Hey y’all, it’s Thea here again. Earlier this year I penned a few diary blogs from my trip home to the Silicon Valley – in particular to a mobile conference at Stanford and a day trip to Google. So it occurred to me to do something similar for my recent trip to the South of France.

First, it is probably worth pointing out that the opportunity to go to Cannes arose via social media, LinkedIn, in particular.

You see, I came across a post on a group that the opportunity for a (partially) “funded” trip to MIPCOM in Cannes presented itself.

For those of you, who like me, weren’t aware of what MIP was – it’s conference that caters toward content of all types – largely that meant television, but also games, films, technology and even social media applications too.

You’d be amazed at just how big this event was. The absolute biggest global content producers/promoters were there – Disney, Sony, YouTube, Fox, NBC International – to name just a few.

One thing that became readily apparent was that big or small – we’re all in the same boat vying for unique ways to capture consumers through content and find ways to monetize it. The second thing that was most apparent was just how challenging that is becoming for all of us – the niche companies like mine, the middle ground and even for the big players too.

TV’s ALL ABOUT THE SECOND SCREEN AND THE SOCIAL

A few of the top buzz terms discussed at MIP were – “Transmedia” and also the concept of the “second screen”. I’ll save the former for another day, but generally speaking, on the notion of second screens – the primary screen would be a television, and the secondary might be a computer, tablet, or mobile phone. Yet these days there it’s been cited that there are more handsets than televisions around the world – so one might question if television has now become the second screen. (That too is another discussion for another day).

One statistic being banded about was how something like 60-65% of American teenagers were watching television but doing something else at the same time.

Picture above – watching my father’s Californian TV on mine in Glasgow.

Well, I’d argue that it’s not just the teenagers…

Months ago on here, I blogged about the Evolution of my TV viewing, through my slingbox player, wherever I am in the world, I can watch TV with my father who is at home in California. Most days we view shows together, while having a Skype chat window open to discuss what we’re viewing. Did I mention that my dad will be eighty on his next birthday? So it’s not all about the kids, folks.

Technology these days enables us to engage with others while shows are airing – allowing us to vote, discuss, play along with etc.

Though it’s possible in a variety of ways now it certainly looks like it will become even more common place in the coming year or so especially if Anthony Rose has anything to say about it.

Anthony is the man behind Kazaa and the relaunch of BBC’s iPlayer. He is now poised to launch the “next big thing” – Zeebox - a real-time platform for social TV viewing.

Initially starting as an iPad app – you’ll be able to following with your friends and contacts on Twitter and Facebook, and tag content, but as it progresses, broadcasters may have widgets for certain programs.

At some point, due to your own preferences and tags, advertising will be targeted to you, and it’s likely that you’ll be able to buy things straight from it too.

Zeebox – is set to launch any time now. We’ll see if it lives up to its hype.

In any event, to a content creator and consumer like myself, it is an exciting and socially vibrant time.

Hello ya’ll Thea here again. As I promised in my last blog Social Media Week Wrap Up, here is the transcript of my first (and possibly the last, ha!) Social Media talk…“10 Quick Tips for LinkedIn Success”.

I started by taking a show of hands of how many were on LinkedIn (LI). Pretty much everybody – as you’d imagine. Then, I asked how many felt like they were utilizing it to its fullest potential (because frankly, most people, in my opinion, aren’t). About three people raised their hands. This talk wasn’t for them! It was my hope that the vast majority of the audience would go away with even just one tidbit to try at home later.

So if you’re not a LinkedIn expert, then this one’s for you. Starting at the top here we go…

(1) MAKE YOUR HEADLINE NEWSWORTHY

Make yourself interesting. Avoid sticking “Business Development Manager at ACME WIDGETS” as your headline. That tells me absolutely nothing about you or your company. If you don’t change the default text, LI just uses what you put for your most recent job entry.

You just have to remember you’re more than your JOB TITLE – so consider giving a bit more information. Imagine you were walking up to someone at a networking event, how would you introduce yourself and describe what you do to them in an interesting way?

Also your headline is a key search area on your profile – so use it wisely.

