FriendFeed Keeps the Hits Comin’

You’re probably going see an awful lot of coverage about FriendFeed’s release of its API that will let third-parties create applications that link into the hottest social network aggregator (aka Louis Gray’s favorite service).

While the API is obviously interesting, what I find particularly fascinating is how well FriendFeed’s strategy has rolled out over the past six months. Whether by design or simply luck (right place at the right time), it seems that FriendFeed’s strategic moves have unfolded just as they should.

The company, started by a group of ex-Google employees, got the ball rolling when it launched last October with some great media coverage from places such as the New York Times and GigaOm. Then, it unveiled two major developments last month: its official launch last month along with a $5-million venture round.

This was followed by another interesting bit of news last week with the release of a search tool; followed by the launch earlier this week of a feature that lets people reply to Twitter posts within FriendFeed; followed by the release today of the API.

Bang, bang, bang, bang. FriendFeed’s not only the “It” service these days, along with Twitter, but its ability to keep the fire stoked with announcements on a regular basis is impressive. It suggests the company has a solid roadmap for growth that it’s following.

In many ways, FriendFeed could be a valuable case study for start-ups looking for marketing insight on how to launch a service. Far too start-ups come out with guns a blazing and attract a significant amount of attention only to quickly disappear from the landscape because they have nothing else to announce to keep people excited about what they’re doing.

FriendFeed seems to be demonstrating that if you look beyond Launch Day, there are lots of opportunities to capture the imagination of bloggers, the media and, most important, Web users.

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