Facebook now has more than 175 million registered users It remains the elephant in the room. Or, more to the point, the "fail whale" in the room. Just how are social networks, with their millions upon millions of users, going to make money? The profits should be rolling in: Twitter, which has been catapulted into the public-eye thanks to Stephen Fry and Barack Obama, is currently surviving on multi-million dollar handouts. And Facebook, the global force in social networking, has yet to harness its huge user base to bring in any significant revenue. Many believe answer may lie in advertising. Unlike traditional mediums, which were built on the mantra of getting as many eyes on a product as possible, social networking instead allows for targeted ads aimed at ages, interests, hobbies and so on. Techlightenment, a company specialising in social media advertising, ran the online campaign for the film Tropic Thunder. The firm's head of media, Richard Ireland, says social media allowed them to not only publicise the film, but also advertise directly at certain types of people. "We could easily display our ad for people who say they are fans of Ben Stiller," he says. "Or Dodgeball, Jack Black etc. It's really about making it relevant." He says when adverts are targeted to particular people, the number of users that click the advert goes through the roof. Other industries, says Mr Ireland, can use more subtle approaches to find the right audience. "Nobody puts on their profile that they love credit cards, but what they do put on their profile is 'I love shopping'. That demonstrates the power of the information networks have at their disposal." He says advertising agencies, and perhaps even the social networks themselves, have yet to adapt to this new form of reaching a specific audience. But where do you draw the line on what personal information advertisers have access to? The safety and privacy of user data is a controversial issue. Just ask Facebook: Last week it tweaked its terms of service, causing a huge backlash from members. Days later, it bowed to pressure and changed them back again and have now handed over the way it handles personal data over to its users. It is difficult to imagine how Facebook could implement a change that drives revenues while retaining users. MySpace and Bebo, on the other hand, have adopted a much more aggressive advertising strategy. Alex Burmaster, communications director at Nielsen Online, says MySpace resembles a more traditional form of advertising, with the homepage often transformed for various promotions much like a classic billboard ad. He also argues that MySpace users are more accustomed, and more accepting, of adverts. "Their site is a lot about music and entertainment. So if they see music and entertainment advertised on there it's part of the experience. For Facebook, it's a Catch 22: The more targeted the ad technology, the more attractive it is to advertisers, but it's more freaky for the users. "When Facebook get the technology right, it will make a massive difference. The potential is absolutely enormous." Relative newcomer Twitter potentially faces a trickier battle. Like Facebook, it attracts an older user base, but it doesn't have as much personal and, crucially, sellable data. Twitter co-founder Biz Stone recently blogged that it is looking into building "revenue-generating products". Whether that is ad-funded or subscription based - like the very successful photo-sharing site Flickr - remains to be seen. Popularity is no guarantee of success, of course. Friends Reunited, pioneers of social networking in the UK, is rumoured to be going up for sale for £20 million. A fraction of the £175 million ITV paid for it three years ago. Like all businesses, social networks will soon have to confront the balance sheets. However, if they can weather the economic storm, the future could be extremely prosperous. The real social networking boom may still happen. BBCNews Need Facebook Coupon? Contact me
Do you really care about who owns who or you just want to use these giant marketers as a door to potential customers? Btw..i believe both networks are totally independent. But as i said earlier, who cares?
Facebook ads goes beyond paying for ads and just sitting back. If you know what you are doing, you stand the chance of having millions of people know about your product or service. Other than facebook ads, facebook itself comes with lots of marketting strategies
Not true... If you virial-market the right way, you can get alot of people's attention. Here are some steps. 1) Create a facebook ID & page dedicated to your site 2) Add as many friends as you can and ask them to tell all thier friends to add you as well as checking out what you have on your page. 3) Create a group and a message board with quality content 4) Check/Update your Page & group as often as you can (preferably daily) 5) Repeat steps 2 & 5 at all times. Try that and be patient... There's no such thing as "Instant Results" unless you invest THOU$AND$ in Advertising.
Good info Zaccaria. But there is one important thing you did not mention. After creating a profile page for one's blog or prodcut, you can add a simple application that lets you display page update as RSS Feed to all authorized viewers. This means that friends or visitors dont necessarily have to click on your profile to acess updates about your page. Whenever there is an update on your page, It automatically pops out on their profile just like when you add new pictures or change your status message. Application names : Simply RSS and Blog RSS Feed Reader
Hard to imagine so many members, 175 million registered users. I wold like to have that list or any with so much millions members. I am not having many results on facebook also but I also don´t apply many of my time there. Blessings and Good Deals! Denis
If you will give it little time and handle it like any other marketting tool, i bet you will be amazed. The good thing is you can market on facebook totally free using just the traditional tools like page manager, group creation e.t.c. And if you have some change, you can try facebook ads, it notch up the whole thing