The participants of the “mature” social networks – MySpace, Facebook, LinkedIn – tend to replicate the same network contacts, generally those associated with the individual or industry. The micro-blogging applications Twitter and Friendfeed, and to a lesser extent MyBlogLog, have set up “following” systems that encourage anonymous network linkage. The result is the development of “cloud” social networks that aren’t based on existing personal networks.

With Twitter and Friendfeed, it’s easy to massively follow others.

Why attract lots of stranger followers? Viral presence. The essence of social networking boils down to a form of fame… recognition and stature within a larger community.

For certain industries like real estate, the mission is to virally connect to everybody in their neighborhood with a home.

Sociological conclusion:

Attracting a stranger community through Twitter or Friendfeed eventually populates the more discrete networks of Linked and Facebook where some form of personal association is implied. It’s the aggressive extension of the Six Degrees of Separation, and progresses the evolution of society from local to global. As any social media participant experiences, who knew my next ten new friends would be living an average of 1,000 miles away from me?