Advertising Catching Up With Us Socially

The one thing that I have become is addicted to is FaceBook. I admit it. When I turn on my laptop at work, I get my cup of coffee, check my email, both work and personal, and then I go to my FaceBook page to “catch up.” I learn when my friends will be coming into town, I see new photos posted and I receive my “gifts” from my friends. What I have noticed however, is how many different ads show up on pages.
Like search engines, social network utilities are free to use and must rely on some sort of funding to keep them going. No one is doing this out of the goodness of their heart. And, like search engines, they are somewhat distinguishable on pages by being located down the right hand side of the page, separated by a bar line.

But one thing I have also noticed that if a FaceBook user has any notifications, at 20 percent of them is spam. Luckily, Facebook does have a mechanism in place for users to report spam and yes, I have had to use it and yes, it does work.

In an article on iMedia Connection.com, it was noted by Amy Gibby, president of eCRUSH.com, “how there has been a recent changing of the guard online with social networks-- from a "push" medium to a "pull" medium. She mentioned how eCrush.com is using people's "attention" to engage users with advertisers. She says, ‘Teens realize that they are going to have to participate in advertisements or pay for the eCrush.com premium services.’ So basically, users are trading their "attention" to ads in exchange for the use of preferred services.”

Social networks have been taking the online advertising industry by storm. In fact, it has been estimated that in 2006, marketers will spend $280 million on advertising and marketing on social network sites in the United States alone (iMedia Connection.com). With the increasingly popularity of social networks, marketers are finding out this is becoming a new avenue of emerging media to yet advertise their products and services.


Reference:
iMedia Connection.com (2008). Advertising and social networks MySpace, LinkedIn and Beyond. Retrieved on December 20, 2008, from http://images.google.com/imgres?imgurl=http://www.imediaconnection.com/images/content/061023_main_graphic_REV.jpg&imgrefurl=http://www.imediaconnection.com/content/11844.asp&usg=__AbUdK1MULGJKxgJJpnLguhj4kN4=&h=262&w=473&sz=42&hl=en&start=30&sig2=KMPQsQol1W5m1tM8t1dodA&um=1&tbnid=94myj8lJHrmT9M:&tbnh=71&tbnw=129&ei=hh9NSciUL8ibtwe2s8SiDg&prev=/images%3Fq%3Dadvertising%2Bon%2Bsocial%2Bnetworks%26start%3D18%26ndsp%3D18%26um%3D1%26hl%3Den%26rls%3DSNYI,SNYI:2005-34,SNYI:en%26sa%3DN
iMedia Connection (2006). Advertising on Social Networks. Retrieved on December 20, 2008, from http://www.imediaconnection.com/content/10585.asp.