Stanley Bing is a terrific writer, and his recent column on social networking, “Why I Refuse To Join MySpace,” is a good read. He’s also, I think, on the mark when he says:

“I think the things exploded into life when young people called out for a digital space where their every thought, movement and taste would not be exploited by the big boomer sales machine, where they could talk to each other in a virtually mercantile-free zone. Now here come all the boomers to ruin it all.”

Takeaway for marketers: Are you getting involved in that social network to exploit or enhance?

I like this article over on the EmailLabs site about prechecking opt-in permission boxes. It’s worth the minute or so to read, plus the extra time to think about in terms of your own business … though if you’ve been in the email game for more than a few months, it should be second nature, anyway.

Takeaway for marketers: When it comes to your email list, are you more concerned about quality or quantity?

… there’s buzz about a bidding war between Microsoft and Google. For what? A piece of Facebook. A small piece. Five percent. For, oh, $500 million.

Which, if my math skills haven’t totally deteriorated in the face of such insanity, suggests that Microsoft and Google think Facebook might be worth somewhere in the neighborhood of, oh, around $10 billion.

Maybe eBay ought to get in on the price war.

Takeaway for (myopic) marketers (with fat checkbooks): I crunched the numbers. Given Facebook’s traffic relative to the dollars Microsoft and Google are discussing, LOHAD should command somewhere between a quarter-million and a half-million bucks on the open market. *ahem* That “Send me mail” link on the left over there is not a dead link.

This opinion piece by Alice Mathias in yesterday’s New York Times nails it.

Takeaway for marketers: When Facebook stops being Facebook and becomes something else, look for the school of fish to dart off to the next big thing.

I had the pleasure of meeting Dr. Jim Bower at the Ypulse Tween Mashup the other day. He’s the CEO of Whyville who takes a very thoughtful approach to what he’s doing (if that sounds intriguing, check out this Internet Marketing Voodoo podcast for more).

During a panel discussion in which he was participating, Dr. Bower made a terrific comment about Whyville that was both pithy and brilliant in how it separates Whyville’s strategy from the strategies of so many other communities and virtual worlds out there:

“We’re not interested in eyeballs, we’re interested in eyeballs connected to brains.”

Takeaway for marketers: How does that quote resonate with what your business is up to online?