Back to Bhopu ArchivePosted On Aug 30, 2007
Social Networking and Online Advertising
in Social Networking

Social Networking and Visibility

Just imagine being able to find a mutual contact you never knew existed who might be able to introduce you to a sales prospect, sounds like finding needle in a haystack, isn’t it.

With all that’s going on with social networking these days, we’re seeing a lot of figures leverage the popularity of social networks to gain visibility for them. We’ve seen it a lot with musicians, films, and especially politicians, who recognize the potential of reaching out to the people.
 
Sites like MySpace, Bebo, and Facebook are just a few of the popular social networks out there that are visited by millions of people daily. They are some of the most popular sites on the web, which is why people and companies use them to help brand themselves.

Advertising and Social Networking

As we all know that teens and young adults have always been popular targets for interactive marketers. In the past they looked to IM and email marketing to connect with the demographic, but it’s not an easy task with social networking sites, as their users require an entirely different understanding.  



Social networks have been a new way to connect with friends and family. For marketers, these sites open up a whole new world of advertising opportunities.  Completely based on and around communication SN are very effective at engaging consumers and offer them interactive initiatives as contests, quizzes, games, and branded content.

Today social networking websites appear to be a very promising place to advertise on. But are they aware of it?

Are Social Networking sites caving advertisements?

It is clear that users are not willing to pay for social networking sites like MySpace, Facebook, and Friendster. If any of these sites started charging they would be replaced with a free option. That leaves advertising as the only business model.

There are a number of social networking sites that are still ignorant to their full potential as advertising media, experts report.

They are only beginning to realize how to monetize their services, they know that if they include few offerings, it can help them generate a sum of money in proportion to the media attention they receive. They might eventually translate their popularity in revenues, but as of now, they are not.

However, if you ask me, I don’t think social networking sites will be or can be a hub for advertisers. One big issue with these sites is the business model. They have a completely different genre of users. Their users are people interacting with friends and family or their to find a date. It is less likely for them to check the adverts.

And this leaves the advertisers with less opportunity to come in contact with users.

My suggestion to Social networking sites?

As we all know that no social networking site can guarantee a brand safe environment. Advertisers do not want to see their ads displayed alongside illicit content. The dilemma for social networks is that, if they start to control what content users can post, they will lose the popularity that attracted advertisers in the first place. Realizing the fact that only advertising scales well enough to make social networks interesting for portals and major media companies. They should try and work on the same.

However, this takes nothing away from social networks and their amazing traffic. The fact is social networking can be bust for advertisers today. We've seen this before with chat rooms, message boards, and email clients. They are amazing for traffic, and they are not appropriate for advertising.

If social networks are going to work for marketers they are going to have to nuke the current model for advertising and do something much more creative.

I will be glad if the social networking sites don’t compromise on their basic models to attract more advertisers, as they can do best without them.

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Tag : MySpace, Bebo, Friendster, Online Advertising, Facebook