The Beauty of Viral and FriendFeed
August 24th, 2008 Posted in Marketing, Viral Marketing, blogging, social media, social networking, twitterI am a frequent follower of Mike Fruchter’s Shares on Google Reader via his FriendFeed stream. I am inaudated hourly with Mike’s recent blog favorites. He shared a blog post today called: There is a Down Side To Viral Marketing from the people at the Social Marketing Journal. The central concept of the post: you can’t control viral marketing. If you try to control it you fail. If you ignore it, you fail.
The Three Down Sides of Viral Marketing according to the Social Marketing Journal:
1. Viral Marketing is Hit and Miss
2. Viral Marketing Has No Control Measure
3. Viral Marketing Can Go Negative
After reading the post, I found myself thinking about the concept of viral marketing and conversations on FriendFeed. Usually the conversation wildfire is centered around politics (most recently a convo started by Alex Scoble around 9/11.. I think we are approaching 60 some comments?). There is a massive viral opportunity on FriendFeed for the Tech community to embrace. The best example I have of a viral campaign in the works is my post recently on FriendFeed regarding the new social media site, Yokway.
I had received an email from Stephan Osmont at Yokway inviting me to try out the service. I had no idea who he was or how he had my email. I decided to post to FriendFeed to ask if anyone had heard of Yokway. Here is what happened.
Louis Gray picked up the conversation (after making fun of me, mind you) and eventually Stephan from Yokway had joined the conversation. A simple question had turned into a firestorm of debate over social media services. With Stephan defending the Yokway…. way.
What would have happened if Stephan had not joined the conversation? I probably would have still checked out the site (thanks to Louis) but the rest of the group involved in the conversation would have been left with questions.
Whether we are talking about FriendFeed, Twitter, Rejaw, Strands, Plaxo, LinkedIn, or Facebook, (not to mention the 30000 other networks in existance) it is important to remember to be IN the conversation. If your demographic frequents any social network GET INVOLVED. This might mean hiring a part time employee or spending some extra time yourself. SUCK IT UP. This is not something to be ignored and as we approach the next couple of years, it will become an even stronger force.
Honestly, you don’t have to suck it up. Maybe I was a little harsh? You could keep on ignoring the conversations and drive your brand into the ground. Your choice.
I’ll buy you a shovel but don’t expect me to help you dig.
On FriendFeed, this post was liked by 24 people and commented on 29 times 
8 Responses to “The Beauty of Viral and FriendFeed”
By Rahsheen on Aug 24, 2008
Good point, Kyle
I’m often amazed when representatives of software or services I use show up to answer questions, comments and concerns.
This tells me that they actually care about their product and brand. They actually want to make sure they are providing value.
Some software that I had discarded got a second chance because of responses like this.
On another note…I was embroiled in both of those threads. Maybe I should take a break from FriendFeed.
By admin on Aug 24, 2008
Haha. I would prefer you didn’t take a break from Friendfeed.
By Douglas Karr on Aug 24, 2008
You can delete this comment!
By Louis Gray on Aug 24, 2008
Who made fun of you? Oh… where I said look at Google?
Yokway so far is much lesser-known that other sites, but it does have some interesting features around sharing Web pages, having an automatic thumbnail and categorization.
It’s not a social services aggregator like FriendFeed or others.
By admin on Aug 24, 2008
lol. yes, where you said look at google. Google who?
By Mona N. on Aug 24, 2008
HA! More proof LG IS the internet. Sheesh!
By Stephan on Aug 25, 2008
Hi Kyle.
I actually did not have your email, I simply contacted you via your blog form (since you write about social media)
Thanks for the write up. As Rahsheen said, we are listening what’s being said on all networks, mostly to educate and answer question about our service. It is all the more important during the private beta phase, because we have not yet spent the time explaining the service & vision, and we tend to be compared to other sites which are very different in their purpose.