Brands on Friendfeed - A different proposition to Twitter
Following on from my relatively popular post on 10 brands on Twitter, I thought I'd repeat the operation with Friendfeed, a far more daunting proposition.
These posts can take some time to come from an idea into a completed post, in that time a lot has changed for Friendfeed. Facebook has recently bought Friendfeed, causing some to throw their arms up in disgust and others to declare that this will be the making of the less known micro-blogging platform.
I'll save what I think this will mean for Friendfeed for another post, but for now I'll continue with what I intended to write about, brands on Friendfeed.
While this might seem like flogging a dead horse, I don't agree. Twitter has now established itself within the mainstream media, Friendfeed on the other hand is still in the realm of early adopters.
One of the main points I noticed during the Twitter post was the large increase in activity and account creation since the beginning of 2009. I'll be interested to see if there has been the same enthusiasm to embrace a social media platform that is yet to hit the media spotlight with a bang.
Friendfeed, for those that don't know, is very similar to Twitter in that it allows you to "microblog" but without the same 140 character limitation. In addition to micro-blogging, Friendfeed allows you to consolidate or aggregate all of your social media activity into one stream.
It keeps the same following/follower facility as Twitter, allowing you to tailor your feed to your industry interests. Creating lists of specific people around subject matter to customise your feed.
Enough on Friendfeed's service and on to the brands, my first port of call was Being Peter Kim's excellent social media wiki to see what it had to offer. I extracted these three brands from there:
Rubbermaid
Not a brand that is very well recognised in the UK, we still talk about Tupperware. Rubbermaid have been mixing it up on the social media front, with feeds coming from Twitter, Blogs, Google Reader, Stumbleupon, YouTube and Pownce.
With all of these streams quite active (except for Pownce due it no longer being operational) Rubbermaid are taking the social media channel for what it's worth and good on them. They seem honest and down to earth in content, engaging social media at level that gets the best from the channel in my belief.
With plenty of activity on Twitter, promotional product promotions on YouTube and staff pictures at a recent staff fun day on Flickr I like what I see.
Daimler
I'm at a bit of a disadvantage with Daimler as my German isn't up to scratch to allow me to gauge the conversation level very well. This point in itself is important though, in that Daimler have obviously made the decision that their social media audience, or at least the ones they are targeting, are predominantly German speaking.
They have a good mix of mediums, with a Flickr, YouTube, Mister Wong (bookmarking), SlideShare and a blog feed coming into their Friendfeed stream. Their Flickr feed alone is interesting, presenting a very uniform approach to image distribution using cropped wide format shots only.
I had a quick look to see if I could find any presence of a Mercedes Benz Friendfeed, to see if they were presenting a more international stream, but couldn't find anything.
Daimler seems to have grasped the concept of Friendfeed well.
EMC
EMC are fully on board with Friendfeed with over 20 feeds coming into their Friendfeed stream. This is brand that I'm fully aware of from my time working in IT Infrastructure. A very strong competitor in the storage and information hardware market.
The majority of EMC's Friendfeed streams content is coming from the large selection of blogs they are streaming. I couldn't identify whether all of these blogs are run by undeclared members of staff or whether they are just relevant in content. If just relevant in content, EMC having taken an interesting step away from the normal control that brands like to have on their on-line presence.
With 3 YouTube streams, a large Flickr stream, a busy Delicious stream and 2 Twitter streams EMC seem at least to be attempting to have a global approach to social media.
After taking a quick look at these three Friendfeed streams I returned to my searches for other brands that appear on Friendfeed.
Pepsi
My search lead me to the Pepsi Cooler, not a stream, but a Friendfeed room. A room that looks like it could do with some attention! The room had four feeds coming into it, an official Pepsi Twitter feed that is busy, another expired Twitter feed, an expired Flickr feed and an unused YouTube account - Is this how Pepsi do Friendfeed?
At first I was a little lost trying to recognise the Pepsi branding, whether it was a new or an older logo and it reminded me of a Greg Verdino post I'd read recently on Greg's Posterous.
To say I was disappointed to see how neglected the Pepsi Cooler room was is an understatement. With the illustrious name of Steve Rubel and three leading lights on Pepsi social media team listed at the top of the room I'd expect more from an easily accountable presence.
Pepsi either need to give up their claim on the Friendfeed room or take some time to do some maintenance on the rooms streams.
Cisco
I had subscribed to Cisco's Digital Cribs Twitter feed a while back, so thought I'd check out whether they were using Friendfeed. Sure enough they were.
