FriendFeed as a social media strategy tool

Posted July 21, 2009

23 Comments

I received a blog comment from Val Nelson last week asking me why I like FriendFeed. As I started commenting back to her, I realized that my answer might be useful to more folks. So I jotted down my thoughts here.

For folks who aren’t familiar with FriendFeed, it’s a service that makes it easy for friends to share content with each other by aggregating their activities on up to 58 different social media sites. This content is updated automatically without any additional effort from the user.

How to use Friendfeed in your social media strategy

1. FriendFeed as a “reader”

Only FriendFeed can be used to aggregate a person’s social media activities - up to 58 different social networking sites – into a single source. This personalized, holistic view can help you develop a deeper relationship with people you care about. For example, I’ve learned over time that Megan Keane has consistent interest in Second Life – something I wouldn’t have learned If I only read her blog on Techsoup.Org.

FriendFeed Reader

2. FriendFeed as a social media “business card”

FriendFeed allows you to create a widget with all your social media hubs and outposts. If you’re using a WordPress blog as your hub, you can simply embed this widget into your sidebar.

3. FriendFeed as peripheral vision

Much of a blogger’s life is, well… their blog. FriendFeed allows you to catch the content a blogger creates on the periphery of their blog. For example, in addition to reading Chris Garrett’s blog (which I subscribe to by email), I can also see what Chris Stumbles, or tags in Flickr. Chris Garrett - Stumble Review

4. FriendFeed as “first responder”

A combination of many factors are important when nurturing relationships, but one factor is speed. This is where the FriendFeed Notifier comes in handy. The FriendFeed Notifier is a desktop application that allows you to view your friends activity without having to visit FriendFeed.com. The moment a friend of yours bookmarks an article in Delicious, or reviews content in Stumbleupon, the FriendFeed desktop notifier window pops up. You can view, like and comment directly from this notification window – instantly.

I keep it open on my desktop as I work, and if something catches my eye, I’ll jump right in and like or comment. This also keeps me connected to folks even when I’m busy.

FriendFeed Notifier

5. FriendFeed as a “pre-filtered” content source

Another way to enhance your professional and personal relationships is be a source of fresh and valuable information. FriendFeed’s cornerstone feature is that it allows folks to receive fresh content from the people that they know and trust. If Darren Rowse shares an interesting article on Photography, I know that that will be valuable content because he’s a trusted professional. In other words, social proof is built right in to the FriendFeed platform.

Sharing on FriendFeed

6. Friendfeed as a relationship organizer

Finally, with Friendfeed, you can organize folks by “relationship type”: Business, personal, partners, mentors – or any category your choose.

FriendFeed groups function

So – how do you use FriendFeed?

nancyclaeys

Thanks for the information, John. I had no idea FF had so many different options available. I'll have to spend some time on my settings to make sure I'm getting as much out of it as I should. Great post.

John Haydon

The cool thing about FriendFeed is that you could just set it up, do nothing else, and use it as an outpost.

Rebecca Leaman

It took me a while to get friendly with FriendFeed, but now I find I'm using it more often than any other service, and primarily in one of two ways: (1) as an ad hoc bookmarking site to remind myself of things I want to look at again when I have more time (the bookmarklet is a huge timesaver there!), and (2) increasingly, as a news feed, with users sorted neatly into groups according to context/topic. Haven't tried the Notifier yet, however - thanks for that tip, John!

John Haydon

The bookmarklet - I forgot about that one! Thanks, Rebecca!

chrismingryan

John:

I have to admit I've been mystified about FriendFeed. At first I thought it was just plain redundant but now I can see if used right it's kind of like twitter on steroids. Thanks!

John Haydon

Chris - you're welcome! FriendFeed, like most social media tools are essentially limited by our own imagination, which can be addressed simply by experimenting and poking around. :-)

jangeronimo

And in FriendFeed there's less incidence of spam. And threaded conversations aren't limited by 140 characters - heaven for conversationalists! :)

John Haydon

Come to think of it, I've never gotten any spam in FriendFeed...

jangeronimo

Well, they're there all right. They're just more savvy pushing their wares. lol.

Do you have something along the likes of plotting to ensnare your Twitter friends to use FF? That's my biggest disappointment, not having my cool friends to try FriendFeed.

The other thing that stumps me is how to use imaginary friend and using rooms in FF. It's a steep learning curve for me, but since FF has these powerful features I've resolved to be more patient to unlock its great potential. :)

Debra Askanase

GREAT post, John! As Rebecca put it, I was also mystified by FriendFeed. I still haven't explored it in the many ways that you mention, but I did post my first question "to the crowd" two days ago. Until now, I've thought of FriendFeed primarily as a record of my social media activities. I use it to find some of my old tweets or Status Updates, and I have peace of mind knowing it is all there in one place. I can't wait to try out the "pre-filtered content source" you mention. One other note - I think FriendFeed can be more than a badge - it could be a wonderful feed for the front page of an organization's website. Why not place the feed from FriendFeed on the home page so that an organization's stakeholders can see all the organization's social media activity around the social net?

John Haydon

Yes - a "pre-filtered content source". Content that your friends recommend is generally of a higher quality than stuff you'll have to sift through on Google. Of course that all depends on what kind of friends you have... ;-)

skingery

I use FriendFeed as an information monitor. Here's how: http://www.techlifeweb.com/2009/02/19/how-to-bu...

But lately I've also really been enjoying the daily email summary I get that shows popular topics my FriendFeed friends are liking and commenting on. Nice way to keep up with topics that might otherwise fly by.

Freerangemom

Excellent post, John. Running over to FriendFeed to add you to my "thought leaders" group right now. Way to be on the cutting Edge.

Jannifer

Thank you peggy for telling me about the FriendFeed article! Excellent resource!

rebeccahappy

I am using FF as a feed for my twitter. I have recently created rooms of Digg users I want to watch. Rooms allow you to collect info on different topics all in one place. Thanks for you info.I know I have not explored it enough but will certainly pass this on to tohers who seem to need it as well.

John Haydon

Rebecca - Be careful with using FF as a feed for your Twitter account. This type of automation on a Twitter account could create a "spam effect" :-)

Keith

This article is an excellent synopsis of the different ways a user can utilize Friendfeed. I've added it to my collection of the best guides and tips for using FriendFeed. http://ff.im/47jWL

Thank you for taking the time to visit my blog. Much appreciated sir.