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Spectrum of Online Friendship - View more presentations from Mike Arauz.

I apologize if you're getting tired of all this Spectrum of Online Friendship stuff. I promise to leave it alone for a little while after this post.

All of the great comments and feedback helped me to clarify what this had to do with digital branding.

I've adopted two additional dimensions of online friendship: Time and Social Activity.



These variables are independent of each other. I can feel invested without having spent much time. I can spend a lot of time, and feel very invested, but I might not share very much with anyone else online. etc.

Each of these measures are defined from the point of view of the friend, not the brand.

Online Brand Equity is a product of these three core elements of online friendship.

• The Investment that your friends feel in the success of your brand online


• The amount of Time they’ve spent being your friend


• Your friends’ levels of Social Activity within their own networks

(Click for full-size image)


There are two other important qualities that were suggested: reciprocity (the degree to which the actions and feelings are mutual) and the particular quality of the friendship (as Faris described - "Lover? Brother? Mother? Friend? Partner? Confidant?..." etc.). While each of these are definitely important factors, I don't see them as being independent axis of their own.

Lastly, here are just a few tips for how brands can start to put this mindset into action:

• Have a unique point of view, and don’t be afraid to be opinionated about it. (more thoughts here)


• Measure the actions that create value, not just the actions that are easy to measure. (more thoughts here)


• Reallocate time, effort, and money to cultivating deeper online friendships. (more thoughts here)