Brandstreaming: What Is It & Who's Doing It?
If there's a hot new social media trend happening, you can bet that companies are trying to find a way to use it too. It happened of course with blogging, it happened with Twitter, and it is now happening with FriendFeed and other lifestreaming apps.
UPDATE: On August 16, 2008 ReadWriteWeb was sent a letter from the lawyers of a company named Fricken, which states that Fricken owns a trademark for the term 'brandstream'. Accordingly we acknowledge here that Pheedo did not coin the term, as we initially thought.
Indeed RSS vendor Pheedo has coined a neat term for this: brandstreaming [Update: Brian Solis notes in the comments that Pheedo probably didn't coin it]. Pheedo defines a brandstream as "a consistent flow of content created by a brand".
To back up its case for brands using lifestreaming tools, Pheedo points to a recent Universal McCann report stating that content consumption outside of websites has increased 153% in the last 9 months. Overall, 53% of online users are consuming content outside of a publisher's site - through the use of widgets, RSS readers, social networks and mobile devices.
Those are incredible stats, which put into stark focus the need for companies to engage with users outside of their own website. As our own Alex Iskold wrote last week, companies should do this not just by using APIs, but making use of all the major consumer web platforms.
Can Companies Really Use Lifestreaming?
Alex didn't mention FriendFeed in his post, perhaps because FriendFeed and other lifestreaming apps are relatively new to the Internet scene. But Forrester analyst Jeremiah Owyang, who follows how companies use social media more than most, has been looking into how brands will use FriendFeed. He discusses the concept of the "Social Media Press Release" (SMPR), which he defines as more than just a company announcement - it also "provides links and assets to social media: blogs, images, videos, tags, etc." He cites Ford's Social Media Press Release room called "Digital Snippets" as one example.
But let's step back a moment and look at brandstreaming from the user's point of view. It's fairly obvious why companies want to get their brand out into social media sites like Flickr, Facebook, Twitter and then wrap it up into feeds. It's to get their brand out beyond their website, to engage users and entice them into discussions about their products. But what's the motivation for users to subscribe to those 'brandstreams'?
Realistically, brandstreaming is probably going to work best for consumer brands that have a high lifestyle appeal. Ford would fit into that category, although it's not a beloved consumer brand like say Apple or Sony. I did a search around FriendFeed tonight to see if I could find an official presence from Apple, Sony, Coca-Cola and a few other popular brands. But so far at least, those popular consumer brands aren't doing much brandstreaming.
Pandora Experimenting
One early adopter company though is the online music service Pandora. Lucia Willow, the Pandora Community Manager, has nabbed a presence for Pandora on many of the trendy social media places. She left this list in the comments to Jeremiah Owyang's post mentioned above:
http://friendfeed.com/pandoraradiohttp://twitter.com/pandora_radio (which Lucia says has been "a *fantastic* resource for us")
http://www.facebook.com/pages/Pandora/5919726343
http://getsatisfaction.com/pandora
http://flickr.com/photos/pandora_radio/
http://www.myspace.com/pandoraradio
Pandora's FriendFeed site has about 70 people subscribed to it so far. Lucia admitted that Pandora is just testing it, and by the looks of the recent activity it's being used in much the same way that Pandora is successfully using Twitter - to communicate with its user base and encourage them to use Pandora.
Cisco's Advertising BrandStream
Another example of brandstreaming is Cisco. In the post linked above, Pheedo sings the virtues of brandstreaming as a way for companies to get their brands in front of consumers, but also as a new kind of advertising tool.
Pheedo ran an ad campaign for Cisco which, in their words, was "designed as an integrated Social Media ad network campaign with the goals of driving 1) traffic, 2) newsletter sign-ups, and 3) RSS subscriptions." The Cisco brandstream included video, press releases, customer stories and product updates. [disclosure: Pheedo has run some RSS ads for RWW, via FM Publishing. It's possible that the Cisco campaign was one of them, but I am not sure]
Conclusion
Clearly it's early days for this so-called brandstreaming. Whether people will want to subscribe to brands in lifestreaming apps like FriendFeed is a question still to be answered. I can see the attraction for consumer brands with a cult following, like Apple. Other brands, including the likes of Ford and Cisco, will probably struggle to interest consumers in highly social apps like FriendFeed.
Let us know in the comments any examples you've come across of companies 'brandstreaming'. Do you think it will work for most companies, or is it yet another social media trend that you'd prefer companies to keep their fingers out of?
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One thing RWW is always good for, interesting and in-depth discussions. What is actually considered a brand though? Are we just talking companies or do personal brands count as well?
