UberMedia have released a new social network by the name of Chime.in! Released on Tuesday, this social network in a combination of Facebook and Twitter, taking the best bits from each and mashing them into one great new network. To look at, it's a perfect blend. With links and data down the sides, much like Facebook's Messages, News and Events etc, but the centre made up of updates and "Chimes" much like a Twitter news feed. Bill Gross, CEO at UberMedia,suggests that Chime.In is completely different Twitter or Facebook in the fact that it is primarily an "information network," based on ones own interests and hobbies. And this is what really sets Chime.In apart from the rest. The ability to pick and choose your own news feed and content.
What Does It Do?
1-Interests And People
As mentioned above, Chime.In was created to allow you to provide a list of your interests and then follow that interest. For example, you could search for "Ron Paul" and a list of people who have Chimed about that topic will appear. And here's the clever fun bit. You follow that thread as an "interest" but not necessarily the people talking about it, although that is an option as well. Think of it as following a Twitter search but not having to navigate away from your homepage to see the content.You can see Chimes about any topic you like from people you don't even follow as well as ones you do, so you never miss a beat when it comes to that interest. It's also a great way of finding talking points and making new friends, it's a social network after all! The image below shows an interest search:
This image shows the ability to follow that interest and how you can "subscribe" to that topic:
2- 2,000 Characters To Help You Interact!
You can also share your thoughts and data on topics and with 2,000 characters to write what you want, you can be as fluent as you like without compromise, something that has not been seen in previous networks. This is great if you have a lot to say about a certain issue and wish to share links and other formats of content. It also allows you to write articles and essays directly from your social network page so you know your followers can see it without have to write it, post it on a separate blog and then linking out to it. Great for cutting out the middle man!
As seen in the image above, you can also add links, photos, videos and create polls, to help your content reach the masses and get seen.
3- Pick Your Own News Feed
So, we know that you can pick your topics and interests to follow as well as people. But that's not the end of it! Even if you follow a certain person you can choose not to see all their Chimes. You can pick which topics they Chime about to see in your feed. That way you can filter any irrelevant topics like "Just had a coffee!" so your feed is particular, neat and full of only useful content. All you have to do is click on the user, pick the topics, ie, technology as seen in the image below, and there you have it! Clean and crisp feeds so you only see what you need, even if your friends are Chiming about other things.
4- Communities And Businesses
You can establish community pages for either personal interests or for your business. These allow people to join the community and Chime about all things related to it. Allowing your business or even your own private content and pages, can be pro-active which is great news for companies and personal blogging for example. Below shows an image of how to set up your own Community:
And here is what the Community page can look like:
5- Extra Fun Features
Chime.In allows you to invite your friends and family to join in the fun so you can always have people to interact with and talk about all your favourite things. It also means you can grow your business profile via invites!
Initial Thoughts
Chime.In has a lot to offer for both private and businesses and is something that any budding social media enthusiast should consider looking into. With the ability to create your own news feed and block out anything you are not interested in, it makes it the most niche targeted network out there. After all, you can't block individual tweets and you can only hide Facebook content once it has appeared in your feed. This makes Chime.In exact and relevant 24/7. The fact they also let you interact without a low character count means you can always get your point across without sounding blunt and having to compromise what you say. Chimed.In is only a few days old at the moment so no doubt there will be some hiccups and a learning curve involved but it's certainly something to look out for.
Have Your Say
What do you think of this new social network? Will you be "chiming" regularly?
Who Wrote This Article?
I'm Nikki and I work at MarketMeSuite, the social media marketing dashboard. We have some Great news! We are now free! Please check it out and be sure to let me know what you think!
Chime With Team MarketMeSuite:
Tammykfennell - CEO; Nikki__Peters - Community Support; Wuup - CTO
MarketMeSuite - Business Profile; MarketMeSuite Community- Page
