Ok, so we're in the final week of the first annual Material Girls Spokesmodel Search. The twelve finalists have been selected, and we're only a few days away from picking the final winner. Part of the festivities for these last few days allows contestants to have their friends vote for them online.

Let me set the stage for this: these are 12 girls, ages 16-20, most of them in high school. Today is Wednesday. Within two days of online voting, these girls have generated almost 6,000 votes.

We at first wondered if our voting script was broken. But, after a little digging, we discovered that a few of the girls have gotten word out on their MySpace pages. And, as a result, the floodgates have opened.

I remember when I was in school trying to get sponsors for a walk-a-thon or something....I might've scrounged up the effort to knock on a 20 doors. And of those 20, maybe...maybe....convinced three of them to have mercy on my soul and sponsor me.

Those days are gone. We've got two girls that, between them, have generated nearly 3,000 votes in just over 24 hours. What that means is that they've managed to drive nearly 3,000 people to the Material Girls web site...for free.

It's what you call consumer evangelism...and it's contagious. As I write, the number of votes/visits has ticked up by a hundred or so.

We often get oddball looks when we sing the praises of social networks. But, this right here is a perfect case study as to why we're right.

UPDATE- 4/17- almost 9,000 votes, with one day to go. We just may hit 12,000.

FINAL UPDWTE- 4/23- over 20,000 total votes. Wow.