While observing any social media network it is apparent that they have a need to advertise, and turn a profit.  However the key that must be realized is that they must reach a happy medium with the end users who are being exposed to advertisements on the network in which they are socially invested.

Generating Revenues

Every single social network is on the internet for one reason, and one reason alone.  That reason is of course to make as much money as possible.  Now, the majority of social networks are doing this in almost the exact same way, and that is with sponsored PPC advertising styles.

So you say that this simply is not the case?  Well, lets take a look at arguably the three largest social networks, and examine the patterns.  Facebook shows ads that pop up on the right side of every individual user’s profile page.  When you view Twitter, you have Promoted Tweets, Promoted Trends, and lastly Promoted Profiles.  The last of the three giants of social media is of course YouTube.  YouTube kind of takes a unique approach by offering advertising either as a video loads, or as a bar at the bottom of videos.

All three of the networks have different settings within their advertising engines which specify just how ads are displayed, and charged for.  An example of this is how you can target different criteria on Facebook.  You can target for things such as:

Group Information
Profile Information
Recent Comments on Facebook
Recent Activities and Games Played on Facebook

As you can quickly see by those very specific demographics advertisers can really pinpoint potential buyers with quick little user filters.

So with all of this known, where exactly does the problem lie?

The very basis of social media is the interaction between the users on the network.  These interactions can be anything from vacations, to children, and even the latest great movie that someone has recently seen.  The key thing here is that everything users are sharing are experiences. These experiences are in no way monitored, or policed to sway people in choosing specific products or brands.  So people simply exchange honest opinions, and brand information regarding products that they may have recently tried themselves.  All of these experiences are two way conversations as anyone can comment both good, and bad experiences with products or brands.

In the world of advertising however, communication is a one way avenue.  Its sole purpose and intention is to get people who see their ads, products, or services to perform a specific action.  This action may be making a purchase, or simply giving them an email address to be used for future communication.  Some companies argue that they are simply wanting an audience to get involved in communication, and share their experiences with specific products, which can sometimes be believable.  However, for the most part this is not how social network advertising frequently works.

How do the numbers stack up?

Now that you understand what social media advertising does, let’s take a look and see just how successful it truly is.  The click-through ratio of social media advertising is actually really low at a whopping 0.02% to 0.05% average.  Yes, that’s well below 1%.  Meaning that less than 1 of every 100 people will actually click on an ad on a social network.  Now on the other hand, there are other advertising venues that make these numbers look just sad.  One Marketing Pilgrim article actually quoted Google AdWords with an average click-through rate of around 2% for example.

Now, where exactly does the balance lie?

Truthfully, it is very difficult to see any method of balance being found in the near future.  The social networks must make money for payroll, and buying lavish items like luxurious vacations and yachts for executives and owners.  They strive to create a place for people to go, and advertisements to be sold.  The more users that they can sign up, the more profits they can make in advertisements, and the more advertisers they will attract.

This unfortunately does not reflect a better experience for the average end user on social networks.  This is just something that we will all have to deal with though until a new revenue stream can be found for our favorite social networking platforms.  A new source of profit generation that can rid them of having traditional advertising jargon while giving users something that they can invest in to have a better overall social networking experience.

What you can do about it

Make sure to grab a piece of the cake by tweeting and sending messages from advertisers and earning money for each message. Go to our social advertising page for more information.

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Do you advertise your business on social networking websites such as Twitter, YouTube, or Facebook?  The vast majority of internet businesses do, so you probably do too! Recently FlowTown have released a new study that has found some interesting results, just under 90% of businesses are taking part in social advertising as we speak, and the ones who aren’t plan to be before the next year is over.  It shouldn’t come as a surprise that Facebook have the highest percentage with just over 91% of those businesses utilising social advertisements via the company.

Social Advertising Hitting New Goals investigates and studies how various businesses feel about using social networking, how often they are utilising it and how much success they are having with it.  The statistics presented below were discovered by a survey carried out by Pivot earlier in the year.

The information includes a huge amount of data, the most valuable points are shown below:

-       67% of businesses are harnessing the power of social advertising.
-       18% plan to begin venturing into the exciting world of social advertising in the next year.
-       60% believe that social advertising is going to be “extremely important” for their businesses over the following few years.
-       Facebook is at the top of the chart, with over 90% utilising an advertising method on the Facebook site.  Twitter is in second place with almost 80%.

Something that I found very intriguing is that almost half  of the individuals asked said they were just “kind of satisfied” with their social advertising results so far, whilst only around 40% said that they were “happy” and 11% of people asked said that they were “extremely satisfied.”

I believe that a lot of this may be due to the fact that businesses are always looking for maximum ROI from all of their campaigns, so far, this hasn’t really happened.  Despite this, I still believe that it is vital for companies and businesses to build a strong presence in the social media to provide a great way to communicate with their clients and customers, whether or not it leads to a huge jump in the number of sales.

How satisfied would you say you’ve been with your experiences of social advertising so far?

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For the past two weeks Facebook users have been in a complete uproar in regards to the social networking site’s new layout and added features. While the overall look of Facebook may get some getting used to (and there is no doubt that users will start warming up to the changes shortly) the site is rumored to be in the midst of launching a new feature that can potentially revolutionize the way advertisers and marketers make money and promote products and services through the site—it’s called the “want” button.

What Does the “Want” Button Do?

The “want” button will specifically allow users to alert Facebook friends about products he or she is either interested in or intends to purchase. This sort of information can in-turn be the data advertisers and marketers need to improve their campaigns/approach and tailor their targeting. A more concentrated targeting means not wasting time and energy on individuals who are less likely to buy.

How Else Can it Help?

This also means that affiliate marketers can boost their sales to profound heights. Investing energy on a person who has already stated the intent to purchase and then re-directing them to a place where they can make that purchase means the greater the chance of finalizing a sale. Marketers can also work to promote other “similar” products. After all, if someone purchases one product, they are more likely to purchase another.

Then finally of course advertisers and marketers may very well be able to expand their outreach to clients and customers by reaching out to a user’s friends list. For example, a user’s friend may see what the user wants and may say, “Oh, that’s nice. I want that too” and purchase the item. And if Facebook is able to find a way to integrate the “want” button with coinciding birthdays and during time of other gift-giving holidays, the purchasing power may just very well out-do Amazon’s Wishlist button and may prove steady competition for Google. Of course, these are only predictions. But the “want” button will surely have a positive effect for both the advertising and marketing world.

The “want” button, which is a spin-off of Facebook’s “like” button, is a one of many new buttons that will allow users to share more personal information with Friends. Such new buttons include “read,” “listened” and “watched.” There has been no confirmation when any of the buttons will be launched on the site or what will become of the original “like” button.

About the author:
This guest post is contributed by Lauren Bailey, who regularly writes for best online colleges. She welcomes your comments at her email Id: blauren99 @gmail.com.

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