By Mike Fruchter of MichaelFruchter.com (Twitter/FriendFeed)

FriendFeed can be used for many different purposes.

The service's brilliance and simplicity leads people using and interacting on the site in a variety of ways, and each person's feed is different, based on who they follow, how they use lists, and what services they view. This post touches upon 25 different uses for FriendFeed, and displays how FriendFeed can be used, by anyone, for many different purposes.

1) Use it for its core function only, which is to aggregate all of your web activity into one central location.

2) Follow existing friends and make new ones. There is a good chance most of your social contacts already have FriendFeed accounts. If they are not on FriendFeed, your job is to recruit them. FriendFeed has an active and growing member base, finding new people to subscribe to is never a problem. I often spotlight unique members to follow on FriendFeed, you can locate the recommendation lists here, along with a short bio on each member.

3) Just feel like chatting? Use FriendFeed as a real-time message board. You can comment on every piece of content that is imported into the site. The content being aggregated into FriendFeed is very diverse, and spread across a multitude of topics. You will always find something that interests you. Create a new conversation instantly by using the post "message" feature, which will post your message directly to your feed, or topic related room.

4) Not in the mood for conversation? Participate by social voting, ("liking") the content members share.

5) Make FriendFeed your homepage. With the beauty of RSS, you can customize your feed to make it a start page. Import your favorite news sources, podcasts, Twitter stream etc. Duncan Riley wrote a few handy Greasemonkey scripts that add tabs containing most of the the popular social networking services such as Facebook, Twitter, Google Reader, and more to your FriendFeed.

6) Use FriendFeed for a private digital picture archive. This idea was spawned 6 months ago with the birth of my daughter, Kaylee. I needed one central place for storage of all the videos and pictures we shot of her. I also needed privacy options, as this would be for family members only. I set up a new private FriendFeed account, imported the video and picture RSS feeds into her account, and I was done. The next step was emailing family members a link to establish an account. Now when I upload new baby videos to Youtube, or pictures to Picasa , I simply notify my family members to check Kaylee's FriendFeed url. Some of my family members have even taken a fancy to FriendFeed. Grandma is now good for a few "likes."

7) Create imaginary friends. Socially stalk friends that don't use FriendFeed by using the "imaginary friends" feature. For example, if you know your friend's Flickr username, you can create an imaginary friend with that Flickr account, and every time your friend publishes new photos, you will be able to view them on FriendFeed.

8) Looking for invites to try out the latest shiny toy? Just ask in the Invites room, and you shall receive.

9) Create a focus group. By using the rooms feature, you can create a mini-feed for a particular subject or group of people. Everyone in your room can share stuff on the relevant topic, along with commenting and liking. You have the options to make your room public, where anyone can join, or private, where you have to invite or approve each member.

10) Search for groups first. Don't create a group if one already exists.

11) Use FriendFeed as a research tool. Use the advanced search function as your first starting point. There might even be a room created for what you are researching. If you are on a time crunch and need answers quickly, post a message on your feed, or the relevant room for quicker responses.

12) Brand monitoring. Companies can monitor for brand mention by using the search function to find it. FriendFeed aggregates data from many sources, so if it's on Twitter, or being blogged
about, more than likely it's on FriendFeed. Monitor your personal brand as well. Use the search function to track the amount of exposure your content is getting, and find what services and members are pushing the traffic.

13) Use FriendFeed for micro-blogging. With the exception of a few things, everything you can do on Twitter can be done using FriendFeed. It compliments micro-blogging, rather than replaces it.

14) Liveblog an upcoming event. Simply set up a room and invite others to join and participate in the event's coverage and festivities.

15) Use "likes" as a bookmarking system. It's not a Delicious replacement by any means, but it is an easy and quick way to mark and locate content for later use.

16) FriendFeed can be used as a Twitter interface. All tweets aggregated into the FriendFeed system have an @reply option using your Twitter credentials. You could also create an imaginary friend to follow certain Twitter feeds of interest.

17) Go straight to the fire-hose. Use FriendFeed as a social media search engine.

18) Share web pages easily with a single mouse click, by using the FriendFeed Bookmarklet. You don't have to rely solely on RSS and posting to the site. This is also an excellent off-site tool for clipping bits of content into FriendFeed. You can also directly post stuff to FriendFeed by email, using Mail2FF.

19) Organize the people you follow, separate the serious from the lol cats using lists. Lists allow you to create custom mood feeds.

