Why do I love social media? Because I learn so much by listening. Recently I took a careful look at my favorite tools and realized my least appreciated and surprising favorite is FriendFeed. With full disclosure, I have been sitting by the sidelines all year as a subscriber. I registered last year, followed a few super smart people and marinated as a passive user. I found myself reluctant to subscribe to new people because I didn’t want to pollute my stream with spam (hello Twitter). Everyday as I scroll thru FriendFeed (FF) I click on a few articles and am always surprised at how quickly I find valuable or at least interesting information. Subscribing to people like Robert Scoble who regularly breaks products and falls in and out of love with them, inspired me to look deeper at FF. Listening on FF has been the source of so much great reading this year, I decided to re-evaluate my usage of it.
Getting over my issues, I started with a baby step, subscribing to more people. I used the list feature as I subscribed to people so I could track different people in different lists. Awesome! Now with quick clicks on my lists I see totally different feeds. This is such simple brilliance I wonder why Twitter & FaceBook have not included these features. The painful truth is I don’t have a lot of “friends” on FriendFeed. So I started with FriendFeed’s popularity system to expand my subscription base. Awesome! Unlike Twitter, where I am seeing boring celebrity’s as suggested follows I am now following groups of interesting people with great posts. I will continue subscribing to people daily for the next few weeks. Why? Because I am definitely finding that the more people I subscribe to, the more access I have to information. The Scobelizer first pointed this out and now I am a believer. Start subscribing and tell me what you think.
Next up, I joined a few groups. I am a little skeptically of the value of these groups right now, but I am checking them out. I have searched for terms and found the results ok, not great but ok. I made a Post on FriendFeed and realized that so few people are subscribed to me that it was a little silly. Why the negativity? Get over it! I have to figure out how I really want my networks talking. Posting on FriendFeed is limited for me, because my posts from my other social networks are aggregated here. Starting to walk slowly now.
Following my own self-imposed rules, I am checking FF in the morning and evening and sporadically during the day. There is always something that catches my eye or motivates me to click on it. This brings me to what makes FF valuable and important, YOU. Subscribing to you is how “They give us those nice bright colors, They give us the greens of summers, Makes you think all the world’s a sunny day…” Kodachrome by Paul Simon. Seriously, my day is brightened by learning from you. What you think about and post, provides an immediate resource to me. With perspective, I realize that by clicking on your links and blogs I am actually a power user, not a passive user as I feared. I am starting to run.
Recognizing that even sprints in technology take 2-3 years, I start clicking on “Like” when I find good information and even comment occasionally when I am inspired. Social Media is not a Sprint, it is a Marathon. FriendFeed may be the resource you need to break thru the wall and find your second wind. Despite all of the above references, I am morally opposed to running and prefer a good downward dog or dancer’s pose.
Subscribe to me on FriendFeed at http://www.friendfeed.com/sonicallstar
Link To Me