Social networking sites grab big slice of Web ads

About one of every five Internet display ads in the United States is viewed on a social networking Web site like MySpace and Facebook, according to a new report.

The report by analytics firm comScore underscores the increasing prominence of social media sites in the Internet landscape and broadening acceptance of the sites by brand advertisers.

It also illustrates the increasing competition between social media sites and established Internet companies like Yahoo Inc and Time Warner Inc's AOL which have long billed themselves as the top online destinations for brand advertisers.

The study by comScore, released on Tuesday, said social media sites represented 21.1 percent of U.S. Internet display ads in July, with MySpace and Facebook accounting for more than 80 percent of those ads.

"Because the top social media sites can deliver high reach and frequency against target segments at a low cost, it appears that some advertisers are eager to use social networking sites as a new advertising delivery vehicle," said Jeff Hackett, senior vice president of comScore.

According to comScore, AT&T Inc, Experian Interactive and IAC/Interactive Corp's Ask Network were the top three advertisers on social networking sites in July.

While social media sites have enjoyed a surge in popularity in recent years -- Facebook is now the world's fourth-most visited Web site -- some observers have questioned whether the sites can be effectively monetized.

Because the content on social media sites is created by users, and could therefore prove racy or offensive, some have questioned the willingness of marketers to place their brands alongside that content.

"They are sensitive to some extent, but nowhere near to the extent you might think," Sanford Bernstein analyst Jeff Lindsay said of advertisers.

The price of placing ads on social networking sites is significantly less than on a Web portal like Yahoo or AOL, said Lindsay. The vast amount of Web pages available on social networks means that advertisers can purchase a massive volume of ad impressions at bargain prices.

The strategy may not be ideally suited to smaller marketers, or advertisers seeking a direct response from their ads, said Lindsay.

"For big, national brands it works just fine, just like TV," said Lindsay. "It's a huge, huge volume game."

RP mobile marketers eye $60M ad pie

Local mobile marketers are targeting a larger piece of the local advertising pie as consumers continue to give more attention to digital media, the president of the Internet and Mobile Marketing Association of the Philippines (IMMAP) said Tuesday.

IMMAP president Arthur Policarpio said the trade group's vision is to capture 2%-3% of total ad spend in the Philippines, amounting to $60 million-$90 million, in the next three to five years. The IMMAP is currently composed of 86 member companies, including 37 mobile companies, as well as advertisers, agencies and publishers.

He said that while some companies have spent money on Internet and SMS advertising, a large portion of their budgets still goes to traditional print, TV, radio and outdoor media platforms.

One platform that remains largely untapped by local advertisers is mobile marketing. From less than a million subscribers in 1996, the Philippines now boasts of over 70 million mobile subscribers this year.

Policarpio said one challenge faced by marketers is lack of understanding of mobile's potential and potency as a marketing tool. "The mobile phone is the only device that you have on you almost 24/7. It's a marketing platform just waiting to be tapped," he said at a digital marketing summit at SM Mall of Asia.

He said that beyond SMS, marketers could also look at other mobile marketing initiatives such as bluetooth advertising, mobile Internet advertising and mobile applications.

He noted that Yahoo! Mobile's site receives 1.2 million unique users per month and 128 million page views as of August 2009. He said separate data supplied by Admob showed that local mobile sites logged in 380 million page views a month.

Admob statistics also show a rise in sales of smartphones in the Philippines such as the Nokia N70 and Nokia 3110c, which is fueling the increase in mobile Web browsing.

Policarpio acknowledged though that there are some barriers into increased adoption of mobile marketing including the abuse of consumer privacy and rights, lack of industry-specific research, lack of knowledge on the part of the advertisers and lack of industry-wide metrics and measurement.

"This is the vision of IMMAP - to become the recognized thought leader and center of mobile marketing innovation in the Asia-Pacific region and to leverage global best practices, standards and consumer guidelines," he said.

The IMMAP recently partnered with the Mobile Marketing Association and established the MMA Philippines Local Council. The objective of the partnership between MMA and IMMAP is to foster the mobile advertising and marketing industry in the Philippines.

A shift to digital media

MMA president and CEO Mike Wehrs said advertising companies in many parts of the world have exhibited a shift in brand thinking by seeing mobile as an essential and not just an experimental platform for marketers.

He said that with over 4.8 billion mobile subscribers worldwide, the platform has outpaced the growth of Internet and fixed-line users.

He said he expects spending on mobile messaging to rise to $2.9 billion in 2010. For this year alone, he said advertisers are reallocating $65 billion of their ad budgets from traditional media channels to digital channels including online, mobile, viral and search engine optimization (SEO).

He also noted trends in some countries such as mobile banking, alerts, mobile vouchers and coupons, as well as customer service application, which can be done via mobile phone.

"[Mobile marketing] delivers on the promise of one-to-one marketing. There's a higher level of engagement and interaction controlled by the consumer. Empowering the consumer makes the ad more effective," he said.

Facebook is allowing advertisers to use your info

This might have been long happening, but I recently received word that Facebook has been allowing third-party advertisers to use your photos, personal feeds and event notifications so that they can advertise their ware to your network or friends.

So many have been asking the same question for quite some time now. How is Facebook going to make money? People say that there's no good way to really monetize the social networking site. Others say that it's in advertising. Well, as far as I can see they are trying.

The question whether to whom uploaded information (like photos, notes, articles, feeds, etc.) belongs to is a debate better discussed elsewhere. However, I doubt that anyone would like the idea of their own data being used by third parties, advertisers for that matter, to further their own gains - seemingly without express permission to boot.

Sure, this might have been in the original terms of usage agreement. But hey, everyone (I mean everyone including Facebook) knows that no one ever reads those long winded legalese novellas. You either check the I Agree box, or you don't sign up at all. So, with this in mind, express permission should have been sought before this is allowed.

Fortunately, there's is a way to turn it off. It's buried beneath a few settings pages, but it's there.

What Facebook should have done is to have this off by default, instead of on. They could have asked later on whether users want their stuff used or not. I'm sure there would have been people who won't mind. After all, there's a whole cadre of guys and gals on the site who are just looking for exposure.

So here's how to turn it off. First, go to your Account Settings page (it's found in the dropdown options from the Settings button, near the top of any Facebook page, beside the Logout button).

When you're in Account Settings, scroll down and look for "Privacy" in the Settings tab then click Manage. This brings you to the Privacy settings page.

Select News Feeds and Wall, then click on the Facebook Ads tab. There, choose "No one" in the Appearance in Facebook Ads dropdown.

Cheers!