Using social networks for marketing purposes is nothing new.  The hype surrounding adverts for big brands on YouTube is an interesting phenomenon and is giving many lesser brands the idea that they can effectively get their message out for free by simply putting together a short (hopefully funny) video clip and posting it on the Google owned site.  For those with a little extra time and savvy, this should of course also be accompanied by a few 'Diggs' to help spread the word.

There is a growing industry, gathering at the moment at the Web2.0 expo, devoted to empowering businesses with corporate blogs, video podcasting technologies, social networking strategies and various techniques that fall broadly under the 'viral marketing' umbrella.  Statements of the 'Social Networking is like the air' variety are becoming commonplace.  It is easy to argue that the point is being missed in all this.

Those things that are truly phenomenal in the wonderful and frightening world of Web2.0 - the great blogs, the inventive and amusing video clips and so on, are not the result of business school tinkering.  Rather they are a result of genuinely passionate people telling an honest story in the only way they know how.  News last week that the typical 'professional blogger' has a career length of no more than 3 months should not be surprising.  There was never meant to be such a thing as a professional blogger - it's not all that shocking that there is no ecosystem to support them for any long term career.

Those looking to use social networking as a marketing tool are missing a further point.  Heavy users of Digg or Technorati are not great ad-clickers.  They are looking for content and ideas to spread around - they are not necessarily looking to buy into the story you are trying to tell.  So, although the ideas may spread the important thing to realise is that the brand awareness you crave probably won't.  To back this up let me direct you to a nice article comparing the ad-responsiveness of Digg traffic to Google traffic.

So, while it may make sense to try to generate more traffic by using social bookmarking and networking sites it only works when the message is truly authentic.  It's not enough to have heard about viral marketing to understand how it works - the author of the original viral marketing treatise (Unleashing the Idea Virus), Seth Godin, has been reworking his ideas for about ten years now.  Keep up.

Finally, spare a thought for the millions of businesses who are yet to get to grips with the old-world methods of writing press releases (or even coming up with stories that can be turned into press releases), never mind finding the time to blog or podcast and then social-bookmark the results.  These guys have to rely on such old-fashioned concepts as Customer Service, Value for Money and Integrity to get their message to spread.  How quaint.