This is the main screen of Airtime before Video Chatting with Someone

A new social media tool joined the socialscape today by the founders of Napster (and Facebook’s first President): Airtime. The purpose, according to them from the sneak peak article in Forbes is to bring fun back to the Internet through spontaneity and personal interaction. From our first read in the article and our first trial (not, we just used it for 15 minutes), here’s what we think is important to know:

1. Access: The tool is free to use through Facebook. You can access it on Facebook by searching ‘Airtime’ and selecting the ‘App’ search result. You’ll need internet access and a webcam to use it.
2. Privacy: You are required to share your friends, contacts, and interests to use the tool. (Note, we tried to select ‘Don’t Allow’, but the system required it to continue.)
   

   Airtime Privacy Screen (You must allow to connect to Airtime)

3. Random Video Chat/Meet Strangers: If you select ‘Talk to Someone’, the system will automatically connect you with someone based on location and interests and their face will pop up on the screen. (We immediately closed the window when this happened – we weren’t ready for it.) This was a bit confusing since there is an arrow pointing to the right in the ‘Talk to Someone’ button and thumbnails of your Facebook friends show up on the right hand side of the page so it is unclear as to weather the button helps you video chat with someone from that list on the right side or…someone random. Consider this fair warning.
4. Chat with Friends, Family, Clients: The tool can be used to chat with friends through video for a more interactive experience. We tend to like Google+ Hangouts for this, but since it is connected through Facebook, there are less steps to connect since more people log into Facebook frequently and may not be familiar with connecting to Google+ Hangout.
5. Video Interaction: The tool can also be interfaced with YouTube so you could technically watch a movie at the same time as a family member who is out of town – at the same time, and see each others’ reactions watching it. We sincerely hope this doesn’t impact dating. Nothing beats the good ol’ movie theater. This could be very effective for wanting to show a how-to video, product demo, or introductory video to your business to a potential and remote client. This could also be helpful for watching training videos with a trainee, or interviewing while showing a potential candidate a video you have previously created to get their reactions or thoughts.

What do we think about Airtime and Small Business?

• Truly Connect with Business Partners and Team -Whether it’s Airtime or Google+ Hangouts, video chat (or conferencing) can be very beneficial for meeting remotely (but maintaining a personal experience) with clients, employees, and prospects. Currently, we use Google+ Hangouts, especially since we can chat with up to 10 people, but Airtime has plans to expand beyond 1-on-1.
• “It’s Not Personal, It’s Business” – Can Business be this Personal? Airtime can be a great way to connect with clients and business colleagues through video chat, but it seems to be a bit more personal than Google+ Hangouts may be since it is connected to a person’s Facebook profile, interests, and friends (who yes, may include colleagues). We hope to see a connection with Airtime and Facebook Business pages sometime soon for a more professional angle.
• Advertising Opportunity – Airtime might be a strategic new place to advertise your business if your ads can be just as targeted to the audience you select as Facebook ads are today. Consider placing an Airtime ad, which may be interacted with more frequently since they are likely to combine video and audio for a visual and interactive ad experience while video chatting. We’ll need to look into ad pricing, but this could be strategic if you’re ahead of the game in this space.

We’ll keep you posted as we discover more about this new tool and learn about how others are using it and which features are being more widely adopted. Have you used it? What do you think about using Airtime for small business?