Cisco seem to have two Friendfeed streams, Cisco Learning and News at Cisco. Well these are the only Cisco Friendfeed streams I've found.
The News at Cisco is simply a conglomeration of all of their news blogs and site news feeds. I suppose a handy one stop shop for those looking to follow Cisco news development, but there's nothing more insightful from the Cisco social media presence. This hardly takes advantage of the potential offered by Friendfeed, but it still seems to serve a purpose, utilising it for news content aggregation.
The Cisco Learning feed on the other hand seems to take advantage of more of Friendfeed's capabilities. With streams coming in from Twitter, YouTube, Digg, Delicious and Google Reader.
The Twitter account was registered September 2008 and the Friendfeed account only days later. While these aren't old accounts, they have been around well before the recent surge in Twitter uptake and certainly before any interest was really shown in Friendfeed. So a hat tip to them on their relatively early adoption.
The Digg account however hasn't been used since it was created and should probably be dropped from the feed. Leaving a used, but only lightly, Delicious account. The Google reader account seems to have had some attention spent on it and the YouTube account is being used well to share video content published by Cisco.
All in all Cisco seem to be giving Friendfeed a go with their learning arm of the business.
Virgin America
I included Virgin's Twitter account, for their Atlantic arm of the business in my original 10 Brands on Twitter article. Sadly this Friendfeed account seems little more than a simple replication of a Twitter feed on Friendfeed. Something that is all too common.
While it's great for a brand to explore all of these options for social media promotion, if they decide it's not serving any real purpose then they should stop using the platform.
Sharing Twitter content on Friendfeed does give them a presence on the platform, but it doesn't add much value to their social media channel. I'll be honest, the good majority of my Friendfeed is Twitter content, but that's the nature of Twitter more than anything. I have however, at some time, added content to all of the streams on my Friendfeed. Equally I'm not a global brand and therefore not likely to be under the same spot light as Virgin can find themselves.
National Trust
A charity (I'm pleased to be a member of) that has been using Twitter successfully for a while now has, I discovered, also got a presence on Friendfeed.
Admittedly it only feeds in its Twitter stream and its YouTube stream, but that's one more stream than Virgin America and Pepsi can manage. Who would of thought, the National Trust getting one over Pepsi and Virgin America in a brand awareness exercise.
What it did help me find was the customised YouTube page that the National Trust have taken the time to create, well done to them for taking advantage of these features to ensure better brand relationship on a third party site.
I like the way the National Trust has integrated their involvement in social media back to the main National Trust website.
They seem to have grasped social media and the Friendfeed platform and I love their video content on YouTube - How to build your own wormery.
As with the investigation into brands on Twitter, it was interesting to explore various brands usage of the Friendfeed social media platform.
As expected, the adoption or use of Friendfeed by brands seems much lower in comparison to Twitter. Friendfeed requires more commitment than the relatively simple upkeep of a Twitter account (although even this is not always simple) and therefore it was less likely to have the large numbers of brands that can be found on Twitter.
That said, a true commitment to a platform like Friendfeed could provide a brand with a complete portfolio of on-line content for visitors to consume. Presenting video, micro-blogging, bookmarking and even music content for followers to view.
An interesting, yet obvious, stream that I found on a number of brands Friendfeed's was the SlideShare application. Ideally suited to brands that might be presenting on a regular basis at events and wishing to share this content beyond the life of the event itself.
I'll be interested to see how Friendfeed develops after its recent acquisition and how this development will affect brands possible adoption of the platform as a publishing tool.
Helpful articles:
How brands will use Friendfeed - Web Strategist http://www.web-strategist.com/blog/2008/06/10/how-brands-will-use-friendfeed/
Social Radar Top 50 Social Brands (July 2009) - Buzz Study http://infegy.com/buzzstudy/social-radar-top-50-social-brands-july-2009/
A Wiki of Social Media Marketing Examples - Being Peter Kim http://wiki.beingpeterkim.com/
Related reading
Do you get social media? 10 brands on Twitter - Digital Signals http://www.digital-constructions.com/blog/2009/07/do-you-get-social-media-10-brands-on.html
Is social media the perfect tonic to pre-recession greed? - Digital Signals http://www.digital-constructions.com/blog/2009/08/is-social-media-perfect-tonic-to-pre.html
Why bother with social media - Digital Signals http://www.digital-constructions.com/blog/2009/06/why-bother-with-social-media.html
The real value of social media - Digital Signals http://www.digital-constructions.com/blog/2009/01/real-value-of-social-media.html
These posts can take some time to come from an idea into a completed post, in that time a lot has changed for Friendfeed. Facebook has recently bought Friendfeed, causing some to throw their arms up in disgust and others to declare that this will be the making of the less known micro-blogging platform.
