Most of you are aware social advertising has had a tumultuous time in 2007 and 2008. Although not all that different than the overall economy at this point I guess. Probably the most well know social advertising is Facebook’s beacon which has gone through numerous iterations and revisions to walk the line between “user privacy” and “advertiser confidence” for brand exposure among sometimes less than tasteless user-generated content. Despite the difficulties of being Avant-garde social advertising is here to stay. Rich Ord from Webpronews has a great article with some convincing stats on why social networks and technologies continue to get gobbled up by old media. Webpro stated:
The top 25 social media networks delivered over 155 million unique visitors in Feb. 2008 with 70 percent coming from MySpace, Facebook and Classmates.com. Add in YouTube and Flickr and you get another 60 million totaling an estimated 215 million humans viewing social media monthly.
Now imagine the the growing number of concentrated vertical networks in industries like healthcare, financial, beauty, business etc…The numbers are much smaller but the potency of advertising is much greater. The value of a 20,000 member social network on facelifts is greater to an advertiser than a 75,000 member general network.
Too true…social networking is:
1) Alive and kicking
2) Very static compared to what it will be in a few years (as that horrible old song stated, “We’ve only just begun”)
3) Still so needed – as the general networks lose their luster as they become overwhelming there will remain opportunities for smaller networks that truly help the users engage with the network
The key for these niche networks is to too truly understand the niche rather than just look at it as an open market space.