20) Use Friendfeed as a collaborative business tool. Chris Brogan, has an excellent post on the possibilities.

21) Use FriendFeed as an RSS Reader. While it's no Google Reader, it will and already does the job.

22) View random Flickr picture feeds. View random Youtube videos.

23) Use FriendFeed as a platform for self promotion and the promoting of others. Support your peer's content by sharing it. If you are a lesser known voice that is just starting out,FriendFeed can be a powerful platform for getting your name out there. Good quality and character speaks for itself and it gets noticed on FriendFeed. Make sure you follow this advice first, if you want to be a rockstar on FriendFeed.

24) Use the FriendFeed widgets to showcase your FriendFeed activity on your blog or web site.

25) Use FriendFeed on the go. Browse the mobile FriendFeed on your smart phone or iPhone. You can also keep up with FriendFeed in iGoogle by adding their iGoogle gadget.

Read more by Mike Fruchter at MichaelFruchter.com.

By Mike Fruchter of MichaelFruchter.com (Twitter/FriendFeed)


Last month, I touched upon 35 tips for getting started with social media. Today I want to expand a little more on that, and focus on one key area for success, sharing and self promotion.

You just wrote a good piece of quality content, you are proud, and you want the world to know. The next step in the process, a topic that frequently comes up, mainly from beginners who are just getting started in social media, is deciding whether or not to self promote/share your own content. Social media is all about getting the message out there, and one of the easiest and fastest mechanisms for doing this is blogging. One can instantly create and publish content, but if no one is reading it at the other end, frustration sets in. It's time to change and learn new tactics. This is okay in the early stages because beginners make mistakes,and it's expected. What really matters is how you learn and grow from your mistakes. Some people feel as if promoting your own content is taboo, or there is some golden rule set in place forbidding this practice. I say go for it. You should absolutely promote your own content. Of course there is a right and wrong way to do this. Otherwise you come across as nothing more than a person with one agenda, your own. The last thing you want to do is come across as a desperate person spamming for clicks. Sharing and promoting are basically the same thing, there are just different tools and level variations used to achieve the same results, traffic.

One of the core fundamentals of social media is giving more than you get. Once you understand this principle, you will not have to rely on self promotion completely, you will have your network assisting you. Remember, sharing is caring. It's always a two way relationship and never one way.

Just starting out?

Self promote as often as possible, express restraint and etiquette on how you self promote. If you don't take the first step of informing the world that your blog exists, no one else will. Don't be fooled, nothing comes easy. You must crawl first before you walk. There is nothing wrong with broadcasting on Twitter, or sharing your content via Google Reader. Do it in a respectful manner, avoid luring people in under false pretenses, an example is using linkbait. Be honest and genuine in your approach, this means being yourself. People are willing, and do help other people. It's hard to believe in this day in age, but yes it's true. If you are new to this, let people know and ask questions, most of all have patience. Need a post dugg, stumbled, retweeted ? Just ask someone. Myself and many others will go out of our way to help a newbie just starting out, as long as you are sincere in your approaches, and are willing to learn and most importantly listen.

Self promotion starts with promoting others first.

Promoting your brand (you) and your content is the first step to getting noticed. This is easier said than done. You can use megaphones such as Twitter and Google Reader all day long to broadcast your message, but if no one is listening, you are wasting your time. The tools are facilitators only, not the final outcome. In the beginning stages these tools are more essential than ever. These are the primary instruments among many that you will use to promote others. The right to self promote, I believe, is earned to some degree. By promoting others first, you have earned this right, and you can expect the same in return, in due time.

Find, establish and continually grow your network.

Building your network is not about adding as many followers on Twitter and Facebook as humanly possible. All that equates to is building a meaningless numbers list. Building your network is about networking and establishing real relationships with the relevant people who are in your field. If your blog is about social media, then that is what your core network should be comprised of. Find the social media bloggers you read on Twitter. and subscribe to them. Retweet, and promote their content using other methods such as, bookmarking, Google Reader, Digg, StumbleUpon, etc. If it's a post you really like, be sure to let them know on Twitter or by leaving a comment on their blog. Take it a step further, write a blog post and positively link to them.This is how you establish and build an online network from nothing, and if chances permit, possible new offline relationships. Not everyone will take notice and reciprocate back, that's okay, it's to be expected. There are plenty of fish in the sea, reel in the line and recast.

