10 Reasons Why I’m Loving Amplify

Amplify is a service that lets you share your thoughts, kind of like Twitter but with more space to share, with the  ability to post to more than one place,  like Ping.fm. It’s what I wish Google Buzz would have been.

You can read more about what Amplify is on their site, and get a better sense of how it compares to other services on their blog.

Don’t feel bad if you don’t get why you would need Amplify if you’re using Twitter, at first. I didn’t either. After you read about Amplify, you’ll see it’s not an either/or situation. It’s a case of what service is more appropriate for the conversation you want to have.

My use of Twitter is for mentions, and quick shares,  and Amplify is for sharing things Because I want to have deeper conversations, though not necessarily those that are long enough for a blog post. But if you wanted to talk about something that wanders outside the topic of your blog too far, Amplify is a good place to have that conversation, too.

Without any further ado, here are some of the reasons I like Amplify so much.

1. I like being thought and referred to as a source, as in source of information, instead of as a friend or follower. It makes the relationship feel more like it’s based around news than my level of “like’.
2. I love being able to choose on a case by case basis whether the news I am sharing will be Amplify-only, or appear on any combination of my Facebook profile, any of my Facebook Pages, my Twitter page, Ping.fm or a number of other sites.
3. The Chrome extension makes it easy for me to add stuff from any page.
4. I can use Facebook or Twitter to log in.
5. It automatically finds people I know on Twitter as sources.
6. There’s not a bunch of purely self-serving posts or spam. That may change as the service gets more popular,  as with many services, but the feel of the service makes it seem like this just won’t go over for some reason.
7. I can design my page or customize my sidebar to promote myself if I wish, or feature any other information. Or I can just stick with the default sidebar, which is already pretty useful.
8. The newsfeed makes it really easy to dive into conversations.
9. The conversations themselves.
10. There are very simple stats that tell me what I posted that is getting good news.

There are plenty of things I love about Amplify, but those seem like a good start. I’d love to hear what YOU like about it.

Do you have an Amplify account? If you do, leave me your link when you respond. (It may get auto-moderated, but I’ll catch it in the pending queue.) If you don’t, I suggest joining.

When you join Amplify, don’t forget to add me as a source, too. I’ll be looking for you.