Funny email attachment I got from a friend. Click on the image to expand it.

So now we know the blindingly obvious (or is it?) fact that social networking sites like Bebo, Facebook and MySpace don’t widen your circle of close friends.

Most of my friends are on Facebook, and I’ve started to use that a bit more than Bebo. I mean, Bebo’s got a reputation for being teenager’s site, and I’m getting on a bit now, so Facebook is the fashionable alternative.

I’ve ‘met up with’ many friends that I hadn’t seen or heard from in years. It’s great to hear from them again, and you’ll organise to go for a pint with them or whatever.

But, as this new research from Sheffield Hallam University says that the average person’s group of friends consists five very close friends, and a much larger group of 150 friends that we keep in touch with less frequently.

If you’re in any doubt as to what Facebook (and the other social networking sites) is, here’s a really good primer (and yes, if you’ve guessed, The Guardian is my favourite newspaper!).

Today’s Guardian has an interesting article on blogs and blogging. Apparently, the blogging craze has peaked, and there are now over 200 million ‘abandoned’ blogs out there.

So it seems that the initial euphoria that ‘anyone can be a journalist’ has given way to the realisation that not everybody has an opinion, and some people would prefer to consume content than produce it. If you’re not passionate in your online ramblings, your enthusiasm will wane.

I find it hard keeping this blog up to date, but that’s a case of being busy than anything else. That and the fact that we get between 10-30 comments on our blog every day, and pretty much all of them are spam.

Grrrr!!!

An interesting report on how buzz marketing went wrong in Boston reminded me of a really good article that was in this Tuesday’s Guardian (’Psst! Have you heard?‘), on how not to go about buzz/stealth/guerilla/word-of-mouth/viral marketing.

As consumers get more annoyed with advertising, and as there is so much more advertising around now, advertisers are turning to buzz marketing (catch-all definition: using unconventional methods to promote products with an aim of generating positive word-of-mouth publicity).

Some interesting points in this article:
- It is extremely easy to make a complete mess of a buzz campaign
- Some big companies (Pontiac, Sony, Budweiser) have messed up buzz campaigns
- We’re very close to a public backlash against buzz advertising campaigns
- After foolish stunts like the one in Boston, soon any buzz campaign will have to clearly show that it is advertising, thereby losing the ’shock’ value.

Here’s a good blog on buzz marketing, if you who want to know more.

I’ve been trying out Second Life after reading about it on different blogs and Wikipedia. It’s very interesting indeed, and I can see why it’s become the latest internet phenomenon. Basically, it’s a virtual universe where you can interact with people, explore places, buy property and generally, well, live a second life. Second Life has gotten so popular now that it’s even got a full-scale backlash - Get A First Life encourages people to turn off their computers and get outside to experience the real world.

Anyway, I’ll be trialling Second Life over the next few weeks, and will keep you updated on the adventures of Daithi Malick (they didn’t have Mahon in the list of surnames I could use). In the meantime, here’s a screenshot of a meeting I had with someone in the Blarney Stone pub in Dublin: