Social Networking in Firefox

The Coop, a project announced by Mozilla Labs back on April 2nd of this year, is a project to bring social networking to the Firefox browser. Here's an excerpt from the project page:

Users will see their friends' faces, and by clicking on them will be able to get a list of that person's recently added Flickr photos, favourite YouTube videos, tagged websites, composed blog posts, updated Facebook status, etc. If a user wants to share something with a friend, they simply drag that thing onto their friend's face. When they receive something from a friend, that friend's face glows to get the user's attention.

Naturally, I wasn't thinking about this in terms of finding out when my friends posted new pictures of their kids (no offense implied). I was thinking of using it to connect people to brands. Either directly with a savvy brand or between people who share an affinity for a brand. Some ideas...

a) The guy who wants to connect with the other (social networking savvy) members of his Mercedes-Benz [insert any other brand] club.
b) The friends and family of the resident Mac geek (since they all just switched from Windows).
c) The savvy brand that has a Flickr photo share of the cool people in the cool place they work or photos of customers experiencing the brand, recent blog posts from the brand's company exec (or star evangelist), the YouTube video of the brand's new product being used, and del.icio.us links of related sites that talk about the brand.

Savvy brands? Cool people and cool workplaces? Think about a brand that you identify with - one that is more than just a faceless, causeless company. Companies like Patagonia, Apple, Harley Davidson, Krispy Kreme, Southwest, Ikea, and even Lego. Throw in every other brand that deals in making the primary tool for any sort of hobby (the affinity people have for Ducati and motorcycle racing or watersports and Sea-Doos) and you've got a social network of interested people who want to associate with your brand (and the experience it represents to them).

So, I'm Patagonia and I've got a list of del.icio.us links highlighting the places we tested our gear at. I've got recent blog postings of people talking about how they enjoyed their fleece pullover on their most recent hiking trip. I've also got a set of Flickr images showcasing our workplace and how environmentally friendly it is and of people using our gear in the field. I am also highlighting our best evangelists and making their Patagonia-promotion the center of my Patagonia-promotion.

I think the key is figuring out if your brand creates a memorable experience for people - something they connect with. If you're just a commodity - forget about it. You don't even have to be savvy enough to set this up internally. Just provide the tools to facilitate the evangelists of your brand to do this. Your goal is to facilitate the conversation in the social network. Don't market to your audience - let them market for you.