So far, http://grooveshark.com/ Grooveshark is the only company that comes to my mind in terms of brand streaming. It seems like anyone who mentions them on Twitter ends up being followed by the Grooveshark Twitter account. The great thing about this is that, there is an actual human being (most likely company representative) who talks to you about the service in real time. If you have a problem, they take care of it. They actually listen. If this is what brandstreaming is supposed to be like, isn't this a win-win situation between company and consumer?
The only other example I can think of is Comcast by means of the ComcastCares Twitter account. From what I've heard, this guy has done a great job showcasing a social presence for Comcast, at least on Twitter anyways.
Brandstreaming, i like it. Operating on Friendfeed like twitter like facebook like myspace provides another avenue for your users to engage with your brand. Definitely a great way to make those loyal fans have a sense of belonging.
To answer your question "is it yet another social media trend that you'd prefer companies to keep their fingers out of?" I think in the long term firms will have to have a portfolio of 'social media' services which they use to engage with their users. Friendfeed is just as likely to be one way of doing this.
It is in the very nature of a brand to set up in our daily life. Since, lifestreaming is becoming a major place of exchange in our dailylife, brands will be there.
The point is that they are not welcome anymore. Brands are no longer seen as helpful but like invaders.
As to brands, the challenge is now how to be seen and known as the helpful hand we are all seeking desperatly.
Yes, you can do brandstreaming, and I have put up a brandstreaming for my company on Friendfeed. Maybe it is not quite the same, but as European company with a presence in over 20 countries and in 8 languages, it is often difficult to find one channel to communicate with our customers. Now we can do it through Friendfeed, where we can stream our corporate blogs and use all the tools that are available for us to connect with our customers.
Here is our room:
http://friendfeed.com/rooms/pixum
This is a nice analysis. I believe what you are calling "brandstreaming" works best if it is tied to customer service and important company announcements rather than a constant flow of links back to the company's site, which can start to feel like spam. I like what Freshbooks http://twitter.com/freshbooks does in this regard.
It also really only works if there is an on-going relationship built with the followers/consumers rather than as part of a short-lived marketing campaign. For this reason companies themselves need to be involved in creating content for the "brandstream" rather than just their agencies who could lose the mandate after a particular campaign. Zappos, for example, are masters of getting staff online.
In summary, as a consumer this is what I look for when I follow a company or brand on Twitter, FriendFeed or other spaces:
- to obtain new information on important new product developments;
- to build a stronger on-going relationship with the company;
- through the stronger relationship obtain better customer service.
Cheers,
Connie Crosby
http://twitter.com/conniecrosby and
my own fledgling "brand stream" http://twitter.com/crosbygroup
ha, this will be a challenge for the big boys ... because ...
if you send me a constant stream of garbage i will hate you, so tread lightly ...
bet this will be the death of many eterprises, the truth will be seen ever more clearly about motivation and intent.
For most companies, using social media will be a cheap way of getting commercial content in front of an audience.
Previously, they could buy advertising or get editorial coverage, but now, they can publish themselves, without any gatekeepers between them and their targets, for free. Most likely, this will create a new type of social media spam (someone needs to coin a term for that).
But used right, companies can create stronger relationships with their customers and get valuable feedback that otherwise wouldn't reach them.
In Secondbrain we use http://getsatisfaction.com/secondbrain and http://twitter.com/2ndbrain to talk to our users, and both have worked very well for us.
Setting up a room on FF seems to be a good option for doing this. That way, you're not seen as a total interloper friending random strangers left and right -- if someone wants to keep up to date on your brand, they join the room. Of course, you'd be stupid not to try to recruit a few people into the room to start, but would have to tread lightly and look for people who already demonstrate a loyalty to and interest in your brand.
Would I join a Starbucks room? Sadly, yes.
gregorylent_pls. elaborate in regards to the death of the enterprise.
Agree with gregory_lent, as brandstreaming will be a big hurdle for the bigger companies. It sounds great, but to be effective in lifestreaming, a person or brand already has to be using the tools (and do them well) that feed into a life/brand stream. It's obvious why a company like Pandora will do well with brandstreaming, as they are already engaged on Twitter, Flickr and Facebook.
The companies that Twitter via an RSS feed, set up a Facebook account because everyone else did, has a YouTube channel with no new activity, and posts new blog entries once a month, will not have an impact with their brandstreaming efforts. Instead, they should pick one or two sites to focus their efforts on, engage a growing community, and then graduate to brandstreaming when it becomes the next step, not the next big thing.
ya I m Still Using
Social is about people, brands are about a business - it has to be about real people who stream it
Posted by: Mrinal Desai
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July 28, 2008 10:11 AM
Richard, thanks for the discussing this topic.
For BrandStreaming to be effective the messaging has to work within the medium. It cannot interrupt. Brands will have to actively participate and really understand Lifestreaming in general. It is not about creating another flashy banner ad but it is really about participating in the community. So, the big boys will have problems if they don't understand that.
