I found a post by Chris Brogan on What Facebook Fan Pages Taught Me About Relationships.  Here he talks about the “problem” of reaching the 5000 friend Facebook limit and having to start a fan page. It does seem that 5000 friends is an oxymoron and a fan page is more appropriate at that level.

Now I also found a solution for Chris and those who are approaching the 5000 friend limit. Burger King has a promotion offering Facebook users a free Whopper (value: about $3.70) if they delete 10 of their friends. See the NYT – The Value of a Facebook Friend? About 37 Cents. Your friends can get you into the growing group of over weight Americans.  I once read that it takes six glasses of a good Bordeaux to counter the cholesterol in a Whopper or Big Mac. Perhaps if they throw that in…

Another solution is to switch to Twitter which does not seem to have the same limits. Robert Scoble has 48,172 followers as I write this. AND he is following 20,756 which is more amazing but then he actually followed a lot of blogs. However, Guy Kawasaki has him beat with 47,826 followers and he is following 50,449. I am not going to ask how that focus can be accomplished. However, that could be a lot of Big Macs if McDonald’s went after the Twitter crowd with a counter offer to Burger King. But then Chris says that Twitter is now acting as his real social hub with his closer friends so people may be more reluctant.

Which application has more brand loyalty? Which one would be easier for you to give up 10 friends or followers for a Whopper or a good Bordeaux or some other prize of real interest?  Somehow I do not think that all this addresses Jevon MacDonald’s excellent question – Is it time for Social Media to grow up? – or perhaps it confirms it.  However, I remain interested in which has more loyalty Twitter or Facebook? Here is a take on the issue by Steve Thornton: Twitter versus Facebook: Should you Choose One?

Post Script – After 233,906 friends were removed by 82,771 people in less than a week to get Whoppers, Facebook shut down the application so it is too late if you have not already done so. See Tech Crunch - Facebook Blows A Whopper Of An Opportunity.