We all know, or at least are learning, how hard it is for advertisers to penetrate social networks. Many of the experiments taking place on these networks are an attempt to see if the community can at all be engaged around an action that leads to a sale that rings a cash register somewhere. While the jury is still out, some of those sitting in the jury box remain unconvinced.

One of the things that will be interesting to examine as we do our Monday morning quarterbacking is the extent to which all of these offers have added value or strengthened the friendships that already exist on these sites or whether they attempt to engage individuals who share an interest but who are not friends and who the advertiser hopes can be influenced by the behavior of the group taking an action.

The prevailing wisdom is that any offer that strengthens these existing online friendships will trump those that solely strengthen an advertiser’s bottom line. We may all add the little green patch to our profile because our friends ask us to (and because it costs nothing to do it) but balk at contributing money because while it’s a good thing to do, making a contribution does nothing to strengthen my friendship with the person who asked me to add the little green patch. Would we feel differently about the little green patch promotion if in taking action (even donating some money maybe) our friends would actually plant a tree in our local park with our names on it that we could watch grow?

But, I also think that it is possible for individuals who share an interest or a passion but who are not friends to be motivated to take an advertisers’ action provided that action delivers real value to that passion or interest. In that case, friendships may become a residual benefit. SportsFanLive is a new social site that brings together sports fans from around the country to a site that offers the sports bar experience, where members can even bet virtual money on their favorite teams and find local sports bars rated by fans in a particular city. Would Sam Adams be able to engage the fans on SportsFan Live to take them up on a free beer at the local hangout? Probably. Is it possible that doing so will create new friendships at the local watering hole that extend back to the SFL site? Also likely. Would an offer to this same group for lower health insurance or car insurance carry as much interest? Probably not. Is that because the offer did not strengthen friendships or because the offer of insurance was a low engagement category that wouldn’t have gotten any different response offline? Would it make a difference if the guy that I just met at the local watering hole told me he had just taken the offer of car insurance and that I should check it out?

Social media is perhaps the most exciting marketing medium to come along, in part because it forces us to be at our best, and to really understand what drives us to do what we do. Push marketing is over, pull is the name of the game.