Socl, Microsoft’s take on a social network, is now out of private beta and available to everyone. All you need is a Facebook or Microsoft account to sign in. The social network has mostly flown under the radar and looks a little like Pinterest with a search component and new way to post multiple photos, links and other information all at once.
To get started go to Socl and on the top right hand side, either select the Facebook or Microsoft button to sign in. If you sign in with your Microsoft account, a pop-up will appear:
Click “Yes” and you’ll be signed in. Once signed in you are met with featured posts. On the left hand side below the site logo you can instead select to show content from “all” or “following.” At the very top of the page, there are several different options. “Posts” is pretty self explanatory. “Interests” allow you to find specific content and “People” helps you find others to follow.
“Me” takes you to your profile and “Parties” allow you to watch videos with others in real-time.
The button in the top right hand side next to your profile image is for notifications. Clicking the notifications option will drop-down a box with the most recent posts.
To create a post, click the green “Type a topic to create a post” button at the very top. Type something that you want to post about. For this example, I used Ferrari. When the topic you want to post about appears in the drop-down box, click it which will open up a new page.
What makes Socl different from other social networks is that it pulls in content from Bing search. Instead of uploading your own images or grabbing a link from YouTube, you search for the content and select it to be added to your post.
Articles, images and videos can be mixed together. Once you’ve added content, change the title and add a post caption. Select “tag to interest” to tag with a specific keyword or keywords. Hit “Post” once you’re finished and the finished product should look something like this:
When it comes to interacting with posts on Socl, it’s very straightforward. You can comment, tag, share, get a direct link to a post and even translate. There are also options to report a post as inappropriate or hide a user.
Clicking the smiley face icon is similar to saying you “like” a post.
Scrolling across the social network is very fluid and more posts load automatically.
Ready to give Socl a try? You can sign up for the free social network here.