(2) CHANGE THE DEFAULT TEXT

Do you have a website? Does it have a name? If so, then put that. The default text in LinkedIn merely says “Company Website” or “Blog” on your profile (see above).

Honestly, I can’t believe how many of my contacts haven’t bothered to change the default text there, and are thus they’re missing out more key search optimization. As in the example above of someone who has more than 500 connections. Room for improvement there, my friend…

So if your profile says “Company Website” – or “Blog” then please do me a favor, go home and change it to its real name OK?

(3) PICTURE PERFECT

Stating the obvious here but don’t leave it blank (i.e. the grey default avatar), or stick your logo in as your profile pic – save that for your company page.

Instead use a good, professional headshot whenever possible.

LinkedIn is not Facebook – so avoid your holiday snap, a cropped picture from a night out with your friends, and always remember that first impressions matter.

So put your best FACE forward…

(4) DYNAMIC PROFILE

Don’t make your profile read like your CV – with bullet points listing the tasks you do. Ditch the dryness and find engaging things to say about yourself, your job and or company. Use positive wording, correct spelling and good grammar. (Write it in Word and paste it in if needs be.)

Make people WANT to connect with you. A good example, and I am not just saying this because he pays me – is NSDesign’s head honcho Gary Ennis. His profile tells a story, not just lists a bunch of things he’s done or achieved. It has personality (see the last paragraph – magic, juggling, geeks etc – you get a good snapshot of what he’s about…) and I believe it makes you want to connect with someone when they do go that extra paragraph if you will.

And speaking of connecting – that’s what LinkedIn is all about…so when you do….

(5) ALWAYS BE PERSONAL

If you’re going to add someone to your network, it’s good to start off with a comment on how you came across them, where you met (if you have met somewhere), or how you’re connected if by a group, contacts in common and so forth.

One thing to avoid is using “friend” for someone you’ve never met or spoken to.

Even if you have met, never leave the default text - “I’d like to add you to my professional network” – please, please, please, always be personal with a message. It only takes a minute.

One guy added me recently. I didn’t know him. We’re not in the same industry. He didn’t put a message and he called me a “friend”. For principle, I hit “ignore”. I know not everyone is as picky as me about this, but equally I’ve spoken to a lot of people who are!

If you want to connect with someone, then be worth connecting to in your request!

(6) GO ON GROUPS

If you don’t know a person, but want to connect with them, find groups they’re on and join and begin genuinely engaging on them.

Groups are an amazing opportunity to learn information, find jobs, become aware of opportunities and events – as well as to connect to people who you might not have ability to get in front of so easily otherwise.

Local groups are a fantastic source of getting relevant information, sourcing contacts, various specialist recommendations etc.

Recently on one of our local groups, there was a post offering a funded trip, for a content conference in Cannes called MIPCOM. I replied and I just returned (blogs about that to follow here soon!)

This was an opportunity I’d never have been aware of had I not been actively engaging and monitoring that group.

So definitely check out relevant groups to your interests or sector.

(7) RECOMMENDATIONS

You can use LinkedIn to get past OR present colleagues, suppliers, customers or bosses – to say a few nice things about you.

Some people I’ve come across have NO recommendations and others seem to go to the other end of the spectrum and have zillions.

For me, I personally would opt for few quality recommendations, over quantity but to each their own on this one and it may differ according to your sector.

(8) TAGS

Only recently, I discovered that if you go into your Contacts you can tag them. You may wonder why you’d want to do that, but say you were having an event in Glasgow and you wanted to message all of your contacts that were local, you can type in “Glasgow” and it shows you all the people you’ve tagged with Glasgow and you VOILA you can message them all in a ‘oner’.

Please don’t use this feature to SPAM people or you’ll quickly start losing connections!

(9) DATABASE DOWNLOAD

Has anyone ever lost their phone, or their contacts due to an email malfunction? I updated my software on my Blackberry a few months back and overwrote my entire address book accidentally (nightmare!). But with LinkedIn’s contacts area, you can export all your contacts (via a variety of formats) and import to your computer email program and/or into you phone’s address book.

I highly recommend periodic downloads of your contacts. Just because, you never know…

(10)  GET CONNECTING!

