Social networking site MySpace recently commissioned a study to understand the influence of friends within the network. Some 40 percent of social network users claim to have ‘discovered brands and products that [they] really like’ through these websites. For the report, research company Marketing Evolution looked at two campaigns in particular from adidas and EA. They discovered that, based on the viral nature of these projects, the companies reached far more people as indicated by the ‘momentum effect.’ Even though measuring these things is never easy, the research suggests that adidas directly influenced 1.2 million people to purchase its product and, after those people talked to their friends, influenced 4.2 million more people. Similarly, EA directly influenced 1.8 million consumers and indirectly influenced 4.5 million consumers to say they intended to purchase its product. On another level, many users of social networks worry about the increasing presence of brand marketers in their communities. Here’s a story from Naked, a London based digital agency, that touches a raw nerve, in Media Magazine.