Does the world need another Twitter? Another Facebook? Do we need yet another place to step into the flow of Internet babble? Many people would say no emphatically, and I would possibly have agreed until now. But there’s a new player on the scene called Chime.in and it is fascinating both to read and to share updates through.

Chime.in looks initially to be a bit like Twitter, a bit like Tumblr or maybe a bit like Facebook. But it’s not quite the same as any of them and it has some very advantageous differences. Namely, it’s easy to follow broad subjects of interests and you can actually get interested readers for your contributions. Now you can probably see how there’s room for this social network in an already-crowded Internet.

Why Chime.in?

Here’s a little run-down of what you need to know about Chime.in and what makes it different. There are a number of characteristics of Chime.in which are not seen anywhere else, plus a smattering of the best features you will find elsewhere.

Chimes are up to 5,000 characters long and can include a headline, photo, video, a poll or a link. Photos and videos can be uploaded to Chime.in, while simple polls are created within Chime.in.

When you post your Chime you can choose to send it to your followers, Facebook, Twitter, email or any of the communities you have joined. You can also choose up to seven “interests” to tag your post with, which enables followers of those interests to see your post too.

Each post can be scheduled or saved as a draft if you prefer to keep it for later. There’s no need to engage another service to schedule things for you.

Chimes can also be deleted or edited if you need to change things later. In this sense, it’s a little more like blogging than Twitter or Facebook.

It’s also possible to create storyboards in Chime.in around a theme, event or particular interest you have, much like you can with Storify. You can use your own Chimes or other people’s Chimes in order to create it, with the end result using a hand-picked URL to give your friends on other social networks.

Chime.in Community

It only takes a quick glance at Chime.in to realise that there is a thriving community here. Music discovery communities are filled with Spotify playlists, while posts on politics are generating lots of discussion. When viewing a community you can chat live to other people from the community. It’s full of life, fun and fantastic.

Join Chime.in

Chime.in is open to all and can be used by signing in with a Facebook login. When you’ve connected your accounts you can send your Chimes to Facebook and Twitter. This is handy if none of your friends are on Chime.in and you’re keen to let them see the posts as well as sharing with a larger audience.

Chime.in Basics

Chime.in users choose broad topics to follow in order to see updates that they’ll like, such as music, comedy, art, business, politics, etc. There are also communities which cover certain topic areas, too. This means that there’s no need to follow individual users at all – you can simply follow interests and communities if you wish.

If you do want to follow particular users, you’re able to specify whether to follow everything they post or just the posts they make which are within your favourite topics. So, whenever you update your favourite interests your entire feed will be filtered accordingly. That’s quite a powerful tool!

Your dashboard makes it easy to see the latest Chimes from interests you have, people you’re following and the communities you’ve joined. Plus, it’s easy to see the editor’s hand-chosen posts and recommended communities to join.

For each feed of Chimes you look at you can sort the feed into recent entries, most liked, most shared and most commented. Communities can be filtered into different media types, so that you can see just the videos, polls, links or photos. This makes it really easy to find things to get yourself enthused over.

If you haven’t got time to read or comment on a post when you see it, you can save it for yourself to check out later. You’ll never be bored now!

Chime.in From Outside

You don’t have to be a member to view Chimes, plus there are a number of handy ways to get information in and out of Chime.in for easy access. There are widgets for your website and RSS feeds for any person, interest or community. Chime.in is available as an Android and iPhone application and you can post your Chimes from Hootsuite.

Try It!

Chime.in is not about your friends. It’s about conversation and exploration of things you will love. It’s colourful, vibrant and interesting – and if you share things with Chime you can easily get it back to your friends and fans in other social networks. You’re also very likely to gain a new audience within Chime that cares about each post you write. Instead of blogging or Tweeting to an audience that needs to care about your every word, Chime lets people pay attention to the side of you they care about and just ignore the noise of the rest.