My top and final tip is just get out there and start connecting. Like anything in life, you get out of LINKEDIN what you put into it. It’s work to build up a solid network online just as it is to do so OFF. But if done right – it can lead to more contacts, mentors, suppliers, clients and maybe even friends.

Thank you.

PS: Feel free to connect with me on LinkedIn but only if you make your request personal

Hey guys, Thea here again. Further to my earlier blog about Social Media Week having kicked off, I thought I’d do a follow up, a short wrap up, if you will.

It was a very busy week for us NS Social Media types – what with us, like most people, having full time jobs and yet still trying to get out there to participate as much as we could.

Like any festival, conference or the like – there is a danger of being “too much” on. In my opinion, life is better with quality not quantity, but that’s just me. In many cases, there were things happening concurrently, and I’d want to be at both – which is, of course, impossible.

As luck would have it though – the vast majority of the sessions were recorded and streamed, so it was possible to watch LIVE while at work, or later at a more convenient time.

Wednesday night Gary took part in an event at Glasgow’s Film City called Socially adept or socially inept? How to do, learn and use social media for business. It was, as ever, an engaging and informative talk from him – this time recounting some of the stats from our recent Social Media ROI survey. There are a few of my snaps on our NSDesign flickr page – if you’re interested.

SM STATS

There were some surprising results in the survey like: Nearly 40% of the Scottish businesses doing Facebook don’t think it’s useful. Ironically, the winner was Twitter – which most people don’t initially “get” – but was found to be the most used and useful.

Another key social media tool was blogging which 64% of our respondents found useful (that’s quite a bit more than the aforementioned Facebook stat).

Also on the bill were: our cultural client, Clare McLeod @IntermezzoArts, who uses social media to promote the arts, Inner Ear’s @dougalperman discussed having a plan, then doing the campaign, and most essentially recommended using tools for measurement (an interesting example of SM tool CO TWEET was given), and finally the ever-controversial social knowledge authority @MurrayBuchanan recounted the tale of how he grew his Facebook followers to the thousands only to dump them down to just his nearest and dearest. (Frankly, after years of doing social media daily, I can’t really blame him,…)

Thursday morning I gave my own social media bite-sized talk for The Business Banter crowd. I was speaking on my 10 Quick Tips for LinkedIn Success – which I’ll no doubt post as a blog later this week. It was a nerve-racking experience but overall pretty fun. I might just do it again. My fellow presenters all did a fantastic job to amuse and enlighten us.

With each talk I attend I usually walk away from it with some tip, suggestion, nugget or thought. It’s often something as simple as checking out a website, or a suggestion on how to do social media more effectively.

Friday I was in work all day but rushed to Skypark to hear the closing keynote of Social Media Week, delivered over Skype, from Don Tapscott. Don is the author or Wikinomics: How Mass Collaboration Changes Everything (2006) and a new book Macrowikinomics – Rebooting Business and the World. While it was interesting, I have to admit it was all a bit over my head. I ended up leaving Skypark feeling that it was all a bit anti-climactic. Of course the excitement raged on, in town, but after a long week of work and Social Media all I really wanted was some food and to put my feet up.

It was a good experience over all. I got to catch up with many of my peers from across the Central Belt. I heard some of them talk and share their stories. Like most people I didn’t get to half of the talks I wanted to see but thankfully, as I said, there’s always the LiveStream. Speaking of which, off to finish watching the talk on Responsive Design.

Let us know if you attended any talks. Which were your favorites? What was the best bit of advice you walked away with?

Hey everyone, Thea here again. I’ve been so busy that I’ve not had much time to write blogs at all. This week is Social Media Week taking place all over the world. Glasgow, it has been claimed to be the biggest outside the USA. That doesn’t surprise me as many ‘weegies’ do seem pretty clued-up and passionate on their tweets, likes and shares.

As I was working in NSDesign on Monday, I didn’t make it along to any events the events. Today, however, I made up for some lost time by attending many talks.

The first few were at the Glasgow Film Theatre and part of filmcamp Glasgow. Caught the tail end of a talk on Crowd Sourcing in today’s film-making arena (which was pretty apt for me as I’ve been contemplating a Kick Starter campaign for my own little project).