I'll save what I think this will mean for Friendfeed for another post, but for now I'll continue with what I intended to write about, brands on Friendfeed.
While this might seem like flogging a dead horse, I don't agree. Twitter has now established itself within the mainstream media, Friendfeed on the other hand is still in the realm of early adopters.
One of the main points I noticed during the Twitter post was the large increase in activity and account creation since the beginning of 2009. I'll be interested to see if there has been the same enthusiasm to embrace a social media platform that is yet to hit the media spotlight with a bang.
Friendfeed, for those that don't know, is very similar to Twitter in that it allows you to "microblog" but without the same 140 character limitation. In addition to micro-blogging, Friendfeed allows you to consolidate or aggregate all of your social media activity into one stream.
It keeps the same following/follower facility as Twitter, allowing you to tailor your feed to your industry interests. Creating lists of specific people around subject matter to customise your feed.
Enough on Friendfeed's service and on to the brands, my first port of call was Being Peter Kim's excellent social media wiki to see what it had to offer. I extracted these three brands from there:
RubbermaidNot a brand that is very well recognised in the UK, we still talk about Tupperware. Rubbermaid have been mixing it up on the social media front, with feeds coming from Twitter, Blogs, Google Reader, Stumbleupon, YouTube and Pownce.
With all of these streams quite active (except for Pownce due it no longer being operational) Rubbermaid are taking the social media channel for what it's worth and good on them. They seem honest and down to earth in content, engaging social media at level that gets the best from the channel in my belief.
With plenty of activity on Twitter, promotional product promotions on YouTube and staff pictures at a recent staff fun day on Flickr I like what I see.
DaimlerI'm at a bit of a disadvantage with Daimler as my German isn't up to scratch to allow me to gauge the conversation level very well. This point in itself is important though, in that Daimler have obviously made the decision that their social media audience, or at least the ones they are targeting, are predominantly German speaking.
They have a good mix of mediums, with a Flickr, YouTube, Mister Wong (bookmarking), SlideShare and a blog feed coming into their Friendfeed stream. Their Flickr feed alone is interesting, presenting a very uniform approach to image distribution using cropped wide format shots only.
I had a quick look to see if I could find any presence of a Mercedes Benz Friendfeed, to see if they were presenting a more international stream, but couldn't find anything.
Daimler seems to have grasped the concept of Friendfeed well.
EMCEMC are fully on board with Friendfeed with over 20 feeds coming into their Friendfeed stream. This is brand that I'm fully aware of from my time working in IT Infrastructure. A very strong competitor in the storage and information hardware market.
The majority of EMC's Friendfeed streams content is coming from the large selection of blogs they are streaming. I couldn't identify whether all of these blogs are run by undeclared members of staff or whether they are just relevant in content. If just relevant in content, EMC having taken an interesting step away from the normal control that brands like to have on their on-line presence.
With 3 YouTube streams, a large Flickr stream, a busy Delicious stream and 2 Twitter streams EMC seem at least to be attempting to have a global approach to social media.
After taking a quick look at these three Friendfeed streams I returned to my searches for other brands that appear on Friendfeed.
PepsiMy search lead me to the Pepsi Cooler, not a stream, but a Friendfeed room. A room that looks like it could do with some attention! The room had four feeds coming into it, an official Pepsi Twitter feed that is busy, another expired Twitter feed, an expired Flickr feed and an unused YouTube account - Is this how Pepsi do Friendfeed?
At first I was a little lost trying to recognise the Pepsi branding, whether it was a new or an older logo and it reminded me of a Greg Verdino post I'd read recently on Greg's Posterous.
To say I was disappointed to see how neglected the Pepsi Cooler room was is an understatement. With the illustrious name of Steve Rubel and three leading lights on Pepsi social media team listed at the top of the room I'd expect more from an easily accountable presence.
Pepsi either need to give up their claim on the Friendfeed room or take some time to do some maintenance on the rooms streams.
CiscoI had subscribed to Cisco's Digital Cribs Twitter feed a while back, so thought I'd check out whether they were using Friendfeed. Sure enough they were.
Cisco seem to have two Friendfeed streams, Cisco Learning and News at Cisco. Well these are the only Cisco Friendfeed streams I've found.
