Startup Addict Musings

Social Networking is a blank advertising canvas in 2008 and has the Titans of the Internet (Google, Yahoo and Microsoft) scrambling for control…or dare I say at least a game plan. John Battelle offers some insight as always regarding the relationship between existing online spending (at an all time high) and future advertising preference of social networking to better target for ads and user’s clickstreams (think blueLithium). Google was undoubtedly timely with adwords / adsense during the deluge of online spending. However the landscape is changing (as it always does) and as I stated in an earlier post Microsoft does not want to miss the social networking category…or the Facebook ferry. The wounds from trailing in search to Google are still fresh in the Vista Vikings mind. Controlling 40 million eyeballs on Facebook is any publishers dream which in reality is any advertisers dream….not only does Facebook have enormous advertising attention but the social category itself is starting to swell.

According to article in emarketer by Ari Levy and Dina Bass

“U.S. ad spending on social-networking Web sites will double to $900 million this year, with Facebook and MySpace grabbing three quarters of the total, according to EMarketer Inc., a research firm in New York.”

So with all of this wonderful information what is an entrepreneur to do? I have been told it is difficult to be a trendsetter and I would agree with that. But why not be a trend spotter (as Joe Kraus would say)…lets recap:

1. The big ad money is going social
2. The biggest companies want in on social
3. Facebook and Myspace next moves are consuming all the media’s attention (must be important)
4. It is the new advertising play with millions of social web startups and publishers created.

Yep, the trend is social network evolution monetized by advertising and will continue to grow more than ever…. Let’s hope version 2.0 of StartupAddict.com is done by the middle of November so I can head toward breakeven on the crest of this social wave.

Tags: Social Networking //