After that it was BlipFoto.com founder @joetree. I love the idea of this little, Bafta-winning Scottish dotcom. It’s an engaging site whereby you upload one (and only one) picture every single day as a sort of video journal.

I tried it a week ago or two ago, uploaded one photo, and have not done it again since,…but I suspect I could (and will) get into it.

Being a fan of Flickr already, this appeals for my joy of taking pics on the go.

Joe also had pretty impressive stats of usage of his site (as seen above) – which most of us site owners would envy…

Just before 5pm it was a mad dash down to Bothwell Street for Future Forward, an event hosted by our friend Benedetto Bordone (@tlcstudios).

There were four, interesting talks on the night and some good banter too. I took a wee shot of Hera Hussain - in action at twenty one years old, and tweeting less than a year she’s taken to it like a duck to water.

The whole day’s been great. It’s always interesting to hear my fellow Social Media peers’ experiences, thoughts, recommendations, best practices and so forth.

Plus one of the speakers, Jim Henderson, a business coach, even gave me a book – Positioning the Battle for Your Mind. Sounds right up my street, and I do love a FREE book, so thanks Jim!

Wish I could spend the day attending more talks tomorrow, but alas, there’s working to be done at NS HQ – so I shall resign myself to the one, rather special, evening talk from our very own head honcho – Gary Ennis. His talk - Socially adept or socially inept? How to do, learn and use social media for business. On Thursday it will be my turn. My first ever Social Media talk. It’s on the subject of LinkedIn, delivered early on Thursday morning for Business Banter. It’s FREE, short and sweet, if you’re up early and want to glean a few tips on the business networking site. I am just one of half a dozen speakers – so it’s bound to be a great coffee morning in Esquires in Glasgow. Hope to see one or two of you there. Better go, I’ve got to put the finishing touches on my talk.

If you’re in the Central Belt of Scotland it’s not too late to sign up for some talks. Learn more about Social Media Week Glasgow – and why not take part.

At a recent panel session at the Turing Festival, I commented on how the use of Forums had diminished lately, seeing them replaced by social media alternatives – namely Facebook and LinkedIn groups, this was instantly “tweeted” by a few people:

@iandubya Ian Watson
#tfest businesses increasingly not running forums on their one sites – using Linkedin, Facebook etc.. @nsdesign
26 Aug

Following the conference, I was contacted by Barry Hynd who runs the excellent Scottish Business Forums, and he asked me to explain in more detail about what I meant, explaining that his own forums had been experiencing slower growth, and was therefore looking at new ideas to boost usage.

I sent Barry a quick email, and he kindly gave me permission to publish that email here..  so what follows below is a quick summary on why Forums are Dead, and why they will live on…  in my personal opinion of course!..

The issue of Forums losing traction is a tough one.. 

to be honest – that “tweet” where I’m cited as saying “forums don’t work – do it on facebook”, was specifically meant in regard to “corporate forums” – ie: forums/discussion boards run by companies, to get their members/customers/stakeholders to engage with them..  eg: the “Pizza Hut” forum (assuming there is/was such a thing!)…

Not to be confused with forums with a somewhat independent slant to them, where the focus is on a shared niche/topic – such as “Scottish business”. For that I do think there’s still a place for them..  however – saying that – I can see more and more “communities” moving to Facebook groups, or LinkedIn groups, some of which are thriving, while traditional forums are losing traffic and interest… 

I think it all comes down to the fact that “I’m on Facebook”, so if I find you there, it’s easy and convenient to talk to you, whereas with YOUR forum,you’re making me play by YOUR rules, and I have to remember to visit YOUR website, and YOUR login…”

Does that make any sense to you?  I’m not saying there’s no place for forums, but everything I see (and it’s been going this way for some considerable time), is that the traffic is moving on to social channels, so the communities need to move there too to ensure a continued engagement…

Am I right or wrong?  Are Forums evolving to be just another subset of the big Social Media Channels?

Hey y’all, Thea here again, just back from another New Media Breakfast in Glasgow. Today’s fantastic presentation was given by a rather enthusiastic, Jennifer Holloway, of Yorkshire-based Spark Branding.