Best,
Bill Flitter
CEO, Pheedo
I wonder how these guys like their own brand being used like this?
http://brandstream.com/
What BC asked was right....
http://movieleech.blogspot.com
Richard, this is a very important post. Brandstreaming is going to become more pervasive over the next year and is already in play with certain companies who realize the potential for aggregating content produced by the people representing the brand.
I'm also not sure that Pheedo coined "brandstreaming" as Chris Heuer, Jeremiah Owyang, Stowe Boyd and I have been discussing brandstreams going back to the first series of conversations around lifestreams. Most recently Jeremiah Owyang and I discussed FriendFeed as the most likely candidate for brandstreaming in today's social media market (you can see the term brandstreaming in comment #24 in Jeremiah's post that you linked to).
You've heard that old saying, "your reputation precedes you." On the social web, a brand's reputation is now in the hands of people as well...aggregating relevant and interesting content will help unify a company's presence online and help steer conversations in a positive direction.
Hi Richard and others -
Lucia here, from Pandora.
This is an interesting conversation!
I have to say though, I don't think of what I do as "brandstreaming." I go where there are fans of Pandora, and I communicate with them.
I think of my activity on Twitter, FriendFeed, etc. as kind of a scattered forum and listener advocacy. People find it pretty handy to have me available for questions and suggestions, and I share their feedback with our staff.
Twitter and FriendFeed aren't a pulpit for me so much as friendly fan club / help desk. My community manager role is basically an outbound version of what we've been doing passionately for three years - listening to our listeners.
:) Lucia
(Community Manager at Pandora)
Hi Richard and others -
Lucia here, from Pandora.
This is an interesting conversation!
I have to say though, I don't think of what I do as "brandstreaming." I go where there are fans of Pandora, and I communicate with them.
I think of my activity on Twitter, FriendFeed, etc. as kind of a scattered forum and listener advocacy. People find it pretty handy to have me available for questions and suggestions, and I share their feedback with our staff.
Twitter and FriendFeed aren't a pulpit for me so much as friendly fan club / help desk. My community manager role is basically an outbound version of what we've been doing passionately for three years - listening to our listeners.
:) Lucia
(Community Manager at Pandora)
Posted by: Pandora Radio
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July 28, 2008 12:27 PM
Brandstreaming may be easier for companies with a "high lifestyle appeal," but it may soon be no less important for B2B firms wanting to engage early adopters among their customers, partners, employees, and prospects.
At Sterling Communications, one of the first steps we take with our new PR clients (all in high tech) is to register accounts with their brand name at the higher trafficked social media sites -- much like Ms. Willow did for Pandora.
Lauren B. notes that merely having a Twitter or FriendFeed account isn't the same as making an impact. True, but most firms need training on how to listen to these new types of conversations. The chatter is noisy and fractured, and the "beta" user experience most services offer frustrates busy employees.
It helps, we've found, to tailor training programs that help clients listen, interact and contribute. Though each client's business goals are unique, all of our clients so far are eager to strengthen relationships in the community.
We'll see how it goes and whether they become useful members of the marketstream, but I'm betting the best will learn quickly and contribute wisely.
I think that Dell, Zappos and Intuit all do a good job w/ their brandstreaming as well.
Here's one of the Dell twitterers: http://twitter.com/Kara_atDELL
first we had embedded reporters, now we've got embedded pr men?
Posted by: linkman77
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July 28, 2008 3:44 PM
Brian, thanks for pointing out prior use of the term 'brandstreaming'. I did a google search for it before publishing this, but Pheedo came out top and I didn't see any other major uses of it in the google results. But in any case I've updated the post now with a note.
We've mentioned this a couple times, specifically in "Be a Beacon: The First Principle of Social Media" (http://www.maxgladwell.com/2008/06/be-a-beacon-first-principle-social-media).
For most brands or companies, it's too easy not to do it. These are the signals that will help people find you and for you to find them.
Interestingly, I wrote something quite similar not long ago http://tiny.cc/DJRFy
In my post, I talked about fragmentation innovation over a curve, and the idea of having multiple conversations with customers depending on how *they* see the world.
Nice to be validated in a conversation happening at a blog with more readership ;-)
The upcoming launch of the Samsung Instinct in Canada has a Twitter account.
A couple of days after I mentioned the phone in a Tweet it ('they'?) started following me. At first I thought it was irritating, but then had a couple of questions about the phone, so followed it, and found it was quite useful. The best part is that the answers I got back weren't positive so I'm less likely to buy the phone ( ie it doesn't support podcasts, and the player doesn't remember the location in the MP3 ), but they were honest, and not all marketing/corporate mumbo-jumbo like I expected.
