Social Network Marketing

I was in my twenties, newly married, and played guitar for worship.  So the associate pastor who had a Thursday night Bible Study for Young Singles, at his house invited me to be one of the leaders.  It was an incredible time.  We had some evenings where a hundred people gathered in this normal sized suburban house.

But as the months rolled on, a schism appeared.  There were two main camps-- the 18 to 22 year olds, and a new influx of the recently divorced and mid thirties type singles.  It had started with the younger group and they felt invaded by these old guys.  So they started leaving.  In droves.  From once what was 100 people, it got down to a handful of divorced older singles.  Then it was finally canceled.  And the time period wasn't that long from 100 to canceled.

So naturally, you might think I'm taking this towards the Corinthian conversation about body schisms and such-- but no, let's talk technology.  (Love a good non sequitar).

The hot thing in business right now is "social network marketing."  I visited a smart business that's jumping into this arena with both feet.  They're building and hiring.  They're signing clients left and right.  They have cubicles of people whose job it will be to surf facebook, myspace and all those to push the clients product, company or services.  See where I'm going yet?  No?

The young people are hanging out at the house.  The older people are starting to come.  The older people are the Business aspect of social networking.  It will be good for a short period of time here, before facebook gets inundated with business stuff-- or even worse-- it loses it's "cool" factor with this generation.  Look at MySpace.

Facebook is strong right now.  But June saw the largest decrease in members they've ever had.  Rightly so, Business sees these social networks as a gold mine for selling their wares.  And when the people leave facebook, they'll go to the next big thing, and business will be hot on their trails.

Is this the end of facebook?  Of course not.  But watch as the young people stop showing up because the older divorced types are coming.