This, by itself, is only slightly interesting; as with any technology — dishwashers, automobiles, air conditioning, telephones, TV, cell phones — there are always folks who’ll find reasons not to use it, for reasons ranging from the pragmatic, to the quixotic, to the perverse. And inevitably, those refusers will diminish as the technology evolves from novelty to utility to necessity.

(Also, I note that some of the Facebook refusers profiled were merely lazy, since instead of taking a principled stance and quarantining themselves from the people and information transmitted via online social networks, they simply relied on their non-boycotting friends to relay the information for them.)

To me, the interesting bit is the idea that people who aren’t on Facebook exist in a kind of un-person / non-entity state of being, and how that represents a radical change in attitude from the pre-computer era — a paradigm shift, sea change, or gamechanger (depending on which era’s jargon you prefer), brought about by the dominance of digital media and interconnected networks in general, and the ubiquitious convenience of online search in particular.

My thinking goes a little something like this:

Previously, if something didn’t have a physical presence, it didn’t really exist. Now, if something doesn’t have an online presence, it doesn’t really exist.

Consider: In pre-Internet days, the only presence was physical, so we only really thought we knew someone or something if we could see, talk to, and touch it directly. Anything outside that model — early virtual relationships  like BBS, amateur radio, telephone party line, or pen pals — wasn’t quite “real.”

Nowadays, knowing something really means the ability to find, store, and send it online.

Looking at the example of the Facebook refusers, we see people who don’t participate don’t have presence, even in those platforms where the online interactions are strongest when reinforcing offline relationships. (I’ve mentioned a related theme before, “When you don’t post, you don’t exist.”)

More importantly, it holds true for goods and knowledge that exist as physical items in the real world — say, old books that haven’t been scanned in yet; a property record that isn’t in an accessible database; or an antique that hasn’t been documented online: Because they’re not findable via Web search or interlinked database, because they don’t have presence online, we can’t know then or even know about them unless we venture offline, so they don’t really exist.

Now, sure, there have are plenty of things that didn’t and don’t really “exist” — economies, trust, reputations, patriotism, love, etc. — but have always been convenient for us to act like they do. But here I’m talking about things that actually do exist as physical items in the real world, but because we’re cut off from them in our daily, digital, online lives, they’re out of the loop.

This is, of course, not due to any changes in intrinsic value (to the extent that such a beast exists), but represents a shift in attitude — it boils down to what we consider “visible” and “knowable.”

Anyway, just a thought. Please leave a real comment below.

This isn’t in an existential, “Can one ever truly know someone?” kind of way — I’m literally thinking, “Who the heck are you and I how do I know you?”

Oftentimes, it’s because I only know them by a nickname or online handle, whereas the network uses their real name (as in the case of Facebook). Or they’ve changed a name along the way. Or it’s simply an old connection that I’ve just drifted away from.

Most of the time, though, it’s because a person’s presence in my social network simply reflects a momentary connection — say, an introduction at an event or party — but they’re lumped in (probably alphabetically) and given the same weight as people with whom I have much stronger, even lifelong, connections. Unless I was diligent and added tags, notes, or categorized them in the proper group — anything to put them in an identifiable context — it’s up to me to remember the distinctions.

Of course, this isn’t a new phenomena — we ran into the same problem flipping through paper address books,  Christmas card lists, Rolodexes, or Filofaxes. Online, it’s simply more accessible, both to ourselves and to others.

The 7-Year Friend Itch

This past summer, an academic paper came out and quantified this occurrence, saying that our friend networks (that’s in the broader, traditional sense, not just online) turn over every 7 years.

At least, that how it was popularly reported. I don’t know that anyone has actually read the paper, since the full text doesn’t appear to be online. Also, the 7-year figure just reflects the fact that the study period ran from 2000-2007, which also means that we don’t really know the full scope of how social networking tools affects that behavior, especially if those online interactions are an integral part of the network from the get-go.

