I finally figured out why Robert Scoble loves Friend Feed so much!

I finally understand his obsession now. Robert Scoble has 49,205 “followers” as of this blog posting. There is no way that he can truly know all of those people and have meaningful interactions with them. I recently went to CES and heard him speak with Gary Vaynerchuck about blogging in tough times. I had met Robert at the Gnomedex 08 speaker’s dinner earlier in 2008 and I wanted to reconnect with him. My interaction with him at CES gave me a big glimpse into why he is so excited about Friend Feed.

After the presentation I got in the long line of people to talk with him. When my turn came to talk with him, I was very brief. I said the obligatory “you’re great” lines that go with the situation and he reacted as expected. At this point, I was just another follower. I then gave him a teaser about how we are integrating Pelotonics with Google Docs and how that will be a great new feature. (spent maybe 15 seconds on it) His facial expression changed. He was now really engaged in the discussion. It was at this point that I changed from a “Follower” to a “Friend”. His eyes lit up and he started telling me about how he thinks that integrations like these are where the market is going, etc.

It was at this moment that it hit me.

Robert has a huge number of followers, but at the end of the day, who cares? He wants friends! Friends are people that you can engage in a meaningful discussion with, share ideas, and generally enjoy the time spent together. That’s really what Robert is after and Twitter is frankly too noisy to facilitate that interaction. Twitter conversations are like being at a very loud bar. Some of the conversation is missed and misinterpreted due to the ambient noise all around. Frankly, it’s tough to hear!

Friend Feed on the other hand is like sitting down to a dinner with people you enjoy in a quiet setting where you can truly talk and exchange ideas. Now that’s an experience. After getting this glimpse, I started participating in Robert’s Friend Feed conversations…they are truly different and engaging; a place where you can stop being a follower and start becoming a friend! Thanks for this lesson Robert; I finally “get it”. Someday soon I am sure that we will both find the time to sit down and talk about the innovations we are working on at Pelotonics…as friends, not as followers. I am looking forward to it. 

Another example: Lance Armstrong

Lance is over in Australia for a big race. He just sent this picture out with the comment, “Walking out the door”. Look at the picture, this is something that I would have never had the opportunity to see or experience before as an avid cycling fan. I had the chance to comment back to this picture and let him know that my 09′ is going to be all that better because he is back in the game. Lance doesn’t just want followers, anyone can get those. He wants friends and can now connect with many more of them now that he’s Tweeting. (Follow him if you are not…he’s a Tweeting junkie and it’s fun to hear about when he’s getting drug tested, training, or just relaxing.)

Are you a Friend or a Follower?

Scoble and Lance have it right…get friends, not followers. The more followers you have, the more cluttered the conversation becomes. Scoble has turned to Friend Feed to filter that conversation and does an amazing job of it. If you just follow on Twitter, you are missing a huge back-conversation that is happening on Friend Feed. Join the conversation! It’s a new experience.

Popularity: 40% [?]

Tweet This Post