In a  Malcolm Gladwell sort of way, Jennifer kicked off asking the audience to hazard a guess at a variety questions like where she’s from, how she voted in the last election, if she was in a relationship (and if it was with a man or woman) etc.

The idea being that we form an opinion of someone in the first seven seconds of contact. Incidentally, Holloway asserts this holds true even if that contact is online.

WHAT’S YOUR MESSAGE?

Have a think for a moment about what your profiles, for instance on LinkedIn, Twitter or Facebook – say about you, your business and your personality.

I don’t think I was alone in leaving the room wondering about what mine say about me, and vowing to do an audit of each before the day’s end.

Much emphasis of Jennifer’s talk was placed on LinkedIn which, of course, most of us realise is a valuable tool for business and networking. (You may have read my post last winter 8 tips for Getting the Most out of LinkedIn…)

We all need to promote our personal brand according to Jennifer and to add personality to it – even on LinkedIn.

PEOPLE WORK (BUY OR DO BUSINESS) WITH PEOPLE THEY LIKE

The talk really boiled down to one, simple premise – “we do business with people we like” (well, at least whenever possible). So we need to be as likable as possible – both online and in person.

The thing is we all need to put our best foot forward, of course we do, but we also need to keep in mind that we’ll never be able to control how other people perceive us.  There will always be people who love us (our company too) and those who loathe us. We don’t have any real control over either group.

“PERSPECTIVE IS A MIRROR NOT A FACT”

One gentleman thought Jennifer’s own profile picture was “shifty” whereas others liked it and even called the picture “cheeky”. It reminds me of my favourite quote that “perspective is a mirror not a fact”.

It would stand to reason that the one most likely to do business with her was the one who found her “cheeky”.

PROFESSIONAL PROFILE PICS

Have a look at your own LinkedIn profile, if you have one that is. Is the profile picture a professional one? It should be.

Leave out the glam wedding day shots, or the one where you’ve cropped out your best mate in a face-lock.

Instead opt for a clear head shot with a hint of personality. [NOTE: One amusing example showed was a woman who looked like a vamped-up sex kitten, but was actually a lawyer; she, arguably, went overboard on trying to show she wasn't a stereotypical lawyer, I'm just sayin'...]

AS FOR THE CONTENT…

As for the words filling your up your profile be sure to add something interesting. For instance, a prime example comes our very own MD’s profile. In addition to talking about all of the ways NSDesign can help you and your business, – there’s a little bit about Gary’s own personality in there too:

“A true people person, Gary’s other interests include magic and juggling, which he often uses to entertain the masses – from local playgroups to conference delegates!”

I love it. This, I’ve no doubt, will be a conversation starter with some people out there.  It won’t interest everyone of course, but it might just the line that causes someone out there to do business with him.

OTHER PROFILE SUGGESTIONS:

• Take a look at your own profile/s online and assess the photo and the copy.
• Put yourself out there and promote yourself (and your business) with “conviction”.

• Ditch any “Old School” worn-out patter, add some personality and  blow your own trumpet (at least a little).

• Find your own balance between under-selling and over selling yourself.

On that note, I’m off to critique and revise my own profiles and maybe add a little about that Road Trip I did back in ’06 – and the documentary about it I hope to one day make…

More than half of all UK holidaymakers use social media to plan their holidays.

New research conducted by online travel agency sunshine.co.uk polled 1102 holidaymakers in the UK and found that exactly 54% of them would use the likes of Facebook and Twitter before making a booking.

Those polled said that they used social media to gather information and reviews about their desired destination, for example requesting personal recommendations from other users.

Just over 60% of respondents said that they used Facebook to research their holidays, contrasted with 17% who said that they used Twitter to do so.

The ease with which people can post comments and photos on Facebook is thought to be a major factor in its popularity with those researching their holidays.

The number of people using social media to research their holidays was second only to those using dedicated review sites such as TripAdvisor, where site members post up and discuss reviews of their holidays.

Chris Brown, co-founder of sunshine.co.uk, said: “Research is a vital part of booking a holiday. It was really interesting to find out that many ask friends, family, or even strangers on social media platforms about where to go on their next holiday.”

