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Most of us, left to our own devices, naturally tend to congregate towards groups of like-minded people. People who want to know more about real estate, rugby or rheumatism. People who went to school with us, vote like us, live near us. Suddenly we’re all at it.

Social networks have taken our natural tendency to form groups and put it all online. Now – strictly for the socially disruptive - there are even ‘antisocial’ networks where you can list the things and people you dislike, culminating in the ultimate snub; where people become ‘dead to you’.

On the face of it, social networks are great news for marketers as target groups of thousands of consumers identify themselves and magically come together en masse.

Consumer as control freak
But there’s a flip side to the rise of the consumer as content creator – and it’s all about control. Consumers are getting used to being in control of the experience; choosing who, where and when to interact, shifting the balance to active participation from passive viewing and listening.

Increasingly negative attitudes to advertising are well documented, with widespread adoption of pop-up blockers, spam filters and blocking services. Up to half of users of DVRs like Sky+ already skip all their TV ads. The city of São Paulo famously banned outdoor advertising last year with interesting visual results – and widespread consumer support.

But the new breed of organic social networks seem to have trust built-in. 30% of social networkers trust their peers' opinions when making a major purchase decision – but only 10% will trust advertising (according to Jupiter Research). Consumers won’t necessarily initiate contact with a brand, but remain interested in products and services, constantly seeking information. It’s a challenge – and an opportunity - for switched-on brands

The retreat from traditional advertising is tangible as brands try to find new connecting points with consumers. Sponsorship, product placement and stealth advertising are already mainstream alternatives. Increasingly sophisticated in-game advertising is now reaching significant audiences. But the other approach is to engage the user on their terms, and on their turf. Social networking couldn’t have come along at a better time.

Reward attention seeking behaviour
To avoid painfully public mistakes in their early forays into the social networking space, many brands are working their way up the learning curve, learning to understand consumer behaviour in the new environment, monitoring how they’re being talked about, then responding openly and honestly. It beats the alternatives – not knowing, not responding, or (worse) issuing a curtly-worded press-release. And faced with the task of providing more engaging experiences to in-control consumers, brands now need to think about how best to engage with these new audiences in terms of attention – how to attract it, and how to reward it…

Attracting attention
If your brand has sufficient status for the attention-hungry to seek association with it, then that's half the battle; your advocates are ready to spread your message across their networks. You just need to give them a vehicle to do it. If your brand lacks kudos, however, you’ll either need to create a set of tools that help the user communicate, or become associated with a tool, activity, sponsorship or event that does.

Rewarding attention
Reward attention by creating experiences that really offer benefits to the customer. Demonstrate that you’re responding to their needs, not selling what you have. Social networks provide a facility to control the immediate environment and engage with other users. Widgets and customisation features can surround your online consumer with useful, relevant tools and connect them with your brand.

One size doesn’t fit all
Today’s socially networked brands must carefully choose the engagement platform that best fits their values, objectives and customer profile. There’s no ‘one size fits all’ approach. Here are a few insights in to how you might develop your presence:

Start simple
Establishing and updating branded profile pages on leading networking sites is a no-brainer; they’re a stopping off point for online users, there to be stuffed with a variety of useful, relevant and engaging content. Simple branded ‘skins’ can easily be applied to a profile page - Bebo’s recent campaign for Disney’s Cars enabled users to adopt an array of promotional visuals and share video previews with friends.

Use what already works for you
Social networking isn’t a digital island; see it as an extension of your existing marketing activity and leverage the content and campaign materials you’ve already developed. Pimm’s does this well, taking its engaging brand asset Harry Fitzgibbon-Simms (the character from its TV ads) into new territory, racking-up over 4,000 adoring friends on MySpace and popping up on my Facebook feed.

Find new spin on an old classic
Branded applications can also build positive associations. Red Bull has created a branded version of the classic ‘scissors-paper-stone’ game for Facebook called Roshambull that has racked-up 325,000 users and over 26,000 reviews.

Burger King has gone one further, taking its Simpsons movie tie-up and building a dedicated ‘Simpsonise Me’ application and microsite with huge viral potential, simply upload your photo and create a new Simpson style avatar.

Build your own community
Then there’s Nike, building its own large-scale social network, Nike+, as a global community in 11 languages. Nike set it free not only to give consumers the chance to help design its products, but comment on and improve them after launch.  It’s a brave move that gives Nike customers the feeling of being at the heart of the design process, not the recipients of slick marketing. Sharing stories and swapping experiences, they’ve clocked up over 37 million kilometres between them since the site launched.

Dialogue, not monologue
The days of the controlled, one-way delivery of marketing messages is over. Today, it’s all about dialogue, and social networking sites are a dialogue-fest. Credibility, openness and honesty are key as discussions between consumers and brands are increasingly held in the open, with their scope defined by the audience. It’s a scary prospect for marketeers more accustomed to the glossy 30-second ad in the centre break of Coronation Street. It takes courage to break from the comfort blanket of a beautifully shot TV spot.

Consumers, liberated by technology, are now connecting and sharing information as never before. Becoming a social networker is easy; and, once caught, the bug can spread across an individual’s range of interests. It has profound implications for what we previously recognised as the ‘mass’.

During the past five decades, marketers have become increasingly focused on large numbers; going for mass market share and failing to concentrate on what was once dismissed as the ‘fringe’. But social networking is expanding a whole new market of diversities. It’s chipping away at mass culture and opening up a new consumer-enabled world of individually expressed tastes and preferences. Everyone’s different, after all, and consumers now have a way of expressing it in the public domain.

Social notworks, brands and the future
Today’s challenge is to focus your brand’s online resources to serve those consumers in a more personalised and responsive way, rewarding the consumer’s attention sufficiently to build a relationship. And in this context, the role of traditional advertising is relegated to signposting you towards a richer, more engaging brand experience that rewards your attention.

Start by creating a connection. Investigate how best to drive consumers to your activity by online marketing, without necessarily resorting to banner ads. Avoid the clutter of traditional advertising or your message risks being lost.

Then, by carefully weaving your message into your conversations with your consumers – and into their conversations with one another, using their social networks – your brand can start to become less preachy, more connected and more relevant.  And it really comes together when you start to communicate in the most honest, personable and memorable way.

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