Why I love Audioboo

In the early days of my business career, all the contact information I ever needed from anyone I met was on their business card, name, telephone number and (maybe) a fax number, the world has changed a lot since then.

More often than not these days, many of the business conversations I have contain the question “are you on Linkedin”? Whilst the core of the conversation will have been on some aspect of sales effectiveness, operational efficiency or organisational design, (given that they are my areas of expertise), the topics of on line presence and social media always seems to creep in.

I often find myself discussing the merits of websites, Twitter, Facebook and Linkedin as business enablers and networking tools. The ups and downs of blogging and sites such as Posterous and BlogSpot also seem to feature heavily in conversations.

Most of the people I discuss these topics with agree that a coordinated approach to an on-line presence is a good idea and that not all mediums are suitable for all businesses. I also find that when I mention “Audioboo” as one of the options, the majority of people say to me “what’s Audioboo”? So this blog will attempt to answer that question.

Audioboo is an application (developed by a British company of the same name) that allows you to record audio and share it via the web. You can forward the recording as a web-link, place it on a website or on a social media site (such as your status bar on Linkedin) or simply direct people to your profile on Audioboo’s own site (www.audioboo.fm).

The technology works on Iphone and Android devices and will soon be available for Blackberry, Nokia and Windows mobile. Using the application is very simple, you just download the application onto your mobile and set your account up on the Audioboo website.

Once you have completed these steps you can record your own “boos” (“boo” is the name given to a recording), choose to follow and listen to “boos” that interest you, or as mentioned earlier link your own “boos” to social media sites that you might already be using. You can download “boos’ to your mobile device, (just as you would a podcast) and people can choose to download yours. Best of all it is free to use, with a five-minute limit on recording time and a 50Mb limit on uploads.

The prospect of making a recording and releasing it into cyber-space might appear daunting and I know that most of us suffer from the, “do I really sound like that” syndrome. However, as someone who has used Audioboo for both business and personal recordings, I can assure you it gets easier with a bit of practice (and it can be good fun)!

For any business that regularly blogs, an application like Audioboo can bring the blog to life, allowing audiences not only to read the text, but also to listen to the author of the blog articulate their own words.

The fact that It’s home grown British technology makes me a bit of a fan, but also because it’s simple to install and easy to use. Additionally, it adds a different dimension to how you can communicate with your customer base, your colleagues and your target market.

From a commercial perspective I have no association with Audioboo, they don’t even know I am blogging (and recording a “boo”) about their technology, but I do have a vested interest in doing so.

Hopefully the next time I mention Audioboo in a conversation, the answer might be, “ah, Audioboo, I know all about that”.

At which point I can just say, “have you got a business card”?

www.audioboo.fm/johnpc_ltd

This article was intially written as a guest blog for www.glooblog.com