PHEED: the social platform you need to be using

If you are one of those tech savvy, socially inspired individuals then you have probably heard of Pheed. If you have not, it may be worth the look if you really want to be able to engage from multiple levels of content. Pheed was launched on 12 October 2012 and has, for lack of a less cliché term, rocketed to the top of many users’ mind space as the newest interesting thing to use for communication.

As of February 2013 Pheed has topped the Apple App store, taking number one position in the social category, even surpassing social giants Twitter and Facebook (There’s only an iPhone app at the moment I am afraid).

From the mouth of its creators, “Pheed is a social media platform that enables users to create, inspire and share texts, photos, videos, audio tracks, voice-notes and live broadcasts.” So Pheed is trying to create a single platform from where users can engage using multiple media types — is that all?

“It is about having options and for that reason we provide monetization features where users may place a monthly pay-wall on their channel, or host a live pay-per-view broadcast event. Users select their own pricing and can earn directly.”

Essentially Pheed is saying — hey you, yes you the user, we want you to make money off the content you produce… or not if you want to be free. “All content uploaded is owned by the user, Pheed retains no rights or ownership toward it.”

Basically the opposite of the current Facebook. It is a novel idea that has been successful beyond any logical expectation and may or may not tick off Facebook and Twitter (which looks set to IPO in 2014).

Why though?

• Free to use
• You are not being sold to by companies
• Individual users can monetise it from a mobile platform
• Pheed cannot own your content

Pheed allows users to create their own channel for multiple media types. Whether or not it will continue to work is another question. The major players in the social media space tend to focus at being good at something – Twitter is text, Pinterest is image-based, Instagram is mobile.

Pheed’s greatest uptake has been from teenagers but has piqued the interest of other social savvy adults. Some figures you can already see on Pheed include Paris Hilton, Ashley Tisdale and Miley Cyrus.

So have a look if you think it is the next best thing, provides you with value or if you experience FOMO.