Close-Up: Adland's Facebook junkies uncovered

Vital stats: 348 friends 55 groups

- A quick inventory of Sutherland's site reveals the Skype Me, Scrabble
and Books applications; a selection of his favourite RSS feeds
(including the fascinating-sounding This is Kent - The Sevenoaks
Chronicle); a map of all the cities he has visited; and a series of
polls in which the vice-chairman asks friends to comment on the
important topics of the day ("Are The Beatles hideously overrated?"
seems to have generated the most interest).

- The granddaddy of the social network isn't deskbound, either - his
mobile uploads are legion, including a photo in which he and his
daughter are commanding a mechanical digger, and a charming, pastoral
shot of grazing sheep sent to the site at 5.31am from his mobile phone.
Now that's dedication for you.

- Key friends

Tess Alps, Steve Stretton, Richard Huntington, Matthew D'Ancona

- Key groups

"Civic rebellion against shitty weather", "Stop calling me a
consumer ... " and "The Milton Society"

MARK CRIDGE - CHIEF EXECUTIVE, GLUE

- As is perhaps befitting of a man whose head is plunged deep into the
digital world, the chief executive of Glue, Mark Cridge, is a
moderate-to-heavy Facebook user, although not quite so passionate about
the site that he doesn't occasionally wander round the agency offices
admonishing staff for their overuse.

Vital Stats: 156 friends 14 groups

- Cridge's site is light on wall posts, but heavy on music - he's added
the Last.fm and iLike applications, and has posted links to the
"math-rock" band du jour Battles, and the classic new wave outfit
Talking Heads.

- So, is Facebook a fad or the future? "These sites are incredibly
influential and the type of behaviour people demonstrate on them is
going to be very widespread," Cridge says. "Whether it will be Facebook
or something else this time next year is debatable, though." He does
admit, however, that it's hard keeping up the level of involvement that
the site has enjoyed so far.

- Key friends

Russell Davies, Rory Sutherland, Freddie Laker, David Muir

- Key groups

"The only St Mirren fan in London" and "Virgin Trains are ace,
everything else is shit"

TESS ALPS - CHIEF EXECUTIVE, THINKBOX

- At the time of going to press, Tess Alps' status read "back up to
speed". Presumably, a reference to her friend-gathering capability.
Since she joined just over a month ago, she's nabbed 131 online mates,
averaging around five a day - a rate that slipped mid-month, but is back
on target now thanks to some frenzied online networking.

Vital Stats: 133 friends 13 groups

- Alps is one of Facebook's sharers - there's a wealth of personal
information, from religion (ex-Catholic atheist who likes singing choral
evensong), through favourite music (the classics - Beethoven, Handel,
Mahler and Shostakovich, among others) to interesting snippets such as
the fact she likes "trampolining as long as my feet remain in touch with
the canvas" and "podding broad beans". The hours must speed by in the
Alps house.

She's is also a member of a fair few groups, although why she joined the
popular "People who always have to spell their names for other people"
group is a bit of a mystery. Just how hard is Alps to spell?

She has both quality and quantity, and is arguably the best-connected of
all the Facebookers profiled here. The Guardian Unlimited
editor-in-chief, Emily Bell, with whom Alps is engaged in her first game
of online Scrabble; Martha Lane Fox; and Matthew Freud, are a prominent
trio.

- Key groups

"Misleading Facebook photos", "Guardian readers" and "Ad farts: Old gits
in ad agencies"

RUSSELL DAVIES - OPEN INTELLIGENCE AGENCY

- Considering Russell Davies is advertising's most prolific blogger, his
Facebook site is light on text. Rather, he uses it to agglomerate all
that is going on in the legion of other websites and blogs he maintains
with an almost neurotic precision. There are links to his blogs and his
photos, and a twitter status update keeps those interested in the
minutiae of the Davies existence.

Vital Stats: 191 friends 3 groups

- If the lack of posts on his wall are anything to go by, Davies' listed
friends, of which there are 191, lean towards acquaintances. Some are
fellow members of the planner "blogosphere", as Davies and his friends
have styled the online community of strategists. Others are clearly
drawn to him for his free advice, such as "what books should a would-be
planner read?" (Davies' answer: Eating The Big Fish by Adam Morgan, and
Truth, Lies and Advertising by Jon Steel). It feels, like his legendary
coffee mornings, more like a meeting place for like-minded individuals
than the homepage of one particular individual.

There are personal touches, though. As visitors to Davies' many websites
will know, he's a keen amateur photographer. Most of the applications
he's customised his page with are image-based - a link to his bulging
Flickr account, and the Radar application, which allows users to share
pictures taken with mobile phone cameras.

- Key Groups

"Interesting 2007", "People using freeyourid.com" and "Plannersphere on
Facebook"

NICOLA MENDELSOHN - DEPUTY CHAIRMAN, GREY LONDON

- Grey's deputy chairman Nicola Mendelsohn has become something of a
manic collector of Facebook friends. So much so that her count went from
0 to 60 faster than Lewis Hamilton. After just three weeks of frantic
internet social networking, she's racked up 148 and counting.

