Facebook status updates and Twitter (News - Alert) tweets have become a way of life for most. Whether it’s a personal posting on what you had for breakfast or commentary on a Blockbuster hit, most of us can’t live without this outlet for personal opinions and rants.
Now, thanks to Angel, a leading provider of IVR and enterprise-focused, cloud-based Customer Experience Management solutions, Facebook (News - Alert) and Twitter users will be able to post audio updates – hands-free – to both social networks via a phone.
Angel has unveiled two free solutions, VoiceForTwitter and VoiceForFacebook, that will help give a voice to both social media networks through Angel’s IVR technology. With VoiceForTwitter, on-the-go users will have the ability to post an audio message that will be posted as a link to an audio file on their Twitter feed. Meanwhile, with VoiceForFacebook, on-the-go Facebook users will be able to call a phone number to update their personal status and deliver wall updates via voice.
"VoiceForTwitter and VoiceForFacebook each introduces a massive opportunity to evolve the way users connect and share updates over social networks," said Dave Rennyson, president of Angel, in a press release. "For consumers, each solution not only allows users to personalize their interactions with their friends, but also literally have their voice heard when communicating with companies. Additionally, as businesses continue to leverage social networks as a customer service channel, voice solutions like this can enable representatives to easily connect with customers and create a customized experience with the brand."
Getting started only takes a few simple steps. First, users need to provide a phone number from which they will be calling, and then sync this number to a Twitter or Facebook account. Registration can be done at www.voicefortwitter.com or www.voiceforfacebook.com.
If users want to get even more creative, they can create custom phone-enabled pages or feeds with a unique phone number within both Facebook and Twitter. This will enable the posting of comments to that page or feed, such as posting a shout out to your favorite celebrity on Facebook.
Both solutions are currently available in beta as mobile apps on the Apple (News - Alert) App Store for iPhone users.
"The concept of 'voice' has been lost in social media, with messages relegated to black and white text," said Don Keane (News - Alert), vice president of marketing and product at Angel. "Our goal is to bring context and the nuances of the spoken word back to the messages people are posting. Being at a rock concert and posting a short text message to a Facebook wall is much different than leaving an audio post where friends can hear the excited voice and ambiance of the concert in the background."
Tammy Wolf is a TMCnet web editor. She covers a wide range of topics, including IP communications and information technology. To read more of her articles, please visit her columnist page.
Edited by Jamie Epstein