We've have received a few requests for a "How-to" with Ping.fm. Below you will find basic guide of how to setup a Ping.fm account and use it.


What is Ping.fm? http://www.ping.fm/

Ping.fm was created to make posting to social networking a little easier. It is a site that allows you to make one account and post to several different social networks of your choice and/or in any combination that you setup.


Sign-up

First things first, sign-up. It's quite simple and the form is right there on the main page. After you sign up, there might be a confirmation email that is sent to your email account. Please head there to check and/or confirm the email.


Dashboard & Your Ping.fm email address

Once you've confirmed the email or are logged in to Ping.fm, please click on the Dashboard link at the top. This will be your main page of where you go to configure your account and how it communicates with the networks. The method by which you communicate to these networks is done via a Ping.fm email address generated for you. Under the "Services / Tools" section, click on "E-mail." Read this page to get an idea of what it does.

Highlighted in blue you'll see your Ping.fm email address. Directly above this section, read this line and be aware of it, "Keep your posting e-mail address secret. If someone got ahold of it, they could post messages to your account." If such a thing should happen, you can click "Reset" next to the email address to get a new one.


Networks

Head back to the Dashboard and click on "Add More Networks" in the upper-left under "Social Networks." These are the networks that you will allow Ping.fm to access. Find the network you want and click "Add Network." You'll be presented with a screen asking if you want to allow Ping.fm to put posts on this network. You must allow this for Ping.fm to work as it was designed.

Each network will have a similar setup. You will first need to allow Ping.fm access, provide your login information, and if that network has security restrictions you'll need to allow/confirm them.


Posting

To post a message is quite simple. First, send an email to your Ping.fm email address and in either the subject or body, right your message. If you write it in both, Ping.fm will default to what is written in the body. Each message will need to start with a tag:

@s - Status update post
@m - Micro-blog post
-Blogs requires a title. To separate the title from the body use the "^"
@b - Blog post

By sending an email to your Ping.fm email address with one of the above tags, it will send this message to all of your networks that accept this type of post. For example, if you have Twitter and Facebook setup and you email a status update, both Twitter and Facebook will be updated with this post.


Posting Groups

Posting Groups allow you to specify which of your networking sites get what message and what update. To set this up, head back to your Dashboard. Under "Services / Tools," click on "Posting Groups" in the top-right in the column of P's. Please read Ping.fm's description of Posting Groups: https://pingfm.pbworks.com/Posting-Groups

To create one, select the type of method this group will do. Next, give it a name. Keep this short because you will have to use this name as a tag. Click "Add Posting Group," select your networks you wish to be in this group. If you don't see your network list, first make sure you have added it. If it is still not listed, then it means this site does not allow this type of posting or "third-party" posting. Remember, you're posting through Ping.fm, not directly on the network's site. Lastly, save the group.

Sending messages through this group is done the same way as you do regular posting. The only difference is the tag. You'll just need to use your Posting Group name as the tag. For example, "#postinggroup message goes here." This message will be sent to the networks you selected for this group and by the method you selected. Note the different, regular posting is done with the "@" symbol and posting through a posting group is done with the "#" symbol.


And that's it!

All you'll need to do next is add, delete, or edit these networks and your posting group configurations. Just remember that you must send an email to your Ping.fm email with the @tag or #groupname and a message after it, in either the body or subject.


Happy Peeking with Ping.fm.

Ahh, yes. I had it backwards when I wrote it. I fixed it. Thanks.