Vital Stats: 148 friends 4groups

- Mendelsohn is taking full advantage of this networking Mecca. She has
added the top friends, favourite peeps and friend wheel applications.
She even managed to clock up nine friends in one day, and, unless we're
mistaken, her friend-adding frenzies have started as early as
5.30am.

Her "friends" list reads like a who's who in advertising and media, with
Nicholas Coleridge, the managing director of Conde Nast, Joe Elvin, the
editor of Glamour magazine, Richard Exon,the chief executive at Rainey
Kelly Campbell Roalfe/Y&R, the Thinkbox chief executive, Tess Alps, and
agency founder MT Rainey all showing up.

It's not just industry-types that feature on her list. Apparently, the
networking obsessive is also mates with the MP David Miliband, the
celebrity chef Jamie Oliver and the BBC's Andrew Neil, who also features
in her top friends. In response to this, one rather sarcastic friend has
posted on her wall: "Andrew Neil? Yeah, you and him go way back."
Ouch.

- Key groups

"We love Lucky Voice", "Stop George Galloway's anti-Israel talk show"
and "Manchester High girls are simply amazing"

TOM VICK - DIRECTOR, FREUD COMMUNICATIONS

- The Facebook-savvy Freud Communications director Tom Vick is keen to
demonstrate to his 84 friends just how erudite, well-read and musically
literate he is.

Vital Stats: 84 friends 2 groups

- Vick has added applications that showcase all the books he's read, as
well as visual CD magazine racks. All of which makes Vick's profile
pretty revealing. He's clearly a bit of a wine connoisseur. Not only
does his favourite quote read: "Life's too short to drink bad wine", but
also his book collection includes Biodynamic Wines. Additionally, he is
a subscriber to Decanter, Wine Spectator and Wine Advocate
magazines.

Vick isn't afraid to declare his eclectic taste in music either, with
his visual CD rack containing anything from Dodgy to Kraftwerk to Primal
Scream.

The wine obsessive, who has a penchant for Gunter Grass novels and early
electronica, lists his other interests as graphic design, furniture
design, vintage posters and bullfighting. He also wears his heart on his
sleeve, revealing his support for Forest Green Rovers FC with the footie
fans application.

His wall plays host to a friendly catch-up with Mother's creative
director Damon Collins, who's clearly been trying to get a date in the
diary with Vick. Collins posts: "It's been on my list of things to do
for two years."

- Key Groups

"Ad Farts: Old gits in ad agencies" and "Forest Green Rovers
appreciation society"

DAMON COLLINS - CREATIVE DIRECTOR, MOTHER

- Well, isn't Damon Collins well-travelled and proud of it? Using the
cities I've visited application, Mother's creative director and intrepid
explorer reveals he has visited no fewer than 136 cities in 28
countries, including Ecuador, Zimbabwe, the Maldives and Iceland. Let's
just hope these were all business trips, otherwise Mother may need to
seriously rethink its holiday allowance scheme.

Vital Stats: 156 friends 13 groups

- Collins is also keen to keep his mates regularly informed about his
status, which he changes daily. Recently, he has been: "shooting 'til
6am", "in", "out" and "tired". Either this is the life of a busy
creative director, or perhaps that of a sexually confused gun
enthusiast.

Collins is also pretty prolific when it comes to adding friends. He's
barely been on the site for a month, but he's already managed to get 156
friends under his belt.

Collins also lists a diverse range of hobbies on his page, which include
scuba diving, karate and playing the drums. He also shows off his softer
side, listing his three children under his interests section.

- Key groups

"John Smeaton appreciation society", "Lowe alumni" and "Gold Greenless
Trott, man ... I was there"

RICHARD MORRIS - EUROPEAN REGIONAL DIRECTOR, DDB LONDON

- DDB's European regional director is Facebook-application crazy. He's
been flinging food at friends with Food Fight, informing them of his
jet-set lifestyle with cities I've visited and doodling with Graffiti.
In a recent Graffiti scribbling, he asks: "Does learning about Facebook
applications count as work?" Well, he clearly thinks it does.

Vital Stats: 56 friends 4 groups

- Morris is most definitely getting into this social networking thing.
His first wall post reveals: "Blog AND social networking - two digital
breakthroughs in one day Mr Morris!" And it doesn't look like his
enthusiasm for this social networking hub has waned in any way.

He has also joined up to one of adland's favourite groups, Don't tell my
mum I'm in advertising, she thinks I play piano in a brothel, where's
he's in the company of 2,247 other advertising types.

Using Facebook to air personal vendettas also seems to be the flavour of
Morris' page. He uses the Facebook application My Questions to ask his
friends what he should do to his former colleague Richard Bookey, and
offers the choice of the stocks or water torture.

Morris is even using the Facebook site to profess his addiction to a
well-known magazine. His recent status update read: "Morris is wondering
where Campaign is."

- Key groups

"Don't tell my mum I'm in advertising, she thinks I play piano in a
brothel"and "No, I'm not jealous, but really what is the point in
Cannes?"