Comments on: BusinessWeek ponders “What’s a Friend Worth?”

By: Connie Manis

Connie Manis — Wed, 10 Mar 2010 22:48:16 +0000

I learned a lot from this article and will definitely save it in my RSS. Thanks for the effort you took to delve into this matter so deeply. I look forward to future posts.

By: SHaralyn Hartwell

SHaralyn Hartwell — Wed, 19 Aug 2009 01:12:27 +0000

Thank you for the post. I had missed that article and it makes you stop and think. Your practice of connecting online with everyone you meet on a business trip is smart. I used to travel for my job A LOT and I didn't do that. Now, I really really regret it. I'm trying to back track and hope they remember me now. It's tricky. Good post. I linked this blog post to a column of mine on the Examiner.com. Thanks for the insight!

By: Nick Brady

Nick Brady — Tue, 02 Jun 2009 16:00:13 +0000

Hey Dave,

Hope things are well with you.

I came across something today in Forrester, and I immediately remembered this post.

"Coca-Cola recently used SocialMedia.com's WOMI product, which features a "social advertising engine" that identifies the influential friends within a social graph to generate positive word of mouth for brands or products. Result: a 33% increase in purchase intent for Coca-Cola's cherry Coke brand in one week."

Seems SocialMedia.com has a tool capable of identifying "paths of influence." It'd be interesting to actually see this tool in action and understand its depth. Have you had any experience with it yourself?

By: Brett Hummel

Brett Hummel — Sat, 23 May 2009 22:56:32 +0000

I definitely agree with you that there is incredible power among friends to spread the message of a brand, but I wonder how social networks like Facebook can really capitalize on it. In fact, I think their attempts to capitalize on friend recommendations has backfired.

Social networks are conversation tools similar to the telephone, and people do not typically respond well to advertisements on such platforms. For many it almost feels like an invasion of their personal space and life. There is an interesting article that you might want to read about the end of Facebook that I found very interesting, let me know what you think:

http://www.hardknoxlife.com/2009/05/23/businesswe…

By: Doug Schumacher

Doug Schumacher — Sat, 23 May 2009 19:50:02 +0000

Nice assessment of a fascinating article, Dave. The study of 'paths of influence' should be rich territory up ahead.

I thought the credit score finding was a good demonstration of the power of friendship networks: That someone with a 550 score can be treated more like a 600 if they're friends are at that level. Thus the person's friendship network would be having a considerable influence over their financial standing, including purchases.

Thanks for the post.