Day 4

Once again, no returned messages, and no new friends (though I did at least get a profile view!). So far, for the first four days, I'm running one returned message out of about eight messages sent, with no new friends out of four requested. Is it just me?

I've never been very good at these social things, and going against the trends makes this even harder. Still, the whole Friendster experience has me wondering just what it takes to make something go viral? Just what it takes to make something succeed? How do you sell a new product? How do you sell your self?

This is one reason, I figure, my own writing will likely not ever take on much of a following, just as I've been unable to glean much interest when dating. It was all spelled out when I was about ten--a school fundraiser. Asked to sell candy, one day, I went door to door. We hit up sixty homes. We--my sister and I--made one sale. One. And that from a neighbor we knew. No one else cared a bit. Meanwhile, my friends sold out box after box. How did they do it?

That we even managed to go out one time was a bit of a miracle, though. My parents were never for us "imposing" ourselves on other people. It was only with resignation that my mother even let us go out to sell the candy. When I graduated from high school, I'd bought a few hundred invitations to mail. Not nice, my parents said. People would think I was asking them for money. I ended up only sending invitations to a couple immediate relatives (who did send back money, though they didn't come to the ceremony).

And yet, if there's one thing in sales that I've learned--the only thing in sales that I've learned (because I am not one who has had much success in sales time endeavors), it's that people like things that have to do with themselves. What I mean is that, if I could turn around and market specifically to you--YOU--something about you, you'd likely want it. Say, a song, specifically written for you. You'd buy that, right? At a reasonable cost.

I love it when people pay attention to me. And yet, conversely, I am self-effacing, bred not to draw attention to my accomplishments or to bother people about candy. So this Friendster thing is a bit difficult for me. What's in it for you, right? I really don't know. What's in it for me? Well, if anyone actually returns a message, maybe I'll make a new friend. But more likely, nothing is in it for me. I'm not desperate for online companionship or anything. I barely even use the social networking sites I'm on currently. And maybe that's part of the problem with trying to get people to use Friendster. But by that token, why do people use Facebook? What this massive congregating around it rather than something else? How has Facebook become about "them" in ways that Friendster is no longer?

Nevertheless, I trudge along. Today, I sent out two more messages and befriended one more person, someone I know. Who knows what tomorrow holds?