As social media dominates more and more of the internet, the companies behind some of the most popular networks are unsurprisingly looking at how to maximise their revenue. Research company Gartner have published some very interesting analysis on how social media makes money.

They say: “Advertising is, and will continue to be, the largest contributor to overall social media revenue and is projected to total $8.8 billion in 2012.” Read More »

When growth in demand for a medium begins to surpass growth in users of that medium it begins to mature. As television advertising matured in the 1960’s, ads went from being radio style testimonials with visuals to the entertaining sketch styled ads that are still commonly used – this is the best way to advertise on that medium since the purpose of the medium is to entertain.

When ads are entertaining, viewers react better to them. As print as a medium matured, ads became more visually enticing. When radio matured, ads became more informative. More recently, as search matured the landing pages of ads became more relevant to the users search terms. Read More »

Google officially announced http://adwords.blogspot.com/2011/11/get-closer-to-your-customers-with.html business profile pages on their nascent social network Google+ last night.

With 40m profiles so far, Google+ has potential – although there is healthy debate about who is actually using it outside of the digital, technology and broadcasting industries. Debate aside, we’ve dived straight in and set up a page for a UK business. Here’s our initial tips and feedback after a few hours using the platform:

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Facebook could be facing a new privacy row as it prepares to launch a new ad option that will turn your Facebook’s “likes” into ads or “sponsored stories” as it is calling them without giving users any opt out.

Some people are clearly not going to like this at all. Effectively, the new ad unit turns Likes, Facebook Places checkins, and application activity by users into ads. It allows advertisers to effectively take from the crowd and build ads on the back of any viral buzz it might be generating. Read More »

According to data from hitwise reported in new media age, Facebook is reaching a point of saturation in the UK. After two years of rising user numbers and page views the graphs are starting to plateau as share of UK page views and average session time level out.This represents an interesting time for Facebook as now is when they truly get a gauge for where they sit in the UK market and draw a baseline for how to measure future performance.

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Nielsen and Facebook have put out an interesting study showing that using social media in online ad campaigns can boost ad recall, brand awareness and intent purchase.

Part of it the study appears to suggest is that ads with a social context, which can be things like tweets or endorsements from friends (“social advocacy”) displayed within the ad units, helps bring the ads to life and simply makes them more effectiveness, noticeable, and memorable. Read More »