Have you heard of Pheed? Are you on there?

Disco was the in thing for teens of the late 1970s. Could Pheed be to today’s teens what disco was for 70s teens?

The answer to both of these questions is becoming yes more frequently.

So what is Pheed?

Pheed is the newest, hottest social media network. It launched in October 2012. It has been growing in popularity, and has earned its way to the top of the list of free apps downloaded. Pheed is positioned as a combination of Facebook, Twitter, YouTube and Tumblr, taking some of the best features of those networks and adding its own twist. In that way, it is developing its own brand authenticity. Some of the features of Pheed that I think are impressive include the “I Don’t Love This” button and the fact that there are options for individual users to charge for content. For certain brands, there is sense in taking the approach of charging for content.

BrandChannel noted that 81 percent of Pheed’s users are between 14-25. Common sentiment is that the youngest part of the cohort has grown disillusioned with Facebook. That idea certainly makes sense. If you take a look at the people who were the earlier adopters of Facebook in 2004-2006, those people are now over 25. Parents and other elders have made their way onto Facebook. From the vantage point of a teen, Facebook lacks the quality of being its own individual space. If you are 14-19 today, you didn’t really come of age when Facebook was the newest, hippest kid on the social media block.

One of the truisms of social media is that while we might not necessarily know for certain how the social media landscape will change over time, we do know that it is going to change. Pheed could be a representation of where social media is going in the future and that perspective is reflected by Co-Founder & CEO O.D. Kobo. He certainly could be correct, and the progress so far in 5 months is impressive.

At this point, the brands that it is going to make the amount of sense for tend to have younger audiences. Pheed’s still young, and a lot of mainstream brands haven’t made their way on to the site yet. However, there are brands that are beginning to establish a presence on the site, and there’s a likelihood that many more brands will make their way over in time. The largest brands are not always the first movers on social media. Consider that Facebook initially started a network for college students and had demographics similar to what Pheed has today. MySpace also started out being hot with a young population.

Pheed is simply a sign of times. Marketers are weaving their way through a multi-channel marketing environment. Distribion CEO Tim Storer has frequently noted the challenges brands face in the multi-channel environment. He recently addressed this issue when discussing the rise of distributed marketing. Should Pheed continue a meteoric rise in the social media sphere, it will only compound many of the challenges that organizations face with the growth of the social media space. More and more organizations are realizing that they will need to adjust the current marketing environment in order to stay ahead of the curve and aim for industry leading performance.