Generally speaking, though, the 7-year figure feels right. In your youth, your social network centers around school, which has some built-in stopping points, forcing turnover. Once you get out of school, most of your friend network probably revolves around your workplace, and as we get older, in addition to personalities, tastes, and interests changing, there’s a fairly fixed set of life-altering milestones that directly affect our friend networks: people move, switch jobs, date, break up, get married, have kids, get divorced, and die.

In the online context, we can also have to add in the behavior of people flocking to, and then abandoning particular social networking platforms. Even with robust import / export tools, switching networks is an opportunity, to lose or explicitly dump connections.

Anyway, it’ll be interesting to see how online engagements affect overall friend turnover. Which will be the more powerful affect: The constant influx of new people (if it occurs at all — for example, my Facebook friend growth has slowed to a trickle at this point) displacing old people, or the online components reminding us of and reinforcing existing connections.

To the extent that they don’t already exist, maybe social networks should add in tools that shows us the people we haven’t touched online in a while, maybe moving them to an “inactive” category, either to act as a prompt to get back in touch, or to clear them out so we can focus our attention on the friends du jour.

How does the 7-year friend turnover number work for you? Do you think online connections will increase or decrease that figure? Leave a comment (especially if you haven’t touched me online in a while).

What followed was an exercise in search engine optimization, personal branding, and reputation management, and the field of battle was Google search results (although the SEO techniques she used should work for other search engines, as well).

I’m not going to go into a long, drawn-out recap of what exactly she did, particularly because Susan Mernit already did one, including useful links: “Google link makeover: What Julia Angwin did, in plain English.”

It’s interesting to note, though, that this is, perhaps, not the standard SEO scenario, in that Ms. Angwin wasn’t competing with someone else — she was competing with herself. And she’s a pretty prolific writer, with a lot of her bylines coming from high-profile and well-linked publications.

Even so, her experience and advice should be useful to regular folks and businesses.

Ms. Angwin’s article was linked to from a bunch of high-profile sites, and there wasn’t anyone she could appeal to or bribe to quash that article, so the only alternative was to come up with better, more representative content that had better positioning on search results pages. (It’s kind of how some free speech activists say that the way to counter hate speech isn’t censorship — it’s with more speech.)

One thing she did was develop presences (using her name) on social networking and profile services like LinkedIn, Facebook, and Twitter, and interlink those profiles. These established sites do carry some good link weight, so they’re good resources. And they’re all free, requiring just an investment of your time.

Another thing she did was build out her personal Web site, on her own personal domain (juliaangwin.com), including her blog. (Even now, search engines tend to like blogs, because they’re usually highly linked and update relatively frequently.)

Again, Ms. Angwin is kind of a special case, since she writes for the WSJ and has a lot of high-profile content continually coming out. And if you’ve got a common name, you do face a lot more competition, especially when trying to find a domain. Looking at us NetSol bloggers, this isn’t a problem for Shashi, and not really one for me; on the other hand, Steve has a bit more of a challenge [though his Twitter profile is a top 5 result], as does Jill [she's competing with a soap opera character, though her.name domain comes up #2]. There’s always a way.

Anyway, managing and optimizing your personal search results is an ongoing process that you should stay on top of, so check out the article and Susan’s guide to it.

How does your name do in search results? Leave a comment below and tell us your own personal experience with personal branding on search results pages.

Here are some recaps of what they said:

Guy Kawasaki, founder, AllTop: Twitter is a great way to find and spread information — it’s a way to reach thousands of people, immediately and free (which is great). It takes a little getting used to; give it a month or so — you might hate it for the first few days, but it’ll work out [which mirrors my own experience with Twitter, except I took longer because I am slow]

Ryan Anderson, Community Relations, Overlay.TV: They’re active on Twitter (including the executives), not just for promoting their stuff, but engaging with community. Their CEO will also use Summize weekly (now Twitter’s search) to get feedback directly from users, which is great for businesses, especially young companies.

