AudioBoo is one of the newer tools in the social media storm of late, and some podfaders have gravitated towards it as an easy, on-the-go alternative to the sometimes labor-intensive audio podcast.
Thanks to the likes of Neville Hobson over at For Immediate Release podcast, who has been raving about AudioBoo's ease of use, I downloaded the iPhone app and gave it a try.
What is AudioBoo?
AudioBoo is basically Seesmic for audio recordings, with the added benefit of recording directly from the iPhone via the iPhone app. To get started, download the free app from the App store. The interface is three-button, no-nonsense.
Push Record to record an audio message. This could be a Twitter-like comment or something longer, like an interview, with two people speaking into the application. After reviewing your Boo, just hit upload to post the message, and message posts to the public timeline at AudioBoo.fm.
The site works like most other social networking sites, with a public timeline so you can discover friends with similar interests, the ability to tag posts for more discoverability and the ability to friend and follow others.
Another nice added feature is the ability to create different account and link each one to the iPhone app--great for community managers like myself who might want to post from different accounts on behalf of clients.
The big benefit of AudioBoo is its ease of use, hands-down. If you've discovered that you don't have time to orchestrate a full-on podcast but still want to connect orally with friends, fans and followers, AudioBoo can basically act as an easy, three-button, instant podcast. At the next event, try hitting Record to capture an interview with a speaker or attendee immediately after a session and posting right away.
It's the instantaneous nature of Twitter combined with the more personal connectivity of audio via the human voice. This could be powerful. And yes, it's now integrated with Twitter so that you can tweet your Boos, so no worries about having to manage two micromedia platforms simultaneously. For a more detailed explanation, this video is excellent:
Have you tried AudioBoo? What do you think? More importantly, how do you anticipate using it?
