With social networking/new media being the hot topic in marketing today, the cover story on the latest BusinessWeek (June 1, 2009) captured my attention — “What’s a Friend Worth?” The article references the “Attention Economy” — the concept that “The value of most information has collapsed to zero. The only scarce resource is attention,” according to Bernardo Huberman, director of the Information Dynamics Lab at Hewlett-Packard. As consumers are bombarded with information (which is also easier to access than ever before), many seem to believe the influence of our friends is even more important to help us navigate through it all.
But who are our real friends? Facebook is working to “track the path of influence among its communities…to offer more effective and lucrative advertising and promotions.” According to their study, “they determined that an average Facebook user with 500 friends actively follows the news on only 40 of them, communicates with 20, and keeps in close touch with about 10.” While the reach from a network may be large, the influencing power might be minimal.
The article mentions “personal opportunity” as a motive behind having a large collection of contacts/casual friends online. According to studies, “the contacts outside of our close friendships are more likely to lead us to new opportunities. Their networks have less overlap and extend into different areas.” LinkedIn’s founder, Reid Hoffman, refers to these contacts as “light alliances.”
Regardless of how we use social networks as consumers and/or marketers, it is certain that these online arenas have created opportunities to stay better connected and quickly share information that can influence others.