HEAD BLOG

So we mix on Facebook, buy stuff on Amazon, learn stuff on Google. For marketeers this sounds like a dream scenario. It’s the lazy web in full effect. No longer do we have to search out digital nooks and crannies for people who might be interested in what we have to say. People who once used to show their love of television or music by creating fan sites on Angelfire or Geocities have now settled into the retirement home that is Facebook and share their love with the people they love. Want to know what “Jane” thinks about the latest episode of Family Guy? Well tough. She is too busy talking to her friends to bother with the likes of you.

That’s not a big deal of course. If you can manage to talk to her and get her interested in what you have to say then she might tell those friends. And those friends have friends.

The trouble is she only wants to play a game by Zynga because one of her friends recommended it once. Or did she recommend it to a friend and they recommended it back? I’m not sure but she sure as hell isn’t going to take a recommendation from someone she doesn’t know.

She used to of course. Google used to give her all sorts of crazy new stuff to look at. But that was before Google started to show results that her friends were interested in. Your product is listed there still. But not until page 347629390819. And she wouldn’t be interested in that because it was recommended by a friend she didn’t much like and whom few people spoke to at school. The only reason he even shows up in her friend list is because he used to go out with the sister of a friend’s boyfriend and it seemed like adding him was the polite thing to do.

The good news is that he likes your product. Talk to him all you want. He doesn’t even hide any of his personal details. At least not on this profile. But to be honest, he stopped using that a few months ago. After a bit of a nasty relationship break-up.

The answer is easy though – just apply to be accepted as a friend. “Jane” has over a thousand of them so she can’t be all that picky. All you need to do is be recommended by another of her friends and you’re in.

A friend of mine sent a tweet to Dave Trott on the number of people he follows via Twitter.

He said he couldn’t believe Trott followed 30 people.

Dave Trott replied with a joke. A good one.

He said that he agreed. And that he’d cut that number down to 20.

Boom-tish.

Advertising copy live as it happens.

What my friend actually meant was that the number was far too low and that Dave Trott should think about following more. My friend suggested that he would get more from the experience of Twitter that way.

Dave Trott responded with a link to Seth Godin’s blog piece about Dunbar’s Number.

Dunbar’s number is 150. Dunbar estimates that any person can only have 150 friends.

It’s down to tribes and the way mankind interacts.

It sounds true.

But it doesn’t matter.

Because when it comes to social networking, Dunbar’s number doesn’t apply.

Because the dirty secret truth about social networking is that we aren’t friends. Not really. Not in the tribal sense.

And why would an ad-man like Dave Trott want that?

When he promotes himself using Twitter he doesn’t want a tribal relationship with his followers.

He doesn’t limit their numbers to 150.

And I’m willing to bet he doesn’t want his ideas, his tweets, to be read by just 150 people.

He doesn’t want a tribal relationship with those people.

He may like the idea of his tweets being picked up and retweeted.

He may like the idea of sending his people out to carry the torch.

But advertising doesn’t work like that.

You don’t broadcast an ad to 150 people and believe that their word, their tribal strength is stronger that way.

Word of mouth is great.

But why limit it?

There is no guarantee that if only 150 people hear your ad, that their takeup and evangelism will be any stronger

Facebook might call us friends. Twitter might call us followers.

But they are just being polite.

When we read a tweet we are just dipping into the thoughts of a number of people. Any number of people.

Some of those thoughts will stick. Some won’t.

We’ll pay more attention to the former and less to the latter.

But we aren’t trying to be their friends. Not in the real, social sense. It’s nice when it happens but it’s not the primary concern. On Twitter I want to be exposed to lots of ideas. I select a list of people to follow based on the hope that their ideas will be good. And I’d want to be in a similar camp for other people. Building trust on as wide a scale as possible.

I’ll do my best to make my tweets stand out in the way I would if I were writing an ad.

But I’m under no illusions as to why others follow me.

It’s social networking. Not social friendships.