Your network is a family and team, treat them as such.

Your core network online should be treated as a family. Always keep them on your radar, and be informed of their activities. Online this means being a support system. Sharing and promoting your network's content is only one dynamic for maintaining a healthy team. There might be times when members in your network need emotional support, or support for charitable reasons. Make sure when possible, you make an attempt to reach out and offer assistance. Families are teams, they stick together. Your success online, depending on how you want to measure it, relies heavily on your network and their reach.

You never get a second chance to make a first impression.

When starting out, make sure to promote your best content only. People's first impressions need to be reserved only for your home-runs. Wow people the first time, and there is a good chance they will be back. Content that is not home-run worthy, should be picked up naturally.

Use the best tools possible to facilitate promotion for self and others.

Sharing starts with RSS. Google Reader is the main workhorse for sharing your content. It is also the place where your networks, team members content resides and gets promoted. Besides being the most easiest and common way to share content, it also takes it a step further by allowing you to add notes onto the content you share out. Notes are a great way to add to the conversation, give an opinion, give a recommendation, or directly solicit conversation or feedback. Try to make an effort to use notes on the content you create and share. This makes your content stand out more, and adds a little depth and clarity about the subject matter. Don't forget to note your friend's content as well. Lastly, it is worth mentioning the power that lies behind the public linkblog Google Reader generates for the content you share.

Twitter is another fire starter. It's a quick and powerful tool to broadcast a message in real time. The power is in the listeners and responders in your network. For maximum reach your social profiles need to be established and maintained on the relevant sites. Twitter is one of these sites, do not rule it out. There is a reason you will find that most, if not all of your team members use Twitter for communications and promotion. New content also breaks first on Twitter, so listen and retweet as often as possible.

FriendFeed is the glue that keeps it all together. FriendFeed has become one of the most powerful tools for aggregation, promotion by far. Its sole purpose is to aggregate the content you generate from any of the 49 different types of services it supports into one central location. What knocks it out of the park is the simplicity, growing community and social features. You can instantly share any type of content, and often within seconds have a seal of approval on your shares in the form of a vote, which is called a "like" on FriendFeed. The more votes an item gets, the more you are looking at a home run. Voting is an added bonus, the real power is the ability to comment on shared items in real time. You can also post images and messages directly on FriendFeed. Remember we talked a little about asking? Like any other site, spend the time, look around and start to actively participate. Establish and maintain a strong following here, and you will be pleasantly surprised with the results.

Image by Padawan under Creative Commons license.

Read more by Mike Fruchter at MichaelFruchter.com.

Editor's Note: Allen Stern and CenterNetworks are not affiliated with this post or the exchange rates table -- yet. The CN logo has been helpfully borrowed.

In May, Mathew Ingram, Fred Wilson and others said that for non-professional bloggers, comments were how they got paid. The interaction and discussion that takes place on blogs, between the author and the consumer, is what most write for - the conversation. But recent tools that let people comment elsewhere, or interact on the original content in other ways has some saying users' actions simply aren't enough. As much of the conversation moves off the original blog, or people are sharing items in Google Reader or hitting "like" in FriendFeed, they are showing interest, but not engaging, causing some to wish for a simpler time when those services didn't allow users to show passive approval.

One of the more outspoken voices on this topic has been Allen Stern of CenterNetworks, who wrote on this blog earlier this month:

"early adopters are screwing early adopter blogs - period. Clicking share on google reader is not like leaving a comment on the source. Clicking like on ff or retweeting on twitter is not the same as leaving a comment on the source. I will have more on this soon as I think that lazyness has slowly ruined what was something beautiful."

And while he and I don't always line up with our beliefs on the same spot in the blog evolution chart, there is no question that some activities do more to encourage the original author and their content than do others.

In that spirit, here is the first attempt at an exchange rate for interacting with blogs. As Allen has been a chief proponent of giving original authors their due, I believe the unit of metric is best labeled as a "CN", in honor of CenterNetworks. It's also no coincidence you could call these "C Notes" or "Comment Notes".

To start, I argue that a comment on the original author's blog post should be counted as "1 CN", to establish a baseline.


