How to Use Friendfeed as a Collaborative Business Tool
The social media aggregation software, Friendfeed has much more value than one might originally think. The tool lets you add several disparate parts of your social web use into one spot (it collects your blog, your Flickr account, your upcoming.org event list, your bookmarks, etc).
Most people use this as a way to share a more enriched experience with friends and colleagues. But I think there’s a business opportunity in using the tool for collaborative business. Remember, Friendfeed can collect your status information, your presence, media from several sources, your bookmarks. There are many ways to use that. Here’s one set of use cases to consider for that purpose.
How to Use Friendfeed as a Collaborative Business Tool
- Sign up for an account on Friendfeed.
- On the “me” tab, on the right where it says “services,” click “Edit/add.”
- Add appropriate accounts. (See below).
Here’s where it gets interesting. You can do lots of things at this point. Let’s list several possible use cases:
- Add any company blogs of relevance.
- Add any external blogs of relevance.
- Add search terms via Technorati and Google Blogsearch.
- Add search terms via Twitter Search (here’s how to search Twitter).
- Add any Flickr (or other web-based) photo groups.
- Add location-based data via Brightkite.
- Add relevant news services using their RSS subscription URLs.
- Add YouTube videos.
- Add Delicious.com for social bookmarks.
- Lots more.
So, pick a few things from the about to think about. If you had lots of people in multiple locations, one way to dashboard their locale would be to have all of them add a Brightkite account, and you could “friend” them and invite them into a group. Pow, instant location-status-presence. There are many ways to configure the 43 or so apps that plug into Friendfeed to be useful for your business.
- Add your coworkers’ accounts as friends.
- Create a group and invite those friends to the group.
- Send private updates to the group. Send more public facing ones to the public timeline.
Friendfeed provides many opportunities to go further than just collecting information in one place. I’m sure there are some other ideas for application of what I’ve just covered that you could improve upon. What do you think? How else could you see this being used?
Photo credit, foundphotoslj
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20 Free eBooks About Social Media
It’s interesting what you can find when you look around a bit on Google. I thought I’d look for a few new ebooks to read. I found 20 different ones that might be interesting to you. It never hurts to get a few different perspectives. In all cases, the first link is to a PDF file, the second link is to the site where it’s hosted.
20 Free eBooks About Social Media
- The New Rules of Viral Marketing - David Meerman Scott
- Marketing Apple - MarketingApple.com
- Masters of Marketing - Startup Internet Marketing
- Podcast Marketing eBook - Christopher S. Penn
- Google Adwords Secrets - SEOBook
- Get Viral Get Visitors - Stacie Mahoe
- Marketing With Case Studies - Dynamic Copywriting
- How to Write a Marketing Plan - Geisheker Group
- SEO for WordPress blogs - Blizzard Internet
- Social Web Analytics - Social Web Analytics
- Geeks Guide to Promoting Yourself With Twitter - Geekpreneur
- The Zen of Blogging - Hunter Nutall
- What is Social Media - iCrossing
- A Primer in Social Media - SmashLab
- Effective Internet Presence - Effective Internet Presence
- Introduction to Good Usability - Peter Pixel
- Increasing the Response to Your Email Marketing Program - CRM Transformation
- We Have a Website. Now What? - Craig Rentmeester
- Blogs & Social Media - PRSA
- The Podcast Customer Revealed - Edison Media Research
Have any more that you’ve found online that you like? Share them in the comments section. And if you want to re-post the list to your site, by all means, please do! Just please be kind and link back to 20 Free eBooks About Social Media.
***Update I really love Brian Solis and all he does. He pointed out a few of his works that I would highly recommend these, as well:
-
The Essential Guide to Social Media - The Art and Science of Social Media and Community Relations
- The Art of Listening and Engagement Through Social Media
Not sure if I’ll keep updating the post, but I figure Brian’s great works deserved attention. Feel free to keep adding your finds in the comments.
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Where I Learn Even More
Take this great article by Bill Rice. I’m not a salesperson. Not even close. I can cop to being “business development,” but that just means “salesman that doesn’t know how to close. And we know about closers, don’t we?
Bill’s advice: know when you are just shuffling things around, and get back to the fundamentals. It’s perfect advice. I think what’s best about it is that I can apply it to my use of social media tools.
Know When You’re Just Shuffling
- Are you editing your profiles and pictures on all your social sites? Is this really worth it?
- Are you reading Twitter just because you have nothing else to do?
- Are you signing up to the next shiny object just because?
- Are you over-subscribed to blogs and podcasts?
- Are you just focusing on your stuff and not the larger community?
Get Back to the Fundamentals
- Keep a steady and established habit and pace.
- Be clear about your goals.
- Fish or cut bait, but not both.
- Do big work first.
- Stop whining. (Loved Bill’s advice here).
See? I got that out of a sales post. Where else could I find influence? Where else could YOU? Keep your eyes open for how to apply learning from other fields into what you’re doing. It will round out what you’re doing. I promise. What do you think?
Read Bill’s article for more ideas about sales, and maybe, think how it applies to you.
