Social Media Savvy

Today it was announced that Facebook has purchased a similar social networking site (potential competitor) Friendfeed.

Friendfeed allows users to perform such social networking tasks as posting links, commenting and posting status updates. As it stands now the two sites are going to continue to be operated separately but the two sites are planned to be integrated in the future.

What does this mean for the social media savvy? It means to continue to prioritize Facebook as the site to grow your presence, don't focus heavily on Friendfeed.

When the two do integrate it will probably mean added functionality for Facebook so begin to plan now on how that added functionality will work and create plans in the wings for how to use it when it does become available. I really recommend creating an account just to click around and familiarize yourself with it. Here is a small list of some of the potential extra functionality to be on the lookout for: publishing directly to Twitter or blogs, the ability to share from your email, the most commented on stories floating to the top of the feed, real-time updates of your feeds.

This practice of scoping out rising competitor sites for features that will likely be integrated into the larger social networking sites is a good idea. For example, the ability to "like" something was on Friendfeed first and someone who was familiar with the function would have known how to better capitalize on it when it went live.

Takeaways: Look at competing social networking sites, get a Friendfeed account personally to learn the ropes, don't bother getting into the tool as a business.