition the app has included sharing links on the news items which brings News24 into the social media realm. Big thumbs up to the News24 team.

Tripometer

An easy to use and intuitive application that keeps track of my milage. I can control both the personal and business milage and there is no guessing the distance as it calculates the milage by using the odometer readings. What would make this app the best, would be if it could calculate your milage without inputting any data and simply measuring the distance in a GPS manner. One can dream can’t he?

Wikipanion

This app is more useful than google because of its focus on providing information rather than general content. Google search will bring you the most relevant webpages in its results, but wikipanion will link to directly to ‘encyclopedia’ type info. I also find that the addition of the ‘wiktionary’ has rendered all other dictionary applications useless.

Remote

This is the most convenient application when I am entertaining at home. I often set my laptop up to play music in the background through my home sound system. With the Remote app I can control the volume and choice of songs from anywhere around my house. Saves me getting up all the time to turn the music down when we start eating etc. Plus it always gets attention when people see it in action.

Spend

Still a great application that helps manage my budgeting needs. I have been able to keep better track on my financial status since using this application.

Logos

A recent introduction to my iPhone. Logos is a bible application that has a stronger search and study function than Bible (the app I was using previously). Logos also includes sharing fuctions to twitter etc which makes life easier in sharing thoughts with my twitter channel @onthingsabove

Look out for the next post outlining my top applications on the iPhone for social media!

Top iPhone Apps for South Africans in 2009 originally posted on Mike Saunders - Keynote Speaker and Social Media Coach

Apple have tried to censor and ban a few apps that have been submitted but it is clear that they are under tons of pressure to release these bans.

Censorship-of-iphone-apps

In the new software update iPhone 3.0. Apple have bought in the option to create censorships or restrictions over which applications can be downloaded. Even though it seems that Apple’s reason for this is so that it can allow adult apps into the App Store, I would still encourage you to make use of this ‘restrictions’ function. Especially if your children own an iPhone!

Click here to find out how to enable this on the iPhone.

I am afraid that once activated the restrictions do not stop the apps showing up in the App Store but it does stop example images from apprearing and the ability to download the application. (Even if it is free)

You will need to select your allowed ratings, so here they are directly from iTunes:

4+: Applications in this category contain no objectionable materials.

9+: Applications in this category may contain mild or infrequent occurrences of cartoon, fantasy or realistic violence, and infrequent or mild mature, suggestive, or horror-themed content which may not be suitable for children under the age of 9.

12+: Applications in this category may also contain infrequent mild language, frequent or intense cartoon, fantasy or realistic violence, and mild or infrequent mature or suggestive themes, and simulated gambling which may not be suitable for children under the age of 12.

17+: You must be at least 17 years old to purchase this application. (emphasis in the original)

Applications in this category may also contain frequent and intense offensive language; frequent and intense cartoon, fantasy or realistic violence; and frequent and intense mature, horror, and suggestive themes; plus sexual content, nudity, alcohol, tobacco, and drugs which may not be suitable for children under the age of 17.

Personally I don’t see any need to own an application that has a restriction higher than 4+.

Protect yourself from unwanted apps in iPhone App Store originally posted on Mike Saunders - Keynote Speaker and Social Media Coach