B etween Facebook, Twitter, Google+, Pinterest, Tumblr, FourSquare, and Instagram, do you feel like you need a new social media platform?…Probably not. So then why use Pheed, the newest social media platform to take the stage?
Because Pheed creators promise this will not only be a “mashup” of the best elements of all of these social media platforms, but it will also encourage users to upload a higher caliber of content through the use of a monetized business model.
How it works:
- Create a profile: The profiles are pretty standard as they include a screen name, bio, and picture.
- Subscribe to Pheeds: Invite Facebook, Twitter, and Gmail contacts to join Pheed and follow their streams. Sick of these friends? Follow celebrities and other featured Pheed channels. Currently dozens of celebrities, such as Miley Cyrus and Nas, are active on the site.
- Upload and share: Choose to share text (in 420 characters or less), audio, photos, video, or broadcast to your “timeline.” Anything that you upload is called a “Pheed.”
- Make money off of your Pheed by going Premium: The subscription feature is the most innovative component of Pheed. Users get to set their own subscription price, either at a monthly rate or pay-per-view rate.
Why Go Premium?
Pheed’s creators have found that on Facebook and Twitter, users are mostly focused on just gaining as many followers as possible. In turn, “there’s just too much noise” thereby making “most of the content quality poor.“ Pheed creators want to switch the focus and instead encourage consumers to use “the platforms for what they’re actually meant to do: share quality content.” Put simply, “if you allow influencers to charge for content, high quality content will be produced.”
Users determine the price of their subscriptions, charging anywhere from $1.99 to $34.99 per view, or $1.99 to $34.99 per month. They also own the content that they upload to the social media platform.
Other New Features:
“I Don’t Love This” Button: Finally a button to complement the “Love This” button! Facebook users have been asking for a “dislike” button for years, and it seems like the Pheed time has finally listened to these requests.
Channel Ratings: When you create your Pheed profile you distinguish what type of rating your profile should have. Options include General Audiences (G), Parental Guidance Suggested (PG), Parents Strongly Cautioned (PG-13), and Restricted (R).
Trending: While monitoring trending hashtags is an established practice, tags on Pheed include all sorts of media from photos to songs to videos. This broadens the “trending” narrative.
Overall:
Pheed has potential but only time will tell if users will be receptive to paying for higher quality content. Currently many of the subscription profiles, such as Chris Brown or David Guetta, are not yet launched, so it is not yet clear what type of content the artists will upload to the social media platform.
Also, expect a mobile app soon, as it is currently pending approval.
For now, create a profile—there’s nothing to lose! It’s a visually stimulating platform and truly does incorporate the best components from all of the other social media sites.
