“Who’s My Friend? Heck if I Know!” and other Social Media Conundrums

Lately I've been getting so many darn friend and connection invites that my head is spinning. From LinkedIn to Facebook to the all-too-common (and bogus) MySpace invite from the girl "who just broke up with [her] boyfriend and is just looking for fun," it's all getting a bit crazy.  Is spam king Sanford Wallace running this gig? Or am I just reliving Groucho Marx's famous quip, "I'd never join a club that would accept me as a member."

That’s the opening paragraph of my ClickZ column today. Meaningful Relationships with Social Networks, which attempts to ask some hard questions about the credibility and intimacy of all these social networks. At some point, I argue, you just can’t say “yes” blindly to all these invites. “Friendship comes with obligations, responsibility, and some level of accountability," I write.

Marketers, I argue, need to think hard about the fine line between meaningful relationships and peripheral, or cheap, ones.   No one wants elitism, but we do want to maintain a certain degree of trust, authenticity, and "social currency" in our connections.  Social networks create an almost unrestrained desire to pad one’s network with contacts.  And yet, the broader the network, the harder it is to make meaningful connections, especially on sites that promote and encourage introductions, recommendations, and more.  Every once in a while, you find yourself in one of those awkward situations where you barely know anything about the person who a friend (or quasi friend) has asked or begged for an introduction.  All important issues for reflection.   Again, here's a link.