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Ping, SpinVox enable voice updates of social networks

SpinVox is powering a new Ping.fm plug-in that lets consumers update all their social networks by simply making a phone call.

In the past, social networking has required consumers to log in and separately update a number of Web sites -- MySpace and Facebook -- to keep everyone in tune with their daily life. Ping.fm addressed this problem with a service that lets consumers update all their social networks at once via mobile.

"For SpinVox, we have an opportunity for some fresh faces to experience the power of taking voice and using it to create content," said Tony Carter, public relations director, North America, for SpinVox, Atlanta, GA. "It adds a sense of [immediacy] to these blog posts since people can simply speak their thoughts without having to sit down and log into a network.

"For Ping.fm, it adds a new universe of utility and mobility to an already successful service," he said. "I think many people discount the value of tapping into new aspects of an increasingly powerful social economy and the downstream benefits to businesses that learn to harness that power and reach."

The partners feel that this service will appeal to a broad demographic.

"The target demographic includes a pretty large swath when you factor in the sheer number of blogs that can be populated with voice-to-text posts," Mr. Carter said. "Each seems to attract its own niche in terms of age groups but clearly, we're reaching out to people from their tweens into middle age.

"We shouldn't forget there are some pretty successful businesses out there that are using blogs to attract, inform and incentivize their customers to action," he said.

The voice-powered Ping through SpinVox service converts a spoken post or update into text and simultaneously broadcasts it to 30 of the most popular social networking sites.

These include MySpace, Facebook and Twitter.

SpinVox claims that the social networking voice-to-text messaging service is an industry first.

With Ping through SpinVox, consumers can make quick spoken updates when they're in the moment, while preserving the personality and character of their own voice.

This service gets rid of the need to be at a computer screen or type on a mobile keypad.

With this new ability for consumers to phone in their Ping.fm messages, they can interact with their social networks in a more personal way -- using their voice.

Consumers can sign up for Ping through SpinVox at http://ping.fm.

Existing Ping.fm users can automatically add SpinVox to their service by adding their mobile phone numbers to their account profiles.

At this point, SpinVox does not host any form of mobile advertising.

Ping.fm is a social networking tool that lets consumers update their content from a variety of mediums, thus staying active on various social networks without having to be planted in front of a computer screen.

Most of a person's lifestyle happens outside of the office or home. Ping.fm makes it easier to keep your friends and followers up-to-date on what consumers are doing and where they are.

With the added ability to call in your Ping.fm messages, consumers have even more incentive to interact with their social networks at a time when it's inconvenient to type or text.

This also brings a new level of personality to the messages people post now that their voices will be broadcasted simultaneously along with the converted message.

SpinVox is a privately-held speech technology company, providing voice-to-text messaging services that are used daily by millions of people.

SpinVox services are available directly on and through leading carriers and service providers worldwide.

SpinVox has brought together the two most natural forms of communication -- voice and text -- to create what it claims to be the fastest-growing form of messaging: Voice-to-Content.

Its service is not only upgrading voicemail by converting voicemail to text for delivery as SMS or email messages, but it is also empowering people to speak SMS messages or emails to anyone, from any phone.

As a carrier-class hosted service provider, any network, anywhere in the world can rapidly implement SpinVox.

It is now live with Alltel, Cincinnati Bell, Sasktel, Rogers, Telus, Telstra, Vodacom South Africa, Vodafone Spain, Movistar Chile and Livejournal and has announced a deal with Skype.

At the heart of SpinVox is its Voice Message Conversion System, which works by combining speech technologies with a live-learning language process.

VMCS now serves users across five continents in English, French, Spanish and German -- with additional languages, Portuguese and Italian, under development.

"By and large, bloggers have been tethered to their computers and whatever wireless or wireline network they've been attached to for submitting their posts," Mr. Carter said. "That has hampered their ability to make posts while in the moment of an event or a thought.

"By simply calling a single number and having the ability for those words to post quickly to any number of directed sites, blogging becomes a more real-time communication tool with added spontaneity," he said.