The AMI-Partners Blog

When word came yesterday that Facebook was acquiring the social networking aggregator FriendFeed, my thoughts immediately flashed back to a conversation I had in the summer of 2008 with Chris Pallé of The UX Workshop. During our conversation, Chris offered the most offensive thing to my ears at the time: There was something better than Twitter. Still head over heels in love with Twitter, I couldn’t believe Chris would dare to suggest that the basic simplicity of Twitter could be rivaled. What could be better than an instant commiseration among 200 friends about a horrible bus ride I had just taken? An amazing debate we had all watched together on television? A shared reveling in a new product?

This something better was FriendFeed. It wasn’t a Twitter killer, Chris insisted, but was an alternative worth investigating. I promised him I’d investigate and report back. My report was that of confusion: I didn’t get it. A year ago, sending reports of all my web activities to one single location for any old stranger to follow seemed creepy and unnecessary. I had a Facebook account, but only my friends could see what I was up to. I had a Twitter account but carefully controlled what information I chose to publicize. What could FriendFeed do that Twitter couldn’t? Why was FriendFeed even necessary? It wasn’t. Until the moment that FriendFeed accomplished what every Web 2.0 tool can only dream of: It became relevant.

As social networking privacy concerns evolve from legitimate to tangential, the ability to stream your Netflix queue, Facebook conversations, blog posts, Twitter status updates and Flickr photos in real time–with real time commenting ability—complements this evolution by offering a sense of control and community that is missing in Twitter. Yes, anybody can follow your life stream, but you direct what goes out there. Today’s Web 2.0 tools are at the cost of your anonymity but not your vulnerability. You still control your content. For now.

Social media is here to stay
When Facebook began relaxing their privacy settings last month by making status updates and photos public by default, my initial reaction was that they were emulating the FriendFeed model, so yesterday’s acquisition comes as little surprise. While I’m still not sure what this means for Facebook, it certainly signals a strong message to today’s SMBs: It’s time to stop asking Who cares? and to start asking What do my customers care about? Embrace the Web 2.0 medium and you’ll find that interacting with your customers—both satisfied and disgruntled—will offer you the insight of a feedback loop while building a loyal, vocal customer base, each of whom holds their own megaphone.

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Rebecca Schlachter is an analyst at AMI-Partners. She is especially interested in social networking tools and insights while she attempts to maintain her own relevance.