Tim Bossie.com

There is a lot of talk going on in the blogging world about the social media aggregator FriendFeed. FriendFeed is basically a social website (meaning you “friend” people) that aggregates (combines) all of your other social (sharing) websites and/or networks together in one place. Sites like Twitter, Facebook, Digg, StumbleUpon, YouTube, Google Reader, Last.fm, any blogs you have, and many others are all available.

What FriendFeed does is allow your friends, the people who subscribe to your FriendFeed news feed, to keep tabs on all of your activities in these social outlets. A lot of discussion has been going on lately about the use of FriendFeed and if it’s worth the time.

For instance…

Duncan Riley of The Inquisitr says that it’s time for FriendFeed to kill Twitter.
Jason at Webomatica says to Keep your eyes on FriendFeed: It may be the Google of social networks.
Steve Rubel at Micro Persuasion asks us Is FriendFeed the next big thing or are we just bored 2.0?

There is a lot of talk.

I have had a Friendfeed profile for a little while now but haven’t really paid much attention to it until the last few days. Mostly because I just didn’t have the time for yet another social media website. But I believe, like so many others, that Friendfeed just might be a viable source of increased web presence and branding.

Friendfeed as an advertising source

Like all other social media websites it’s not really the “advertising” that is going to get you more traffic and higher perception as an authority. In fact, blatant advertising will pretty much kill your social media life. The impact is going to come in the form of participation and letting people see the real you.

Participating in social media websites shows others that you have a voice and just might know a little bit. Participation means that you are adding to the conversation and, in turn, lets others know you exist.

I held off of joining any type of social media websites for a long time. I still haven’t gotten into MySpace. A few months ago I decided to put up a simple Facebook profile to see if this social networking had anything to it. Since then I’ve made some incredible “friends”, connected with some great marketers, landed several new clients, and formed amazing partnerships. In essence it works.

Why did it work? I didn’t just join and become anonymous. I participated in some of the conversations, added a few applications, and left comments.

After that I started setting up profiles on several other sites and then latched onto Twitter. With that came an explosion in blog hits, new partnerships, and clients.

The advertising was in the participation.

Friendfeed leverages that participation

I can now leverage my time, and increase my exposure, by just watching my Friendfeed page. I can see behind the scenes as the people I follow tweet, share a blog post, write a new blog post, share a YouTube video, change Facebook status, Stumble or Digg something, and even what they are listening to. And I can comment on it.

That comment will then be seen by all their friends. Something that doesn’t happen on Twitter. My range, or reach, has just multiplied. My authority value has risen. Traffic goes up.

Now I don’t have to actually go to all these websites anymore. I can just open Friendfeed, or use the AlertThingy Friendfeed client. Everything is updated automatically. All I have to do is comment.

Useful and interesting is the way to go.

Comments for the sake of comments is not what I’m talking about. Add something useful and interesting to the conversation. Don’t make yourself a nuisance but rather an asset. A source of information that people will find helpful and intriguing. Advertising to me is finding a way to be useful and then harnessing that to deliver people to your website. Friendfeed, to me, is a great way to do that.

To answer the question that this post asks of whether or not Friendfeed is a viable advertising source; I’d have to say yes.