I’ve mentioned it before but the concept of marketing to networks rather than targeting audiences hasn’t really become common place just yet. The world is obviously rife with various campaigns in Facebook and on Twitter but by understanding how they work it will change the way you approach everything from research, product development and also communications.

Mark Earls looks like he is getting close to a new research method around understanding the more insightful ‘We’ rather than the misleading ‘Me,’ but a couple of really simple things have come to my attention that highlight my point.

The first is Groupon, a website that offers a different product everyday at a low price. The catch is you only get it if enough people commit to buying it on that day. The second is from Dell who has already reported making $6m from Twitter alone. It’s called Dell Swarm and is essentially bulk buying. The more people you get in your group to buy the same product the lower it is.

If you think about it this could change a host of marketing tactics, even the lowly bribe or give away. Instead of starting with a big round the world trip in a Winnebago, you just have enough for push bike that you have to pick up from Skeggy (no offence to the people of Skeggness). The more people that enter, the closer you get to the big prize. It completely changes the way a group works together and how the giveaway spreads. Traditionally there’s no incentive for me to invite other people to sign up for a giveaway as it actually reduces my odds of winning. In the ‘We’ giveaway the odds might get worse but the reward goes up if I get other people to take part.

Think about Obama, he was all about the ‘We’ and not the ‘Me’.