The News at Cisco is simply a conglomeration of all of their news blogs and site news feeds. I suppose a handy one stop shop for those looking to follow Cisco news development, but there's nothing more insightful from the Cisco social media presence. This hardly takes advantage of the potential offered by Friendfeed, but it still seems to serve a purpose, utilising it for news content aggregation.
The Cisco Learning feed on the other hand seems to take advantage of more of Friendfeed's capabilities. With streams coming in from Twitter, YouTube, Digg, Delicious and Google Reader.
The Twitter account was registered September 2008 and the Friendfeed account only days later. While these aren't old accounts, they have been around well before the recent surge in Twitter uptake and certainly before any interest was really shown in Friendfeed. So a hat tip to them on their relatively early adoption.
The Digg account however hasn't been used since it was created and should probably be dropped from the feed. Leaving a used, but only lightly, Delicious account. The Google reader account seems to have had some attention spent on it and the YouTube account is being used well to share video content published by Cisco.
All in all Cisco seem to be giving Friendfeed a go with their learning arm of the business.
Virgin AmericaI included Virgin's Twitter account, for their Atlantic arm of the business in my original 10 Brands on Twitter article. Sadly this Friendfeed account seems little more than a simple replication of a Twitter feed on Friendfeed. Something that is all too common.
While it's great for a brand to explore all of these options for social media promotion, if they decide it's not serving any real purpose then they should stop using the platform.
Sharing Twitter content on Friendfeed does give them a presence on the platform, but it doesn't add much value to their social media channel. I'll be honest, the good majority of my Friendfeed is Twitter content, but that's the nature of Twitter more than anything. I have however, at some time, added content to all of the streams on my Friendfeed. Equally I'm not a global brand and therefore not likely to be under the same spot light as Virgin can find themselves.
National TrustA charity (I'm pleased to be a member of) that has been using Twitter successfully for a while now has, I discovered, also got a presence on Friendfeed.
Admittedly it only feeds in its Twitter stream and its YouTube stream, but that's one more stream than Virgin America and Pepsi can manage. Who would of thought, the National Trust getting one over Pepsi and Virgin America in a brand awareness exercise.
What it did help me find was the customised YouTube page that the National Trust have taken the time to create, well done to them for taking advantage of these features to ensure better brand relationship on a third party site.
I like the way the National Trust has integrated their involvement in social media back to the main National Trust website.
They seem to have grasped social media and the Friendfeed platform and I love their video content on YouTube - How to build your own wormery.
As with the investigation into brands on Twitter, it was interesting to explore various brands usage of the Friendfeed social media platform.
As expected, the adoption or use of Friendfeed by brands seems much lower in comparison to Twitter. Friendfeed requires more commitment than the relatively simple upkeep of a Twitter account (although even this is not always simple) and therefore it was less likely to have the large numbers of brands that can be found on Twitter.
That said, a true commitment to a platform like Friendfeed could provide a brand with a complete portfolio of on-line content for visitors to consume. Presenting video, micro-blogging, bookmarking and even music content for followers to view.
An interesting, yet obvious, stream that I found on a number of brands Friendfeed's was the SlideShare application. Ideally suited to brands that might be presenting on a regular basis at events and wishing to share this content beyond the life of the event itself.
I'll be interested to see how Friendfeed develops after its recent acquisition and how this development will affect brands possible adoption of the platform as a publishing tool.
Helpful articles:
How brands will use Friendfeed - Web Strategist http://www.web-strategist.com/blog/2008/06/10/how-brands-will-use-friendfeed/
Social Radar Top 50 Social Brands (July 2009) - Buzz Study http://infegy.com/buzzstudy/social-radar-top-50-social-brands-july-2009/
A Wiki of Social Media Marketing Examples - Being Peter Kim http://wiki.beingpeterkim.com/
Related reading
Do you get social media? 10 brands on Twitter - Digital Signals http://www.digital-constructions.com/blog/2009/07/do-you-get-social-media-10-brands-on.html
Is social media the perfect tonic to pre-recession greed? - Digital Signals http://www.digital-constructions.com/blog/2009/08/is-social-media-perfect-tonic-to-pre.html
Why bother with social media - Digital Signals http://www.digital-constructions.com/blog/2009/06/why-bother-with-social-media.html
The real value of social media - Digital Signals http://www.digital-constructions.com/blog/2009/01/real-value-of-social-media.html
Labels: brand awareness, brand engagement, friendfeed, Luxury brands, microblogging, Twitter
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