In the June 1st issue of BusinessWeek, the cover story asks the question “What’s a Friend Worth?”  Specifically, it looks at how “Companies are working fast to figure out how to make money from the wealth of data they’re beginning to have about our online friendships.”

Two parts of the story really jumped out to me.

“Paths of Influence” are vitally important for Brand Managers

First, I am fascinated by the work that people like danah boyd at Microsoft Research and Cameron Marlow at Facebook are leading in social interactions.  As a Brand Marketer, a large part of your job is understanding “paths of influence”…or in other words, the ways that consumers are persuaded to buy your product.  In the old world, we blasted a TV or print ad to as many people as possible in the hopes that a few of them would buy our product.  But in this digital world, if you can really understand the path to influence, you can more effectively target people based on their interests and influences.

That is the reason companies like Microsoft and Facebook are hiring leading sociologists and anthropologists to better understand online friendship and its impact on brands.  Social networks provide a wealth of data about social interactions and friendships.  Someone in that data is buried the answers on how people influence others to buy… and it is a race to see which digital giant figures it out first.

Networked “friends” create tremendous personal opportunity

The second part of the story that jumped out to me was the short mention of “personal opportunity” being the business value of networked friends.  As the article states:

…friends online represent a turbocharged Rolodex for entrepreneurs and job seekers inside and outside companies. These collections of contacts expand social horizons, keeping us in touch with more people who can provide ideas, answers, business leads, and even legal advice. Those who master these connections stand to win a big edge: the connections and brainpower of a large team.

I personally believe this is a point that is misunderstood by the majority of marketers and Brand Managers out there.  I carefully manage my connections on LinkedIn, Twitter, and Facebook because I have come to realize that my personal network is my single biggest competitive advantage in marketing.   In fact, often when I returned from a business trip, the first thing I do is send a LinkedIn request to anyone I met while on the road.  That is how much I believe in the power of the network.  This digital network of professional contacts allows you to instantly see when someone changes jobs, gets promoted or moves to a new city.   And with that increased visibility, you can more easily see how you can be of help to your network AND how your network can be of help to you.  That is abenefit that no one should under-estimate.

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• Social Media Overview (slideshare.net)
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• Microsoft’s danah boyd on friendship (businessweek.com)