I never thought I'd say "I had a useful, honest, satisfying pre-sales conversation with a cell phone provider", but I did!
We've never called it Brand-streaming, but we make sure every startup we work with does this at the right time. It's a great way to 'be discoverable' by people looking for service/product out in the wild web, but it's also a great way to connect and live your personality.
Companies must absolutely get out and participate beyond their sites, especially for startups where most of their customers don't know who they are yet.
It is a challenge for big companies because it's a participation thing, not a control thing. You have to be real.
I also don't think it's a normal communications channel because it's not synchronous - i.e. I don't know whether you'll get the message because it's a stream (like Twitter) not a ordered queue (like email, or some email). That's what makes it good.
You've got to go with the flow to get joy.
I have no words to say, it's rock indeed
http://www.bangbull.com/details/23800-BE4/Amazing_natural_girl
Any thoughts on how brandstreaming can be used by a relatively young company who is seeking a new audience? It seems brandstreaming is most effective for large established brands to connect with their existing customers/users.
Andy
www.qlubb.com
These all are softwares only. People (Unsocial people) are telling what they do on these sites and they think they got socialized. In front of a 17" monitor? What an irony!
Just curious, and did a quick WHOIS search on brandstreaming.com and found that Pheedo has owned the URL since April of 2008. Will the real Slim Shady please stand up? ;)
David, hehe, nice work! A good purchase by Pheedo I'd say.
About a year ago, I wrote a series called Your Brand Is Not My Friend™ that dealt with just this scenario.
It's gotten a lot of play in the blogosphere and made its way into the print edition of Adweeklast month.
In a nutshell, it says that people don't want to hear advertising messages from brands in social media, since they come to social media sites to hang out with their friends, and advertisers are not their friends.
The exception to this are the dozen or so "Prom King Brands" - brands that people actively want to be "friends" with. (A good test of Prom King Brand status is: will people unironically wear a hat or t-shirt with your logo on it?) Sports teams, movies, TV shows and music acts tend to fall into the Prom King category as well.
The rest is laid out in the articles. But anything that looks like the sort of "This is what I want to tell you" interruptive ad (vs the "The is what you want to hear" style ad) that's served the industry so well for many years is bound to fail.
I just put together a FriendFeed for myself/for the book publishing imprint I run, Soft Skull Press. I don't know that we're a prom king, but I do think there's a certain affection for what we do, since it's not so well-rewarded financially even in the bets of times, and since books are very intimate objects, sold really through word-of-mouth (though you wouldn't know it to look at how they typically get sold these days...) Just looking at the profile that it created once I imported our various items, I suddenly felt, yeah, this represents what we do far better than a mission statement...
Did you get a cease and desist letter re: the Brandstream trademark? I just did.
Max, you're kidding?! Who sent you the letter?
Here's the email. The letter has photocopies of each of my posts where I mention the b-word. I promptly responded that I'll no longer use the term, outside of referring to their client directly. I'm sure yours isn't too far behind.
"We represent Fricken Company. Attached please find a copy of our letter sent by certified mail today to MaxGladwell.com's Santa Monica address, with respect to Fricken's rights in its BRANDSTREAM trademark, for which it holds both United States and Community trademark registrations. We look forward to your prompt response."
Fricken-A, right?
Max, we just one too, from same company. sheesh.
I'm hesitant to blog about it b/c I don't want to give this company any undue exposure by way of its attorney.
Hey, just got a cease and desist letter too from Fricken's lawyers, for using that word in a post on my blog, linking to this article.
http://www.thetrendwatch.com/2008/07/29/is-your-brand-ready-to-brandstream/
It seems ridiculous.
Not sure what they want... Are they expecting us to take down our blog posts?
Richard, Max, what's your position?
The lawyers that Fricken employs seem to be sending these kind of letters out to everyone that uses any conjugation of the words Brand and Stream. I've checked with lawyers... this is a classic threaten & frighten approach; they don't really have much basis for getting you to stop using it.
Max, Olivier,
I consulted with the RWW team and we decided to update the post acknowledging that Fricken have a trademark. We have better things to do than fight this kind of stuff. We've advised this to their lawyers and hopefully that's the end of that.
Um, excuse me - Ford isn't a beloved brand? You'd be surprised to know just how many Ford enthusiasts there are out there. While they may not be as techno- or social media-savvy as Apple or Sony customers, they are passionate about the Ford brand.
Part of my job as the head of social media at Ford (one month in) is to create opportunities for this passion to be more evident across the web. This may involve a good deal of online and offline integration, which will make it more evident that there are in fact a very healthy number of Ford fans out there.
Richard, thanks, I'll do the same.