Amplify What You Find On The Web

Amplify is a service that allows you to organize and share the content you find on the web. You can auto-post from Amplify to social media sites like Twitter, Facebook, Google Buzz and more; or use Amplify to create blog posts on platforms such as Wordpress, Blogger, Posterous and Tumblr. This YouTube Video demonstrates how to "clip" content from a webpage and Amplify it.

Amplify provides a handy bookmarklet that you can drag up to the bookmar bar on your browser or you can download the extension for Google Chrome or Firefox. You can sign-in to Amplify using Twitter or Facebook, then update your profile and within minutes you'll have access to your MyAmplify page.

Add your social networks to your profile and settings and finally, customize your MyAmplify page with sidebar widgets and background images.

Here's an example of the "Where to find me" widget and the Twitter widget from my personal MyAmplify page.

One of the recently "featured users" who contributes to the Technology category is Svartling and here is an example of article he Amplified called Curating Tweets: Can it Be Done? - yes, use amplify.com. I love the way Svartling has reinforced his branding by adding a custom background to the Svartling Amplify page.

One tip I'd like to share about using the Chrome Extension or the Bookmarklet to Amplify a blog post or a webpage. I find that I have more control over which content is selected if I highlight first and then click the icon. I also use that trick when I'm bookmarking content using the Chrome extension for Diigo.

Another tips is to use the social aspects of Amplify as well. You can find users sharing stories of mutual interests and leave comments or recommend their Amps. 

The only drawback to using Amplify is "over-sharing". I think its an annoying little habit that a lot of people get into when they are aggressively push content out into their Twitter and Facebook streams. For example, you don't need to Amplify a new blog post to Twitter if you're already using FeedBurner to auto-tweet new blog posts!

The easy way to avoid "over-sharing" of a clip with Amplify is to do this: When your clip is loaded and ready for final review, double check the list on the right hand side and make sure the appropriate service is unchecked before you Amplify it!

In this video tutorial I demonstrate how to enhance your MyAmplify page with sidebar widgets, custom backgrounds, tags and categories and you’ll also learn how-to view the traffic statistics for your Amps.