Facebook Watershed
Say what you will, but Facebook’s fumbled Social Ads initiative is really a watershed event. The benefits of using social connections to deliver relevant content – even in the form of ads – are too compelling to ignore. Your connections speak volumes about you.
While the ultimate execution will no doubt evolve, the direction is actually good for consumers, advertisers, and publishers alike. It’s good for consumers, because what they see is custom-tailored based on the company they like to keep. It’s good for advertisers, because they enjoy highly targeted inventory (which is hard to come by online). It’s good for publishers, because it allows them to charge premium CPMs (and invest in improving the quality of their site) without loading up their pages with irrelevant ads all screaming for a consumer’s attention. Everybody’s happy.
Now the challenge is up to marketers. How do you tap this opportunity? Who are your most influential customers? Where do they hang out online? How does your brand become part of the conversation? Will the cash register ring? Get smart now. This genie is not going back in the bottle.
I just exited a meeting about social media where I asked the presenter, “How does advertising infiltrate a social network and not take it over like myspace has done and how facebook applications do?” He didn’t know and either do I. Viral marketing sounds ideal but the reaction from people trying to communicate with other people and not brands will ultimately dictate a social networks success. From what I’ve observed the leaner a social network stays on advertising the more people use it. Proving there is a threshold that is crossed where users drop off. If that line was discovered and maybe adjusted per user behavior, viral marketing may be invited by all.
Comment by Sam Barrett — May 13, 2008 @ 10:53 am