FriendFeed as a PR / Marketing Platform
We, at MEDIAdeluge, have been vocal lately about the future of twitter as well as emerging players in the microblogging space. Now, with the wheels seeming to come off at Twitter as they struggle to scale, new players are ripe to swallow that audience. FriendFeed is one of those players. We’ve panned FriendFeed as a broadly adopted consumer application, but think there is definite promise as hub for key influentials.
UPDATE: MEDIAdeluge here:
- FT.com, The Fuss About FriendFeed
- Mashable, FriendFeed and the Web Itself as a Blogging Platform
- ZDNet, Could life streaming make the corporate newsletter obsolete?
- New York Press-Follow The Leader Blog, FEEDING FRENZY
- Search Engine Watch, Will FriendFeed Change the Face of Search?
- Micro Persuasion, Friendfeed Can Disrupt Search and Reshape Advertising
PR and marketing pros ought to be watching FriendFeed and the microblogging sites very closely. This is especially true for companies in and around the tech/web space.
Some influetials like Steve Rubel and Jeremiah Owyang are discussing the possible future impacts on PR and marketing, which is useful to consider. For now, FriendFeed is growing into the online community destination for early adopters and influentials the way Twitter was just a few months ago.
True, those on the bleeding edge can be a fickle bunch and tend to go from one latest-and-greatest site to another and keeping up can feel like a full time job, but if you want to keep your ear to the rail and perhaps even impact conversation about your brand / industry, you’d better be where the influencers are.
Just a few short years ago, that meant reading their blogs. Today, the conversation is distributed and it is hard to keep up. FriendFeed is aggregating that conversation and growing very rapidly. Growing so rapidly, it is not out of the question to think about it replacing Digg at some point. Today, Digg has ten of millions more eyeballs than FriendFeed, but FriendFeed is building nice momentum.
Like entering the blogosphere, it is best to start by listening and reading closely. For marketers and PR folks who aggressively jump in to these new communities and begin proselytizing, you will be less than welcome.
