Collective Media has released the results of a survey on advertisers’ attitudes towards social network sites’ advertising prospects, and DoubleClick/Performics’ study of the level of credibility web users have towards advertising across different site types, point to some interesting developments among advertisers and visitors alike to social media advertising.

First, advertisers continue to be wary of spending on social media, but there are wide variances with respect to type. Compared to the 86.6% that would feel comfortable advertising on a news site:

• 73.2% would advertise on a social networking site like Facebook or MySpace
• 61.1% would advertise on blogs
• 27.4% would advertise on a user-generated video site like YouTube

The chief fear, naturally, is the relative inability of these sites to completely monitor their content and prevent embarrassing associations with their brands (although a company that I saw present at Under the Radar earlier this week, Keibi, hopes to make the moderation process easier); there’s a perception that only “cutting-edge” advertisers can take on the risk of advertising on social media.

Interestingly, site visitors themselves are least likely to trust social media ads. Only 1% of respondents to the Performics study said that ads on social media sites and blogs would influence their buying behavior. The highest trust (10-18% across age groups) was found on company Websites that integrated reviews from customers.

Why? It’s partially a chicken-and-egg problem. If mainstream advertisers stay away from social media, those who do capitalize on it tend to be a bit “edgier” — my personal association with MySpace advertising involves racy dating sites. This can create a poor overall user experience and strengthen a negative perception in visitors’ minds.

That said, there are opportunities for advertisers who want to exert a greater degree of control over the context in which their brand is displayed by using some emerging technologies:

• viral widgets/gadgets: companies like SocialMedia Networks help advertisers create widgets and user-interactive pages for companies like BMW
• product placement: companies like Shift Control create online games that feature placements from clients like Coca Cola
• behavioral targeting: Facebook has begun to work on this, and companies like Revenue Science can deliver targeted ads to visitors based on site and across-site behavior

With technology should come greater control for matching advertiser to eyeball, without ruining user experience. Advertisers, though, will probably eventually come around as more and more traffic moves towards social media anyway; those advertisers that indulge in a little handholding might reap the benefits of the increased business.

This entry was posted on Friday, June 6th, 2008 at 12:26 pm and is filed under Online Advertising. You can follow any responses to this entry through the RSS 2.0 feed. You can leave a response, or trackback from your own site.