Actions that are worth more than 1 CN, depending on one's network size and influence, include:

• Making a comment on the original blog, then blogging about that discussion on your own blog. (10 CN)
  
• Writing a new blog post on the same topic and linking back to the original author as the source. (5 CN)
  
• Submitting the blog post to StumbleUpon with a strong description and good tagging. (3 CN)
  
• Submitting the blog post to Digg, Reddit, or Hacker News. (2 CN)

Actions that are worth between 1/2 CN and 1 CN, depending on one's network size and influence, include:

• Retweeting the item on Twitter. (.8 CN)
  
• Digging an already submitted story. (.6 CN)
  
• Adding a vote on Reddit, Hacker News, or Mixx. (.5 CN)

Actions that are worth less than 1/2 CN, depending on one's network size or influence, include:

• Posting the item natively to FriendFeed. (.4 CN)
  
• Posting the item to Socialmedian or Strands. (.3 CN)
  
• Posting the item to Facebook. (.25 CN)
  
• Adding the item to your Tumblr blog. (.25 CN)
  
• Sharing the item in Google Reader. (.25 CN)
  
• Adding the item to your Delicious. (.2 CN)
  
• Adding a comment on the original item on FriendFeed. (.2 CN)
  
• Liking the item on FriendFeed. (.1 CN)
  
• Adding a comment to a reshare of the item on FriendFeed. (.1 CN)
  
• Liking a reshare of the item on FriendFeed. (.05 CN)
  
• Adding a comment on the item in Shyftr. (.05 CN)
  
• Adding a comment on the item in Facebook. (.05 CN)

These exchange rates show current market valuations, and are subject to change, based on the increase and decrease in popularity of associated networks and the sway of conventional opinion. Rates quoted are valid as of November 23rd, 2008, and were determined by a non-scientific measure of effort, influence and reach of the aforementioned external sites and activities.

As your activity gets further and further away from the original blog post, and the blog post becomes less of the story, but the third-party service gets to be more of the story or the destination, it delivers less perceived value to the original author, be it psychological, social, or in some cases, actually financial. While some of us early adopters are all too happy to expand a blog post's reach through our various social networks, and enjoy the new communities that are built there, it's not surprising that those who are seeing less activity on the original source of their stories are feeling something's amiss. I know that as I've gotten busier, I've taken less time to comment on the many blog posts out there, even as I'm making comments on the various social media sites, and sharing like I always have through Google Reader.

So if you want to show your appreciation to the author of a blog you've found particularly insightful of late, or who has opened your eyes to a new topic, don't just take the easy way out and hit "share" as the item flows through your RSS reader, or hit "like" on your social site, but take the extra time to rise up the CN chart and put some food on that blogger's table by making a comment and engaging. Allen and many others will be happy you did.

Young boys dreaming of becoming world-class baseball players may sleep with their mitts under the mattress, hoping to break them into playing condition. Adults with major security concerns may instead sleep near a weapon, by their bed or even under the pillow. For me, it's my Phone that is my bedside companion. And it has just about as much to do with being a dad as it does with being a geek. And heck, if there were a security concern at any time, maybe it could double as a thrown projectile in a pinch...

As the father of five month old twins, waking up in the middle of the night is commonplace. While Matthew and Sarah have gotten a lot better recently about going to bed on a regular schedule and sleeping through the night, there are nights when things go completely awry, and my wife or I find ourselves up at 2, 4 or 5 a.m. So rather than sit idly, holding a bottle, and trying not to keel over from fatigue, I have been reaching for the iPhone and catching up on e-mail and the Web instead.

When Steve Jobs introduced the iPhone without a built-in keyboard or stylus, many thought the decision daft. But one beneficial byproduct of the iPhone's streamlined interface is that it is incredibly functional, even if held in one hand. I can tap on Safari to launch the Web browser, and tap again to hit frequent bookmarks. I can tap to read e-mail and delete messages. While I won't be typing out long e-mails or making blog comments in the middle of the night, I am catching up when others are sleeping. Even if we are able to get the kids back to sleep and I end up hitting snooze on the alarm through 7 or 8 on some weekdays, there's a good chance I've already caught up and read the night's activity - seeing who has found me on the various social networks, who has left Disqus comments, and if anything major has impacted world news.

So if you're in a different time zone than I am and you see some "likes" on FriendFeed or Google Reader shares that seem out of place or come in what had otherwise been a quiet time, you can bet this is what's happening.

The kids are in bed now, and have been since 9 p.m., thank goodness, but I know that won't last. When I finally power down and try to get some sleep, the last thing I'll do before turning off the light is put the iPhone down where it's easy to reach, and make sure it has enough power to let me catch up overnight.