Traditional 'Image' Marketing within Online Social Networks?

Hopefully, this will be the first of many posts and great collaborative discussions about revealing the most effective marketing strategies today, and in the years ahead. Perspectives on social networks in all forms, including social bookmarking and online brand communities; e-commerce and online affiliate marketing; 1.0/2.0/3.0; mobile networking and digital convergence; SEO, website strategies and, of course, blogging; all are fair game – as are all forms of ‘traditional’ advertising, media, PR, and offline promotions and events, etc. All thoughts are welcome.

I may, as a devil’s advocate, present the contrarian consideration to prevailing or emerging views on positioning and brand strategies. Frankly, telling the world that everything is now upside-down, and that we are now on the cusp of an unimaginable New-Tipping-Clue-Jump-Train-Point-Revolution is the way to create headlines, and headlines sell -- books, content, advertising, you name it. Don’t get me wrong, there’s a lot of renaissance thinking out there, but not everything in the flood of ideas being proposed has been tested or proven, thus, not science. This blog, admittedly, may respond to headlines and also may not always claim to be science, but it is primarily about selling products or services, building brands …and building business.

As an appropriate first topic, this post opens the debate with the question as to whether node-to-node online social networking is only about 1:1 interactive connections and viral spread of communication (as now dominates most new thinking on marketing)? If so, why did a friend recently joked with me (after I invited him to connect in an online social network), “sure, I take all friends, I like people to think I’m hooked-up”? We’ve all seen the online mega-networkers, with 500+ of their closest friends. Sure, there are justified purposes for such a gluttony, career and other, but we also must honestly acknowledge the element of ‘schoolyard popularity.’ And consider personal social network sites that display an abundance of “I’ve-got-the-coolest-applications-on-my-site.” And then there’s the impressive expression of personal creativity on some social network sites. All of this seems to introduce some factor of portrayed image -- by the members -- in an effort to 'brand' themselves. Surely, not all brief recipients of such image can be classified as (meaningful) 1:1 personal connections. I guess its just ironic human nature how some of the same folks who reject display of mass-marketing (to anyone and everyone), practice the very same thing on a personal level. It seems the age-old trade of 1:many image marketing, however evolved, is still alive and well – even in today’s online social networks.