The news could spell the death of the printed holiday brochure, and should give the whole travel sector a wake up call about its internet marketing strategy.

Hey everyone, it’s Thea here again reporting to you live from the valley of silicon.

Well, I’ve been here a week already and it’s been a non-stop trip so far. I’ll reckon I’ll need a holiday to recover from my holiday.

I’ll be honest with you, trips to California always sound much more glamorous than they actually are, for me it’s just going home. But home to a place where every other corner practically has a tech company on it and every daily car ride is, invariably, past at least one of the big names we’re all familiar with now, be it Yahoo, Apple, Cisco, Google, IBM etc.

Something in that still remains cool to my inner geek. It’s a little inspiring in some way to be surrounded by these global companies. It’s like the valley is steeped in an entrepreneurial spirit that isn’t quite the same anywhere else I’ve ever been.

Scotland, of course, has had its amazing contributions in terms of inventions (television; telephones; penicillin; antiseptics,…hello), but, arguably, not particularly in its global start ups.

Nope nowhere else on earth is quite like the valley.

ONE FOR THE BOOKS

My first weekend was spent in Santa Cruz at an intensive writing conference – discussing various project ideas with other would-be writers. Additionally, we heard experiences of authors, editors, agents and marketing experts.

Much time was spent going over the new paths for publishing (mainstream press, self publishing, different types of ebooks, etc), as well as the various opportunities used to promote works through different social media channels.

Did you know there are 1000 books a day published by mainstream publishers? Or that 47,000 novels were published in America last year? Or that on Amazon: Kindle books are outselling all print books?

Well, I sure didn’t…

Over all I have to say that writing conference was an experience that managed to be both inspirational and deflating in equal measure.

WE CAN ALL BE JOURNALISTS THESE DAYS

The past two days were spent at Stanford University attending a conference: the Eighth Innovation Journalism – how innovation is affecting the business of journalism – from mobile publishing to collective intelligence.

At NSDesign we’re lovers of technology, trends, and of course social media so this conference, too, was right up my street.

There were students, technologists, journalists, and entrepreneurs from all four corners of the globe discussing the many ways we’re all connecting and changing history through stories. Not a new subject – it’s one we covered recently here on our blog and how journalists are using social media for news gathering.

Never has this all been more apparent than in the major global stories over the past year – from the Iceland Ash Cloud, to Japan’s earthquake and Tsunami, to protests in Egypt, to the floods and tornadoes across America.

These incredible events, coupled with today’s mobile technology (smart phones, handheld video cameras etc), mean that any one of us has an opportunity become a citizen journalist if we’re in the right (or wrong) place at the time of the event.

The whole landscape of news, publishing, and indeed interaction is changing and what can feel like break-neck speeds. It’s certainly been a thought-provoking and interesting time to be alive, has it not?

In part two of my Silicon Valley Diary, I’ll be sharing some of the latest hot sites and exciting apps that people have been talking about here in the valley.

Check back Monday for that, OK?

So until then, I’m Thea, saying “See Ya!”

In the 90s, a Toyota subsidiary in Japan, created two dimensional barcodes called QR codes (Quick Response). What may have started out  as a car parts tracking mechanism, is now being used in a much broader context by a variety of cities, individuals, and businesses alike.

We’re starting to see them in books (see right), magazines, on buses, posters or even on the sides of buildings.

With a bit of software and a camera, your smartphone turns into a QR reader/scanner that can decipher the codes in the real world.

While this is rather fun, if a little geeky, what can it do for you? Well, for starters, you can promote your website, a product, gig or art exhibit in a unique and engaging way.

A few of us in NSDesign are reading the NOW REVOLUTION – Shifts to Make Your Business Faster, Smarter, and More Social (Jay Baer, Amber Nusland). Throughout the book there are many QR codes that take the reader online for more information. Think about the ramifications of that.

As soon as someone prints a book, the  content can become “out of date”, but with QR links to a web address   – you can keep the content fresh and current. Mistakes can be fixed…

You can create a code which links to text (information), a website URL, to call a phone number, to send an SMS, to an event, to someone’s contact details, a PayPal “buy it now” link, a link to iTunes, a place on a map and a whole lot more!

