Trends in social networking. 

From the NY Times, 

"Joining the Party, Eager to Make Friends"

"To big-name marketers, the teeming mosh pits of social networking sites look like dangerous places for their precious brands. MySpace: Isn’t that full of dirty old men picking up teenage girls? Facebook: That’s where college students post pictures of bawdy frat parties. And YouTube: Pirated videos — and people making fun of our commercials."

I can only say that it's about time that they, marketers, find social networking sites to be rich with customers. On the flip side, internal social networking sites have many of the same benefits as the external ones such as myspace, youtube, flick, facebooks, etc.

Organizations, businesses, and associations should be taking lessons from these social networking sites on how to innovate.

"Sometimes marketers find that in the end, the unplanned is what works best. Crispin Porter placed a new crop of Volkswagen commercials on YouTube and a handful of people watched them. Then a user uploaded a grainy version of one of the same commercials. It has been viewed more than 1.7 million times.

“You can’t explain this,” said Mr. Benjamin of Crispin Porter. “Someone passed it on to a friend, who passed it to others, until eventually it gets in the right people’s
hands. You just can’t predict what will happen.”"

Yes, connecting employess via an internal social networking system - mosh pit - can yeild your next break through. Imagine a meeting place where ideas qucikly become viral.

On the downside, businesses that trick customers with fake pr blogs are quickly discovered in the blogosphere. Check out these posts about wal-mart's misadventures.