Recently, a local Swedish IKEA showroom harnessed the photo “tagging” feature of Facebook into a genius social networking raffle campaign that built an interested network of friends for the store. Another brilliant social network brand builder is the Comparethemarket.com ad campaign where Aleksandr Orlov, an animated Russian meerkat, is the unlikely spokesman for a UK car insurance aggregator, but is one of the most acclaimed social media stars of the moment. Aleksandr has 600,000 Facebook friends and 30,000 Twitter followers, and an immortally limited edition replica sold through Harrods. On YouTube, Johnny Lee’s creative whiteboard workaround for public schools for less than $200 is still being shared two years later. Social networks sparkle like passionate clusters around any brand or idea but do they monetize? Perhaps, insists the successful head of Gucci Group: “The back and forth (of customers) – that is key to the future. I know it absolutely.”