Pic c/o chinesemedicinenews.com
Been a bit quiet recently - partly because real world (family) concerns seem to have taken over a bit.
But also partly because have been feeling a bit bored by many of the discussions I trip over online.
In particular, there's still a lot of silly stuff around social networks and social influence.
So let's try to get at least this thing really straight:
Social networks are not channels for advertisers or for the adverts/memes you, your clients or any of your so-called "influentials" create, social networks are for all of the people who participate in the network.
Being a social creature means you spend your life in social networks; being part of a social network gives each individual a number of benefits - shared protection, shared resources and most importantly shared learning. Our ability to learn from each other (the appropriately-named Social Learning) is one of our all-too-mutual species' most characteristic capabilties and the engine by which stuff gets pulled through populations (from technologies to health habits)
(BTW it's almost never the stickiness of your brilliant creation that causes the spread and even less often "social teaching" that most influence-models suggest)
Social networks are not best understood as channels down which folk send things; social networks are webs from which members pull down learning (from each other).
Now how does that change what you're trying to do?