This post written from seat 7A on JetBlue flight 525 from New Jersey to Florida on my way to speak on the “website conversion clinic” panel at Affiliate Summit Miami..

In 1988, “The Diabolical” Biz Markie sang (I use the term, “sang” loosely) “you say he’s just a friend” and went on to tell his “baby” she got what he neeeeeeds. I wonder how those lyrics would have differed if the song were written today?
“You say their just MySpace, Facebook, Blog Catalog, LinkedIn, Flickr, YouTube, twitter friends. You say their ALL just friends. Oh BAbY YOooouuu, got the friends that I NEEeed – thank you for the add I said thank you for the add” (I took that a little farther than I thought I could )

Anyway, you get the picture. In today’s connected culture, with all of our advances success still hinges on who you know, perhaps even more important, how you know who you know? You can be very successful but if your MySpace page has no friends, you’re just a big fat loser (making the “L” sign with my fingers on my forehead – which is awkward because I’m on a plane and now people are staring at me. I think someone just alerted the air marshal).

Having online friends is critical. Social networking is fast becoming the status quo. If you’re not out there you’re nowhere. I have more friends then I know what to do with and I want more! Acquiring friends is addictive! The more friends you have the more visible you are. If you don’t think social networking is vital to spreading your marketing message, just take a look at any of our 2008 presidential hopefuls. Hillary, Rudy, Obama they all have MySpace pages! They are all vying for votes by creating online supporters (combined they have over 100,000 friends on MySpace alone) and MySpace isn’t the only place they are trolling for friends. YouTube, Friendster, FaceBook, LinkedIn…they are everywhere!

In business, networking is nothing new. Networking is how good businesses become great ones. Social networking just takes it to extreme levels. Your network becomes viral and connections extend through armies of online friends in the blink of an eye. You make a friend and instantly all of their friends are exposed to you and you to them. You connect with a friend of a friend and it happens again, more people are exposed to you.

There is a downside to being madly connected online; you’re now exposed to thousands of people. Every move you make can now be seen, scrutinized, commented on and can spread quicker than the sizable woman sitting in the seat next to me went through her kosher meal.

An online community of friends is nothing new. Chat rooms and forums were among the first Internet community applications. Forums are still pretty popular. In an online forum, like minded people gather initially discuss a common topic or theme but eventually they end up discussing everything as friendship connections build.

A good friend of mine belongs to a specific Harley Davidson forum. Recently when we were out to dinner he told stories about how his forum members often rally to help their online brethren through rough times. Raising money for members with illnesses or those who have fallen on hard times is a common occurrence. They also act as a global support group or sounding board for those going through divorce, tragedy, loss of a pet or just about anything affecting their lives.

Social networking is going to be a critical marketing component for businesses in the very near future. Email marketing, Podcasting and Blogging have already made significant inroads into the marketing world and social networking sites are closing in fast. If you think MySpace and other social networking sites are kids’ stuff you may just want to rethink your stance - in the words of Biz Markie, “they got what yooou neeEEeed” – friends.

This entry was posted on Friday, July 13th, 2007 at 4:42 pm and is filed under Social Media. You can follow any responses to this entry through the RSS 2.0 feed. You can leave a response, or trackback from your own site.