With Facebook’s recent acquisition of the microblogging social site, FriendFeed, it may be the perfect time to start thinking about adding FriendFeed to your arsenal of online social media marketing tools.
This new takeover may well be the biggest threat to Twitter, so why not jump on board now and get a good foothold in the Friendfeed community.
What’s So Special About FriendFeed?
One thing that makes FriendFeed different from Twitter is its ability to function more as an aggregation site for information than merely a platform for updating the world on what you’re currently doing.
In fact, some refer to the site as a “recommendation engine”. This is because the feeds are all linked to content recommended by others in the community. This adds a valuable peer approval aspect to these micro-blogs – and a great way to drive traffic to a company website.
Where Twitter falls short is the fact that threads related to a conversation usually only appear to reciprocal followers. Even with the # function on Twitter, following particular conversations is not very transparent. You have to scroll through the updates of all your followers in order to find a particular thread that may or may not be linked elsewhere.
FriendFeed uses the same type of format Facebook does, it includes all threads related to a particular conversation below the original post and FriendFeed members are known for being very good at adding comments to posts.
You can also use FriendFeed as a device for monitoring your brand. Its advanced search options allow you to easily find posts and comments with your brand name – and find out what consumers really think of your company. This type of business intelligence data is very valuable!
Leveraging Content
Because FriendFeed posts pull content from other sites without your intervention , it is a great way to leverage a particular marketing piece. Twitter is the number one source, so if you’ve already built up a good following on that site, you can leverage that popularity on FriendFeed, particularly if you designate the same user name at each site.
Most users connect their FriendFeed account to their Twitter account and at least half of them connect to their Facebook account. You can also link your blog posts to FriendFeed. This could be a very effective form of viral marketing for your blog.
Friendfeed Rooms
FriendFeed rooms are a great place to start a conversation with a number of other users. Rooms are a very popular place on the site and attract quite a bit of commenting. Use a room to begin a topic related to your business and it will most likely result in further interest. FriendFeed works well for promotion because of its content – and the ability of its users to influence other members.
As with any other type of social marketing, you will gain the most benefit from FriendFeed by being a regular contributor and reading other’s content. The “like” feature allows you to add your stamp of approval to anyone’s posts, the law of reciprocity states you reap what you sow means you can create a lot of buzz for your own content as well.
In terms of working smarter instead of harder, this tool helps you bookmark almost anything you do online socially without your having to manually do submissions.
If you would like to connect, you can find me here on Friendfeed.
See you at the top of Google!
Sean Rasmussen
SEO Australia Pacific
AussieSEO.com © 2007 - 2010
Hi Sean,
I have to say that I mostly ignore FriendFeed. But I see what you’re saying about being a regular contributor. I don’t spend enough time nurturing relationships on social media sites.
I tend to just submit something and then go. I need to take the time to friend people and read their stuff. After all, how can I ever expect them to do that for me if I don’t do it for them?
.-= Jazz Salinger´s last blog ..Learn and Earn Competition – This is It =-.
It’s hard to use all the social media sites to their full advantage Jazz, you can only focus your attention on a certain amount of sites
FriendFeed is another one of those services where I’ve had an account since my younger, wilder days. I’ve never really done much with it for about three years but it’s obvious that I have to make some changes in my use of the site a start to get FriendFeed to work for me..
I hadn’t realized that you could monitor your brand by searching Friendfeed. So I ran a quick test by searching for Grateful We’re Not Dead (what else?)
I was totally amazed to find virtually everything I or anyone else has ever posted about the band. And I gave up after going back over a year’s worth of postings.
It looks like FriendFeed is another excellent site to have in your Internet Marketing toolbag.
.-= Don White´s last blog ..Psycho- =-.
Hi Don
I am like you having been on Friendfeed a while without really understanding all of it’s options.
I have just done a search on myself and found feeds from places I wouldn’t expect such as competitors. It’s reassuring to know that even competitors see value in what you are posting.
.-= Gee Hollings´s last blog ..Are Keyword Research Services Really Worth It =-.
Hi Sean
Another social media site and I have tended to overlook it as I have only just begun with Twitter and learning about Digg. After reading this article and also Don’s comment, I can understand how this social site can be of great benefit.
Time is of the utmost essence and one of the reasons I decided to become an internet marketer was to have a lifestyle and more time to play. If I belong to too many sites I will be spending all my time ‘socialising in 2D’ and not getting out and about. I will have to make a certain time every week to go into these sites and interact as I do see the importance of building relationships in this field of work.
Thankyou for a very informative article.
.-= Elly´s last blog .. =-.
Me too – thinking that Twitter and FB is enough – but when is enough enough if you want to be known out there!
Hi Elly,
It is really important to build relationships on these sites. I think you have to pick and choose which sites you want to interact on. There are just so many of them and you won’t be able to do all of them justice.
Well at least I couldn’t but maybe you can. I’m still trying to learn which ones I’m good at building relationships on and which ones I’m not.
.-= Jazz Salinger´s last blog ..Finding Your Passion =-.
I agree Jazz – building a network etc is important , but we can over-extend ourselves if we don’t judiciously choose which Social Media apps to be an active part in. I suspect it is better to work well in a couple before adding more to the list – there is only so much time.
I like what Sean has here about Friendfeeder. I had explored it yesterday and found a link from Sean to an article that I found very helpful. However, I think at this stage I will tend to only use FF to check on Sean’s entries, otherwise it is too much.
Definitely best to focus on a few main sites, rather than sporadically visiting bucket loads of sites Peter
Hi Sean,
I have a few friends on FriendFeed. Like many others I was not aware of the potential and will now take more time to nurture this site.
I will now be more aware of other people’s posts and give credit where credit is due. I’m not sure if I have FriendFeed connected up with Twitter.
.-= Jill Brown´s last blog ..Couples Marry at Common Law =-.
It’s amazing to see that you published this article on September 1, 2009. I just signed up for FriendFeed a few weeks ago.
I like that fact that once you set it up, FriendFeed will automatically pull in all the information from around the web into one easy to navigate interface.
Being able to use it to monitor your ‘brand’ is also a great feature Sean. An Addition to using Google Alerts.
.-= Cemil´s last blog ..Making Money From Blogging =-.