Not just a techie online destination, you can put the codes on shirts, hats, mugs and so much more!

One QR code contains space for up to 4,000 alphanumeric characters!

For several years now, bands like The Pet Shop Boys have been using QR codes in their videos, on posters and online to promote exclusive material for fans.

The possibilities are endless on how you can creatively use the technology to enhance an experience.

You can create your own, for free, on a variety of sites such as QRStuff or Qurify, Create QR Code, to name a few.

In summary, here is a great piece from one of my favourite magazines – Fast Company – on 13 Creative Ways to Use QR Codes for Marketing. There is also an interesting BBC News piece on how Bordeaux is using QR codes to get it’s citizens online.

Hey guys, it’s Thea here again at NSDesign, where we tend to love new things! New gadgets, new apps, new technology – you name it, we love it! So I was excited yesterday, when I discovered a Swedish VOIP company, REBTEL.

Now I don’t know about you, but Rebtel’s not a name I was familiar with,  so I decided to investigate. a little further. It turns out they’re billing themselves as the second VOIP network after Skype. Or put simply, from their site:

“International calls for the cost of a local call from your regular mobile phone and landline – No Computers, No Downloads, No Internet Connections.”

Free calls? I’m in!!

That said, having used Skype for more than a handful of years, I was a bit tentative about it all, that is until my “early-adopter” side won, and I couldn’t resist trying it out.

I started with my best friend in San Francisco since I talk to him more than just about anyone else on the phone! It would be more-than-handy to be able to call from my Blackberry, not just when I am at home and able to use my “free calls” option from my landline. So this is what initially sells me.

GETTING STARTED:

So if you fancy getting in on this Cheap/Free Phone Call Action here’s what you do:

1)  …start by registering yourself on the RebTel site.

2) Next, add your friend’s phone number to your contact list on REBTEL (NOTE: It assigns them a local number to you, which in my case, as it’s Glasgow, they gave me an 0141 number for each contact.)

3) Rebtel then, immediately, texts you the local number, you save it to your phone and voila you’re good to go! (They also email you the number).

4) The last step, once you’ve saved the number to you phone’s address book, is hit SEND and call your friend.

You repeat the process to add other family and friends. That bit may be time- consuming  initially, but once they’re stored in your phone, you can use them again and again.

This afternoon I added another friend (also in California) and since she was up at the crack of dawn, I was able to phone her straight away from my Blackberry. The call quality was totally fine – just like any normal mobile phone call. (NOTE: The first five minute call to them is free, after that there’s a fee. A list of pricing can be found on their site – choose which country you’re calling to/from.

NEW TECHNOLOGY

As I’ve just discovered them today, I am still trying to work out how it all works.

So far I’ve ascertained that they offer Cheap International Calls, FREE International calling, international SMS, and what I am presuming is an APP-to-APP feature (they do iPhone, Blackberry, Android thus far). I’ve added it to my iPod Touch which I am hoping will work similarly to the Skype-to-Skype feature and be free, but not entirely sure.

IN FOR A PENNY…

So to try out this service, I’ve added 10.00 dollars* credit to my account (*because my Paypal account is in dollars, but in the UK, your lowest credit deposit option is 7.00 pounds).

Over the next week or two I’ll test drive it, and I’ll report back to you on my experience of it.

To be honest, I am not sure it will lure me away from Skype, where I’ve been a (generally) happy Skype customer for many years, but in the spirit of loving new technology, I’ll give it a whirl.

TO SKYPE OR NOT TO SKYPE?

As I say, I already have a SKYPE phone which I am logged into nearly 24/7 – so why would I bother with this?

Well, the main advantage I see with having this Rebtel facility, is if I am ever out and about and need to speak to my dad, my sister, my aforementioned best friend and we’re not both on Skype, this means I can ring them straight up from my mobile and it won’t cost me an arm and a leg! Ringing anyone internationally from my Blackberry is not something I’d have ever considered before, but now I can and it won’t break my bank!

Oh and incidentally, through their website, I just sent a few text messages to my German friend (who is currently in Antigua) and my Australian friend and it doesn’t appeared to have cost me a penny. My balance is still $9.99.

So far so good. I’ll keep you posted.