Wendy Piersall, CEO Sparkplugging.com: You should also use other tools (depending on your business) like LinkedIn, Facebook and Twitter. She doesn’t think you can conduct business online without participating in these types of communities.

Scott Monty, Global Digital and Multimedia Community Manager, Ford Motor Company: People have been networking since the Stone Age, but modern tools let us create networks of subject matter experts. “You don’t have to be the best accountant; you have to hire the best accountant” — online social networks let you tap into people who can help you — you’re not in it alone.

Liz Strauss, Social Web Strategist, Successful Blog: All this has changed the way she would start a business today. Use social networks to find out who’s out there; start on Twitter to listen to people and watch what’s going on. Open the door by promoting other people.

Tim Ferriss, author, The 4-Hour Workweek: Blogging isn’t for everyone, but there’s no excuse not to be on Twitter. You can use it as a blog, and you can be effective using it as a personality and brand on Twitter (like newspapers, activists, others are using it).

Chris Brogan, VP of Strategy, CrossTech Media: Small businesses should use social media tools to create  outposts where people can get to know you — put your face and presence out there, just like shopkeepers hanging out and meeting people in a town. “It’s all the same, it’s just different… but it’s all the same.”

Jason Billingsley, Co-founder, Elastic Path Software — Retailers need to build relationships and community; once you do that, your message is accepted. There are many avenues, like YouTube — many people are educating consumers by doing how-to and instructional videos. They’re informing, not selling, and by creating trust, then they look to you when they need to do transactions.

Mari Smith, Relationship Marketing Specialist: “Radical Strategic Visibility” — using Facebook, social bookmarks, blogging, Friendfeed, etc, — all the tools, in an integrated strategy.

Jennifer Openshaw, President, WeSeed.com: Bringing credibility online is important, and positioning yourself as an expert. A way to do this is to create content on your site, which you can also distribute through partners and social networking sites, so you can add value to people, even when you’re not trying to sell them stuff.

Agree or disagree with something from one of our ten social media experts? Please leave a comment below.

Enter Mingle360, a company with a product streamlining business card exchange and a software platform for centralizing your address book and enabling you to manage your social and professional network. I had a chance to chat with Bradley Blinn, Vice President of Sales and Marketing for Mingle360 to discuss the company and his experiences as a serial entrepreneur. Here is the transcript of that interview:

Steve: So what was the motivation to start Mingle360?
Bradley: Dan Coffing, Lou Bonfiglio and I saw that people needed a better way to exchange and manage their identity (profile) information. We were concerned about a person’s privacy and how information is openly shared amongst networks of personal friends and professional associates (oftentimes with no regard). Upon identifying this need, we developed a solution to this problem and created a business model that targeted specific marketplaces. Tradeshows, conventions, conferences and social events became our top focus. Our business model gained the support of friends and family with a first round raise of approximately $1 million.

Steve: What comprises Mingle360?
Bradley: Our solution is comprised of a physical product (the MingleStick) and a web application (MingleManager):
The MingleStick is a small keychain size device that enables two people to connect with each other with a simple click of a button (see video demonstration). Many people consider the MingleStick to be an ‘electronic business card.’
The MingleManager web application interfaces with the MingleStick. Users plug the MingleStick into their computer and login to the MingleManager website to view the connections they made during the day. MingleManager features an online address book for maintaining and organizing these contacts.

Steve: Where can the MingleStick be used?
Bradley: The MingleStick has applicability in a variety of industries. Our initial focus is tradeshows, conventions, conferences and social events. These environments are perfect for the MingleStick because people are looking to quickly connect with each other. Exchanging business cards can be cumbersome and organizing your cards after an event is time consuming. The worst part (in my opinion) is scanning or typing your cards into a contacts manager program (such as Outlook). The MingleStick solves this problem. Two people connect at an event with a click of a button. At the end of the day, the user plugs their MingleStick into their computer to review all the connections they made during the day. Contacts they want to keep are added to the MingleManager address book. Unwanted contacts can simply be deleted.
The power of the MingleStick is its simplicity! Whether attending social events or business tradeshows, users can connect with 50, 100, 200+ people with the click of a button!

