online social networks are handy not just as a means of wasting time but also as a communications tool for business. dell, a computer-maker, has made $3m in sales from twitter since it started “tweeting” about its outlet that sells refurbished computers in 2007. marketers are eager to use fast-growing networks to tout their products. an australian online-marketing company, usocial, wants to help them—for a price. on september 16th the firm started selling facebook friends and fans.
after trawling facebook for users by criteria like age, location and interests, usocial then recommends potential friends to companies, who approach them directly. a firm pays $727 for each 5,000 users who agree to be its friend, or 15 cents each. “fans”, who merely express support for a firm, are cheaper.
it is not the first time usocial has tried to sell the benefits of popular online destinations to marketers. it sells votes on websites such as digg, which let people share content and vote on which articles should appear on the site’s front page. it also sells twitter “followers” (people who follow a user’s updates) to companies looking for some positive buzz. those websites disapprove. so does facebook, which may try to bar usocial from its service.
social networks provide “the most powerful form of advertising there is”, claims leon hill, usocial’s boss. but not everyone thinks usocial’s idea of selling friends makes for good marketing. andrew petersen of the kenan-flagler business school at the university of north carolina reckons that purchasing friends or fans does not establish brand loyalty and may actually hurt a firm’s image by making it seem desperate.
websites like twitter and facebook might lose some of their popularity if users feel they have become a forum for advertising rather than gossip. it is also in their interest to make sure usocial does not claim profits that could be theirs. facebook, which said on september 15th that it has 300m users, has struggled to make money from them. it recently launched a type of advertising that allows companies to target potential customers by letting users click on an advert to become that company’s fan. the new offering from usocial competes directly with this revenue source. no wonder usocial does not have many friends of its own.
便捷的在线交友网络不仅可以提供消磨时光之道，也可以为商业营销提供便利。比如电脑制作商--戴尔，由于高调宣传其新品批发店，仅2007年就从 twitter网络获得3百万美元的销售额。经营者们都渴望搭上高速发展的网络这辆快车来拉动销售。一家澳大利亚的网络营销公司-usocia，愿意以优惠的价格来帮助这些经营者们。从9月16日开始，这家营销公司将开始出售facebook上的好友和粉丝的信息。
通过对facebook用户的年龄，居住地，兴趣的系列筛选，usocial将准客户推荐给需要的公司，让公司与他们进行直接沟通。usocial的客户需要为每5000名好友信息付727美元，或者每个人15美分，但是可以以更低的价格获得“粉丝”的信息。
usocial 公司并非首次试图出售热门的网络用户的权益给市场营销者。其公司经营诸如digg网络的网络投票，这种类型的网络允许网友对文章进行评论和投票以决定是否出现在首页。同时该公司还出售twitter网络的“狗仔队”（这些人关注用户的最新变动）给那些寻求有利信息的公司。但是facebook等网络服务商对此持反对态度，这样的态度势必会阻挠usocial进行此项服务。
usocial的总裁李昂.希尔宣称社交网络可以提供最强大的广告模式。但是有些人认为usocial公司销售好友的主意不会有益于畅销。北卡罗莱纳大学克南-弗拉格勒商学院的安德鲁.彼得森认为收购好友和粉丝并不会建立品牌忠诚，相反有可能损害公司形象，从而让人反感！
如果用户发觉twitter 和facebook已经从闲谈的地方变成了广告论坛，那么twitter 和facebook的将会失去大量用户的信赖。而且对网站来说usocial并未清楚地声明的属于他们的那部分利润所得。facebook声称：9月15 日已经有300名用户反对从他们身上获得利益。最近刮起了一种广告之风：允许公司通过引导用户点击该公司的广告成为公司的支持者，从而来寻找准客户。此项 usocial的新服务明显得不偿失，也可以看出usocial自身的朋友实在不多。