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The Social Media 100 is a project by Chris Brogan dedicated to writing 100 useful blog posts in a row about the tools, techniques, and strategies behind using social media for your business, your organization, or your own personal interests. Swing by [chrisbrogan.com] for more posts in the series, and if you have topic ideas, feel free to share them, as this is a group project, and your opinion matters.
Get the entire series by subscribing to this blog, and subscribe to my free newsletter here.
Five Things You Could Learn From Bob LeDrew
Bob LeDrew sang tonight on a boat ride that was part of the festivities here at Podcasters Across Borders 2008. There was an open mic with quite a mix of amateur and not-so-amateur performers. I wanted to go up, and was looking for my chance, when Jay Moonah got up and did his bit (musician amongst musicians), and that kind of made me feel a lot less capable, so I didn’t go up. But Bob LeDrew did. I learned a lot from Bob, and got my courage up to go up and sing a song (with Jay playing guitar) after Bob did a small set. Here’s what Bob taught me:
Get Up and Take Your Turn
Bob and his wife play music at house parties (I forget what they called them, but the name would make more sense than “house party”), and he had quite a repertoire to choose from. Having had lots of shots at the microphone over the last several months, Bob felt confident to get up and do his thing.
As a media maker, getting up and taking your turn (to blog, podcast, etc) is easier if you find lots of opportunities to try yourself out along the way to the main gig.
Complete the Motion
At a few points, Bob didn’t remember the words to certain songs. We were an encouraging audience, and what got me was that Bob didn’t blush and crumble under the pressure. He paused, said a few words, and then went on to the next song.
As bloggers, if you mess up or forget something, just keep going. There’s always another post and another chance to do a decent job.
Be Charming, Not Depressing
When Bob had his forgetful moments, he didn’t collapse in upon himself. He knew that he could just move on to the next bit. This doesn’t come easy to everyone. Lots of people get hung up on self-analysis and can’t quite make the next move because they’re stuck analyzing where things crumbled.
Make your mistakes, accept them, and be outwardly charming about matters while you pick up the pieces.
A Friendly Audience Helps
Bob played for us on a boat of peers and friends. We were out on the water, having food and beers, and the mood was very light and cordial. When he forgot a line, it didn’t matter to us, because everything he’d done until that point was great, and after the first time he missed a line, we were on board with laughter and applause and encouragement. He knew we were his friends and wouldn’t laugh AT him.
Build a community that cares about you, and you can experiment and try new things without fear of ridicule.
Finish Strong
Despite a few forgotten lines, Bob finished with a really great song about a motorboat, that was funny, engaging, and had lots of clever use of words. The music that accompanied it was great, too, and we all got into the song quickly and deeply. Bob had us right where he wanted us by the end of his very small set of songs, and he made an impression on me and lots of others on the boat.
When you’ve taken your shot, make sure you finish strong in your work.
Lessons Learned
At the end of it all, Bob’s performance was a great metaphor for how we all struggle with understanding social media tools, business communication, collaboration, marketing, and all the other things we’re facing in our day. I learned from Bob’s charm, poise, and commitment, as well as his ability to stay confident and positive throughout the experience.
Do you follow Bob’s advice, such as I’ve written it out here? Would you be just as confident and charming as Bob in those situations? How do you conduct yourself in moments where you’re trying a few things out, and everything might not be 100% perfect?
And by the way, Bob writes an interesting blog about the world of Canadian PR that’s worth checking out, as well.
Business School for Bloggers
Liz Strauss is a superstar. She has helped more bloggers and businesses understand what each other needs (she helps bloggers understand business, and she helps businesses better understand how to use blogs to their advantage), and I’m particularly amazed at her ability to synthesize information using both her passion for the topic as well as her background as an educator and publisher of education materials.
A few months back, I flew to Chicago and participated in her SOBCon event, which was subtitled Business School for Bloggers, and ever since, I’ve been taking her advice there (and the advice of others I spent time with) and running with it. I’m thinking you should, too. I know that Liz is working on several projects, including some useful information for bloggers to consider in bringing their game up, especially if they’re considering business blogging, or blogging as part of their business. I can’t wait for that.
And in the mean time, I want you to start thinking about the skillsets you have on board, and the ones you need to add. For instance, I’m a great writer. I’m a great thinker. I’m great at relationship building and maintaining. I’m a pretty decent marketer. I’m not great at sales. I’m not great at negotiation. I have nothing with regards to legal or financial issues, except the understanding that I don’t know much about them.
If you were to need business skills as a media maker, what would they be? And if you were to be a business type looking at how blogging and other media might impact your business, what are some of the tools you would want to better understand? I’m sure Liz will be able to help you out a great deal, and in the mean time, I just wanted to start a conversation and understand what matters to you.
Are you already subscribed to Liz’s blog? It’s worth spending some time and getting to know her. She’s done a lot for me, and she’s where I look for advice and inspiration lots of times. And, if you are a decent sized corporation looking for some help in understanding the landscape, the educational requirements, and the business impact of blogging, Liz is a great resource to consider.
What do you need to know about business and blogs and vice versa?
