More FriendFeed Options

Last week, guest writer Karoli Kuns offered readers an introduction to Friendfeed. Whether this social media tool will replace Twitter is unknown. But, for the user, Friendfeed can be remarkably more efficient than Twitter, as it combines a number of social media tools into one place. This week, Linda offers some more discoveries she made at Friendfeed as she followed Karoli's advice from last week.

Learning the Ropes

Last week I offered Karoli a chance to show off her expertise, as I knew very little about Friendfeed, yet I know this tool is valuable. I know this fact, as I have followed Karoli on Twitter for months now in an effort to emulate her activities. She's always on to the newest tool in the social media game, and she's a pro at building community.

This is one reason why social media is so important. Although most people have heard about Guy Kawasaki and other well-known social media entities, you can also meet people like Karoli and others who are making their marks in this new online community-building practice. The rules? Some, but not enough to worry about...you set your own guidelines and go from there.

On that note, it's back to Friendfeed. I assumed, since Karoli was working with this tool, that it would save me time and energy keeping up with all my other social networking places as it does for her. And, it does. For instance, here are some of the options available that will help you stay on top of your Friendfeed feed without actually logging onto your Friendfeed page:

These notification options shown above are located under your "settings," which are located to the upper right under your avatar and name of your Friendfeed feed. I have an aversion to IM, and I'm not always at my computer, so email notifications work better for me. If you look at the first three radio box checklists above, you'll see that I want email notifications only on the posts that interest me. This is a time saver, especially if your Friendfeed account becomes as large as your Twitter account.

Notice, also, that Friendfeed supplies an option for desktop notifications. When you click on that link, you'll come to this page...

These notifications are handy, especially if you're already sitting at the computer. Whenever someone on your list sends a Tweet or an announcement through Friendfeed, it shows up on the lower right-hand side of your screen like so:

Note that the above information was sent by Wisely Woven through Twitter...but it showed up in the lower corner of my screen. This is a great convenience when you're working at your computer, as you can "like" that comment or even comment on it by clicking on one of the two links shown at the bottom of that bubble. Karoli mentioned the "Likes" in the previous article – they work basically like a "retweet" on Twitter.