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Genuine vs marketing of friendship evangelismGenuine friendship evangelism
Even in the early days of social bookmarking, I forsaw the spamming possiblity. Then the novel Pattern Recognition push the idea of marketing strategies where people are planted in social groups to promote certain products. Currently, we find that blog advertising, in the form of payperpost.com, is taking off.
This also predict the counter measure, of higher level trust organizations that will offer unbiased opinions to various products, especially when the friendship-model of social influence is so strong, and people are so susceptible to believing everything they hear on the grapevine.
This also predict another hideous marketing strategy: marketing by friendship. Except this time, people who befriend you have an ulterior motif: for your purchasing habits, or to influence you for something. This is seen in the altuistic and hopefully positive case of friendship evangelism.
Let me illustrate: The friendship is not totally genuine, since I don't really care genuinely about that person totally. I care for that person to the extend that I want them to believe in Jesus. Secretly I know that once they become Chrsitian, I will reduce the friendship and attention, and move to the next target. I have no interest in increasing the bond of friendship.
If this model were to deteriorate, it can be a form of marketing that we despise so much: a salesperson walk up to you with friendly smile, and serving you samples of various kind. Once they sense no hope of selling you anything, they leave you with disgust. You feel a sense of betrayal as well, even from such random salesperson.
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