From a corporate perspective, I am working on a plan to help coach everyone in the office on how to use social networks to expand their professional reach and grow their sales pipeline. This is especially beneficial to those who have developed an expertise in a specific area of their profession.

Twitter, to me, seems like the tool that has the least ‘barrier to entry’ for making connections and having conversations. (It can also be susceptible to spam, but you can always block/ignore). Same comment as
Andrew – when I find someone on Twitter I want to follow more closely I will add their feed to Google reader.

Thanks for the thoughtful post.

The purpose, IMHO, of staus updates/tweets is to start a covnersation (http://www.jer979.com/igniting-the-revolution/outlook-twitter-facebook-starting-a-conversation/)

the good ones do this and I respond. I think this “touch” even on occasion adds value and shows you are “listening” in the same way that you would want a corporate entity (e.g. Ameriprise: http://www.jer979.com/igniting-the-revolution/does-ameriprise-listen/ ) to show they are listening to you.

Your friends/network folks are your customers. They can de-friend/un-follow you and one of the ways to add value is to show you are involved in the conversations they are starting (like commenting on their blogs!)

The Twitterstream, to me, is primarily like a massive, always-on partyline that keeps me updated with the newest news and events, shaped and filtered by the people I choose to follow. No, I can’t intimately follow every detail of life of the 1200 people I’m following — nor would I want to, offhand.

Sure, some people use Twitter to keep in close touch with a small group of friends. Great for them. Others use it as an ego mouthpiece. While I don’t condone it, hey, to each their own.

Despite the number of people I follow, I’d like to say I do a decent job of staying in touch with a percentage of the people I’m connected with. But yes, a large majority I only have occasional, intermittent interaction with. I get value out of both of those types of relationships.

If there are people I want to follow more closely, I add their blog to Google Reader.

Secondly, It is true social networks began as a way to get in touch with old friends and Colleagues, but the internet also started as a place to gain information and share information.

There were some who saw in the beginning the marketing potential and went with it and built huge companies (Ebay, Yahoo, Google, MSN, etc…)

Now we are seeing the same thing with not only Social Networks, but also Social Media, today it is a lot easier for the average Joe via Blogs, Twitter, Facebook, etc to reach out and influence a large audience.

I read an article about how it could be the end of the Movie Star, stating that there have been a lot of movies with ‘allstar casts’, that just haven’t faired as much as they normally should. There have also been a lot of movies with new actors or not-so-famous actors that have taken off and gone big.

I think the same is to be spoken of the new media, and social networks. For instance it’s a lot easier for a garage band to take off thanks to Myspace, than the old method of going from gig to gig, and just hoping to get discovered.

Yes it’s a bit hard to manage sometimes all the people on twitter, but I love being able to ask a question – any question and getting about 10-15 immediate responses on that question.

That was long winded…lol. Bottom line: I believe the value of Social Networks Increase the more friends you have (From a marketing standpoint) of course everyone has their own motives for using the social networks and it differs for each person.