Steve: Are you guys going for a centralized directory like Plaxo with MingleManager?
Bradley: Our business model is similar to popular social networking websites such as Plaxo, LinkedIn, Facebook, MySpace, Bebo etc. but our differentiator is a physical product (the MingleStick) that drives traffic to the website and builds user base. We have created a strong value proposition for companies that want to distribute MingleSticks to their attendees (we are NOT focused on selling MingleSticks to individual consumers). Thus, tradeshows with 1,000 to 100,000 attendees can use our solution to turn one-time events into long lasting online communities.

It is not our vision to be a competitor of Plaxo, MySpace, LinkedIn and Facebook. Instead, we’ve created an open platform and want to partner with these companies and others to accelerate the distribution of MingleSticks. We believe the MingleStick provides great value to these companies in driving significant user base to their web sites.

Companies are looking for a differentiator to drive traffic to their website. The MingleStick is exciting because it’s a physical product and can generate a significant user base with little to no cost. This is why we believe a partnership would be advantageous for these social networking websites and Mingle360. Early adopters of our MingleStick technology will gain a competitive advantage.

Steve: Is this open to everyone to sign up and get a MingleStick?
Bradley: Our focus is not selling MingleSticks to individual consumers. Mingle360 is currently working with tradeshows, conferences and conventions to distribute MingleSticks at their events. All attendees would receive a MingleStick upon registration thus ensuring 100% adoption of our technology at an event.

Steve: This is not your first venture as an entrepreneur. What made this startup compelling that you joined the team?
Bradley: Dan and Lou are passionate, intelligent and visionary thinkers. Together, we created a vision and have embarked on this life journey called entrepreneurism as business partners, friends, and brothers in Christ. Personally, my leap of faith came when I left my 9-5 job to pursue Mingle360 full-time in December 2007. I left a great career because I truly believe in our company, our services, and our vision. I also wanted to pursue an opportunity (and challenge) of a lifetime. Needless to say, I haven’t been let down!

Steve: To close our interview I would like to get a “Top 5” from you. Since we are facing some tough economic times ahead for possibly the next 12-18 months, what are the Top 5 things you would recommend new entrepreneurs running a business should do to weather the storm?
Bradley: That’s a great question Steve. My “Top 5” would consist of the following:
1. Ensure a strong business plan. Great ideas and concepts without a clear path to ROI and/or profitability will be challenged with raising capital, especially in a depressed market. Additionally, vision without execution is a plan for failure. Identify your market and make aggressive strides in accomplishing your immediate goals.
2. Affiliate with top entrepreneurs within the industry. These individuals will offer free advice, so learn from their mistakes and successes. Apply this knowledge to your business to avoid common pitfalls.
3. Create a strong advisory board. These industry experts won’t cost your company a lot of money and can propel your company forward. Their connections with key industry players can help you find your first paid clients.
4. Recruit a strong base of sweat equity employees. Our company was blessed to find a dozen consultants who work for us on an equity basis. Their contributions are invaluable. Be prepared to continually motivate them with stock options for their continued hard work.
5. Focus on the critical path. Don’t spend money on non-essential initiatives. When hiring a company, ensure you hire a competent firm that can execute and deliver quality work. While it’s important to understand your vision, focus on executing your development in stages to produce results more rapidly. Don’t get bogged down in a long-term development projects.

Steve: How can an event company or other interested party get in touch to learn more?
Bradley: To learn more about Mingle360 and our services, please contact myself or Doug Elliott, our Director of Sales and Marketing:
Bradley Blinn: 703-425-0402 x511 bblinn (at) mingle360.com
Doug Elliott: 703-425-0402 x516 delliott (at) mingle360.com

Mingle360 is also talking with the investment community (angel investors and venture capital firms). Interested parties can contact Dan Coffing, CEO of Mingle360:
Dan Coffing: 703-425 0402 x510 dcofffing (at) mingle360.com