5 Gotta Have Social Media Apps

Applications on mobile phones are all the rage. I spend more time on my apps than I do making calls. That time spent is often with those I connect with on social media.

Twitter and Facebook are the major players in social media and applications for them are a plenty.

TweetDeck

FREE. TweetDeck is your mobile browser for staying in touch with what’s happening now on Twitter from your iPhone or iPod Touch. TweetDeck shows you everything you want to see at once, so you can stay organized and up to date no matter where you are.

Create groups, search Twitter, manage multiple accounts and easily post your tweets or share photos, link and much more. Plus sync your existing TweetDeck columns between your desktop and iPhone. Nice and easy.

Twitpic Poster

FREE. This is a simple app for sharing pictures on Twitter using Twitpic service.
It’s super easy, all is done in 3 taps:
1. Select an image or take a picture
2. Upload to Twitpic
3. Enter Twitter message

You can also just take a picture and email it to your Twitpic address, but I find the Twitpic Poster easier and less cumbersome.

Seesmic

FREE. Do you have multiple social media accounts? More than one Twitter? Facebook? MySpace?  Seesmic for iPhone lets you update and view multiple social networks in an efficient and powerful application. Manage multiple Twitter accounts, your Facebook account, a Ping.fm account and organize all your accounts, searches, trending topics and lists in your customizable dashboard.

Facebook

FREE. Facebook for iPhone makes it easy to stay connected and share information with friends. Use your iPhone to start a conversation with Facebook Chat, check your friends’ latest photos and status updates, look up a phone number, or upload your own mobile photos to Facebook while on the go.

PingChat

FREE. PingChat! is the ultimate way to communicate with all of your friends, whether they use an iDevice, Android or BlackBerry. PingChat! provides free, unlimited, cross-platform, smartphone-to-smartphone messaging, with real-time conversations, group chat, media sharing, and much more. Simply create a Ping! ID, share your ID with all your friends, and start Pinging!

You won’t need to pay your carrier for text messaging. Wi-Fi or your current data plan is all it takes to send messages. Some apps offer free texting, but are exclusive to the U.S, or support few other carriers.

Send photos, videos, voice notes, contacts and map locations seamlessly directly in your conversations.

Robert Siciliano, personal security expert contributor to Just Ask Gemalto. Disclosures