Is Formspring.me on Your Radar?

Check out my podcast on Formspring.me and Business Users

Are you on Formspring.me yet? Have you even heard of it?

I admit that I hadn’t until I listened to this week’s brilliant Twist Image podcast with Mitch Joel and Gary Vaynerchuk.

Within a day of installing it on a client’s site however I realised how massive this particular social media service could be. The “Ask us anything” invitation is a brilliant call-to-action, designed to engage.

Getting Users to Interact

I installed the Formspring’s widget on a client’s website to see what response we’d get. They’re a school who moved to social media marketing this academic marketing after they approached me to help them recruit new students.

Facebook, blogging and Twitter have really helped in building a community. But just one day of Formspring.me resulted in 15 questions that told me a lot about the concerns of 16-year old prospective senior high school students.

Unlike a forum, this is easy to use and you can connect it to your Twitter or Facebook account to pipe out the questions to other channels. Students (customers?) can ask whatever they want.

Sure, I can see that some people will abuse the service and perhaps ask inappropriate questions and be vulgar and obnoxious because they can hide under the veil of anonymity. But this is also an incredibly useful way to get instant feedback on what your community is thinking.

Imagine if Liverpool FC –the subject of yesterday’s post- had opened up a similar account and treated fans with a degree of honesty! It would give fans an excellent outlet to connect with the club.

Similarly, brands could use Formspring to engage in more meaningful online discussions.

Facebook Fan (Like?) Pages can be a bit bland because people have to reveal their identity. On Formspring, however, you can ask the tough questions without being exposed.

Your Turn

So I’m curious. Have you heard of Formspring? Have you had a play yet?
Do you think it could be useful to your brand? Or is it just a variant of an online forum and likely to be home to flamers and obnoxious anonymous posters?