Comments on: Making a (belated) resolution to monetize social media

By: Online Advertising 101 - For Web Site Startups | The NWEN Blog

Online Advertising 101 - For Web Site Startups | The NWEN Blog — Thu, 04 Sep 2008 19:03:02 +0000

[...] my opinion, this upper-right quadrant represents the biggest opportunity in online advertising today, given the massive volume and extremely low eCPM rates being earned by publishers today. Just [...]

By: Lotame gets big funding from Battery Ventures | Startup Addict Musings

Lotame gets big funding from Battery Ventures | Startup Addict Musings — Tue, 19 Feb 2008 02:31:41 +0000

[...] Satya Patel from Battery Ventures has some great statistics about the brand stickiness of social media and user-generated content for further discussion. [...]

By: Satya Patel

Satya Patel — Wed, 06 Feb 2008 05:34:49 +0000

In general, I think that there is great potential to in-widget advertising, but the key will be somehow creating value for the user so that the advertising is consistent with the experience he or she is seeking from the primary widget content/activity.

By: Opo

Opo — Fri, 01 Feb 2008 14:42:53 +0000

Hi,
very inspiring analysis.
What do you think of this new trend in trying to add micro-advertising in to the widgets (because they can be shared) instead of advertising in the “hosting page” (that is where the user comes daily) ?

By: Satya Patel

Satya Patel — Sat, 19 Jan 2008 21:48:10 +0000

I agree with you regarding the expression of commercial interest. Collecting the right types of data from activity on social networks may give more insight into commercial interests. Also, finding ways to allow consumers to benefit from explicitly expressing commercial intent may be an interesting way to address this issue.

Using non-social media data for social media sites is already being tryed by the existing behavioral targeting networks and other third parties, which is why I didn’t highlight it as an emerging model. The value of that type of targeting is still up for debate on non-social media sites, let alone on social media sites that are, as you correctly point out, less commercially-oriented in terms of user activity.

By: Don Mattingly

Don Mattingly — Sat, 19 Jan 2008 18:30:36 +0000

Great points Satya. The biggest issue w/monetizing social networks at scale IMO is the limited ability/context for consumers to express commercial interests and purchase intent. The user data can help marketers understand WHO the audience is (demo, personal interests, etc), but does little to tell them what the user is in the market for NOW. The “time” piece of the right message/person/place/time equation is missing.

Your comment on ‘mining social media to better target audiences on non-social media properties’ is interesting. I actually think there’s more value in the reverse — using data from non-social media properties to target ads on social networks. User activity on sites that more explicitly capture commercial interests can be pushed back to the social network to target these users, regardless of the content/context of the social media page. Of course whether the users will notice/care when they’re throwing sheep or looking at pictures remains to be seen.