Uncategorized | No Limit

At this point, most people who had a BlackBerry have ditched it and never looked back. If anything, most have missed a few features, such as the excellent keyboard or the ease of BBM. For me, the thing I missed most when making the switch to Android was SocialScope, the Swiss Army Knife of social apps.

You may remember Chad’s excellent review of that app way back in October 2010, where I got a shout-out on the No Limit blog even before I had taken the job. This post will be sort of a spiritual successor to that, now that an early Android build has been out for a few months now and gone through a few iterations.

On the whole, SocialScope is a pretty good looking app by my standards. The home screen is very Windows Phone 7-like with large tiles for jumping to various types of updates such as notifications, photos, videos, check-ins, and more. The feeds themselves are very cleanly laid out and readable.

One of the reasons it looks so attractive is the fact that it gives inline previews of basically any type of media and upload service you can throw at it. YouTube? Check. Native Twitter/Facebook/foursquare pics? Lockerz? Check (ugh). Instagram and Picplz? Double check. This app is a content consumer’s dream.

This app also supports a pretty solid list of networks. Twitter and Facebook are included of course, as well as foursquare and tumblr. What you may not expect to sign in to, but can, is Instagram. That’s right, read and (limited) write functionality are available for Instagram in this app.

You can Like and comment on images in a dedicated stream, but unfortunately uploads are not supported. This can definitely hold me over until they come out with an actual Android app.

While there is plenty to get excited about, SocialScope for Android does suffer from a few bugs, as well as some feature omissions that made the BlackBerry app so great.

It isn’t the most consistent at notifying you of mentions and DMs, at least in a timely manner. The app also tends to forget how to refresh and load the latest tweets. Some glaring omissions as far as features go are no multi-Twitter account support and no ability to post as a Facebook Fan Page. I’m sure those features are in the pipeline, but it’s worth mentioning.

Overall, I’m very optimistic about SocialScope for Android’s potential as a killer jack-of-all-trades social app. However, knowing how the app developers have operated over the last 3 or 4 years, I am not as optimistic about the amount of time it will take to reach that full potential, if at all.

The app still has a way to go to be a daily driver for a large amount of people. For me, it was my go-to app on and off for about two months, but I’ve switched back to TweakDeck. That should tell you where the app stands for now.

If you want to give it a shot, leave a comment below or tweet me and I’ll hook you up with an invite!

A Blog Post By: Evan Connors (@evcon)
Evan is the Digital Producer at No Limit and enjoys bold flavors.

Ed. note: ShortStack is an instrumental tool in my job nowadays at NLMC. The guys over there recently wrote a blog for me on my personal blog, OneFortyPl.us. Check out these social tips for mobile eats, and let us know what you think!

Economic woes coupled with a rise in online social networking popularity has created a playing field where food trucks win. Their recession weapon, you ask? Social media. Here are 5 ways food trucks are using social media to improve their bottom lines:

1. Facebook: For food trucks, having a strong social media presence reigns in importance over print flyers and newspaper placements. “Word-of-mouse” packs just as great of a punch as traditional word-of-mouth marketing. With knowledge of that, food trucks are using Facebook Fan Pages to connect, communicate and build relationships with their customers off the streets.

2. Twitter: Twitter is the golden boy for real-time communication. Tweeting up-to-the-minute truck locations connect hungry customers with their favorite street vendors and foods. As it’s uncommon for food trucks to hold set hours and a location, customers have to get tactical with using social media. Food trucks pose as moving targets; Twitter helps these targets become more hittable.

3. Foursquare: At the end of a treasure hunt there’s usually a reward. Food trucks use Foursquare to provide that reward. Although Foursquare limits badge development to selected brands and campaigns they want to associate with, there are other customer incentives that make checking-in worthwhile. Discounts for first time check-ins, a promo code for repeat customers or a free “x” if you try the day’s special, are all ways food trucks are encouraging their customers to engage with their business.

4. YouTube: Television placements are expensive, making a YouTube video is not. Most recently, food trucks are creating video content to promote their mobile businesses. With camera in hand, social-savvy street-vendors are vlogging and filming food tutorials & customer testimonials to promote their brands and real in customers.

5. Instagram: Food bloggers and amateur food enthusiasts love Instagram. Naturally, the fun photo sharing application has risen in popularity with street-food vendors as well. Food trucks are using Instagram to take and post mouthwatering photos of their daily specials to their Facebook Walls and Twitter feeds.

These are just a few ways social media can be utilized to help promote a growing business easily, effectively and cheap!

What food trucks have you seen that serve up excellent content through social channels?

A Blog Post By: Evan Connors (@evcon)