Apologies for the long headline, but that quote from Ted McConnell, general manager-interactive marketing and innovation at Procter & Gamble Co, will go down as one of the greatest business quotes of all time. He said it in a recent speech where he questioned whether marketers have a place in social media. He doesn’t even like the words social media!

I admire McConnell for his position and longevity at Procter & Gamble, one of the most successful companies in the world. So I hope he doesn’t mind if I take his quote and place it in a slightly different medium just for the irony of it. P & G made an entire category of deriving money from real estate dedicated to men and women breaking up, the soap opera. GL baby, Guiding Light and its super couple Reva and Josh, known in web circles as Jeva If there is a way to monetize the continuing saga of emotional discovery, P&G can find it.

More Movement Than Market

Here I go again with this movement idea, but McConnell’s perspective supports this concept, social networks are more a movement of communities, than a marketplace for your stuff. A movement to connect, a movement to share, a movement to change – albeit in many of these movements there may be occasion to purchase something, and surely everyone in these movements is a consumer of something. I contend, and perhaps if I’m interpreting his words correctly that McConnell may agree, that social networks are a unique breed of communication. He is quoted in Ad Age “I think when we call it ‘consumer-generated media,’ we’re being predatory,” he said. “Who said this is media? Media is something you can buy and sell. Media contains inventory. Media contains blank spaces. Consumers weren’t trying to generate media. They were trying to talk to somebody. So it just seems a bit arrogant. … We hijack their own conversations, their own thoughts and feelings, and try to monetize it.”

His words underscore what many in social media (ok networks) have said, for a company to be in the social space it requires a cultural change at the corporate level. To benefit from social networks is to be a part of it, not an intrusion in it. The prerequisite of admission is to be truthful, candor helps, to give in the spirit of community growth not corporate gain, and to recognize that being social is a two-way communication. So be prepared to change a few things based on what you hear. P&G’s main rival, Unilever produced one of the text book examples of social media at its finest, Dove Evolution

Given his perspective then, it makes sense that when Comcastcares on Twitter aka Frank Eliason, responds to a customer, it is from an empathic user who may have suffered the same frustrations.

Is Business Week reporter Steven Baker active on social media (podcasting, blogging, & twitter) because he doesn’t have enough press releases to read? No, it’s because he is curious what he may be missing, excited about the new answers he’ll get on his blog that, had it not been for these relationship creating channels, he would have never known, and I would have probably not been quoted in Business Week.

Is Guy Kawasaki blown away by Twitter just to sell books? No, and while people do learn of his books on social channels like Twitter, they come to know him through by interacting with him. That’s what blows him away about Twitter. I know this from listening to him on a teleseminar yesterday, that I learned about from social media. Imagine that.

Coincidently, a few weeks ago, I was involved in a Twitter conversation with Kawasaki and a couple of other folks. It was about the economy, plus I had a surgery that week so it was an anxious time which must have been evident in my posts. Kawasaki sent a direct message to cheer me up (thanks Guy). There is a person that need not reach out at all. His physical world circle of friends must have been large enough to keep him busy, entertained, and enlightened. You see, but there is always more, more ideas, more debate, more risks, failures, and successes. That is the joy that is social whatever the noun you give it, technology makes being social that much easier. Is there money in that? Well, I did buy Kawasaki’s book Reality Check.

OK, I’ll admit it, I’m a freak for RVs. All kinds, Class A, Class C, even conversion vans have a soft spot in my heart. Maybe it’s because of the feeling of freedom I get on the open road, or the sheer comfort of some of these beautiful home away from home on wheels.

Today I spent sometime with total strangers, yet they were as friendly as my next door neighbors. A couple of my kids and I went to the Family Motor Coach Association www.FMCA.com convention held in St. Paul, MN at the state fairgrounds. There were thousands of homes, I mean vehicles, er, OK both in the parking lot. As quick as it took us to find a parking spot we also found new friends, a family from Pennsylvania, then another gentleman from Oregon and more and more from all over the country.

It struck me as we walked up and down the rows of motor coaches counting the different license plates, that we were standing in the middle of a very large, very diverse social network.

What are the some of the elements of a successful social network,

1. 1) similar interests
2. 2) some what complex or shall I say comprehensive information topics which stimulate knowledge sharing and interaction
3. 3) individual experiences that provide value to the greater group
4. 4) ample amount of potential user generated content

It’s all here at the FMCA conference. They have workshops from navigation to needlepoint, from microwave cooking to maintenance on generators. Yup, it’s a smorgasbord of information, ideas, people and stories.

Given all these ingredients it is a natural for RV social networks to flourish online. RV.net - the official blog of the open road is a winner, RV Travel.com , and RV There Yet has a great mash up with Google maps and a variety of RV location needs including, campgrounds, RV dumps, and Starbucks, (there will be less of those around).

Yet, I believe there is plenty of room for more RV social networks, perhaps built around the sub networks present in the RV community by either geography or motorcoach brand. There are also so many events, and rallies as the community calls them, that user generated content is a natural.

The beauty of this community is their love of meeting others. I had the pleasure of speaking with John Breisch, President of the Penn Coachmen, a group of motorhome enthusiasts in eastern Pennsylvania and western New Jersey. You can hear the joy in his voice of being a part of this “on the go” community that’s also happy spending a few days just sitting still and visiting. A conversation about the RV community with John Breisch One way to find dynamic social networks, look for people that enjoy people.