Comments on: Will We Ever Find A Way To Monetize Social Networks?

By: Online Marketing Blog » Blog Archive » Friday Recap

Online Marketing Blog » Blog Archive » Friday Recap — Sat, 06 Dec 2008 07:16:47 +0000

[...] monetization saw some increased interest in the SEO blogosphere this week, as Lisa Barone of We Build Pages and I both dedicated some time to the topic. If social networks can’t bring the money in, at [...]

By: Ryan @ Linkbuildr

Ryan @ Linkbuildr — Fri, 05 Dec 2008 04:51:35 +0000

The CEO of Twitter recently said they’ll be launching a new and unique way to monetize Twitter and frankly it has me stumped. Since the majority if these users are banner blind and even text blind I’m quite interested to see what they do.

By: Matt Johnson

Matt Johnson — Thu, 04 Dec 2008 15:38:04 +0000

Lisa,

I agree with your reply to Pink. The solution is an advertising model that puts users in complete control of the advertising process and their privacy settings. By doing so, advertisers win because their brands are injected into the online conversations of the users on social networks.

We’ve designed this system and will launch it in a few months. It’s called uVizz and it’s nothing like anything that’s ever been used on social networks.

By: Lisa Barone

Lisa Barone — Thu, 04 Dec 2008 13:55:36 +0000

Pink: I think it’s a bit more difficult than that. A social network isn’t “just another site”. It’s more personal. Users expect the experience to be more personal. You’re also dealing with a smarter audience, an audience who has been trained to block out ads and anything else that doesn’t “belong”.

I suppose the reason they haven’t figured out how to monetize on social media is the same way we haven’t seen wide-scale advertising on mobile devices. Similar issues apply and advertisers can’t seem to figure it out.

By: Will

Will — Thu, 04 Dec 2008 02:27:17 +0000

Remember what happened that caused the first bubble first? Sites with unproven business models kept getting more and more money, falling deeper and deeper into the red. The companies receiving the money blew it on lavish expenses and unnecessary employee perks. Boo.com was a great example of this. It’s really hard to look around the social network start-up scene and not say that history is repeating itself. There are LOT of lavish expenses for companies that haven’t turned profit.

http://valleywag.com/5070144/the-facebook-layoffs

By: Pink

Pink — Wed, 03 Dec 2008 23:21:45 +0000

I’ve never understood why they aren’t able to monetize. How difficult would it be to slop some Google Adwords on their site? It seems like they are afraid of placing some ads on their site.

By: Lisa Barone

Lisa Barone — Wed, 03 Dec 2008 21:37:48 +0000

Jack,

I actually agree with you completely. I don’t think social media sites should be monetized but I’m pretty sure people will throw rocks at us for suggesting that. I think companies run a lot of risk when they walk into someone else’s room and start trying to sell to them. It’s a careful line, indeed, and one I’d rather not see drawn at all.

By: Jack - eyeflare travel advice

Jack - eyeflare travel advice — Wed, 03 Dec 2008 21:19:15 +0000

The better question is whether social media should be monetized at all? As in, should there be personalization on the sites? Should users’ information migrate?

We as marketers need to be careful not to embroil ourselves in even more controversy than we already have. Online, so far, we’re more respected than the offline advertisers of things such as High Fat High Sugar foods or cell phone ring tones. But if (ok, so that’s a big if looking at most internet users’ awareness) users begin to realize and object to how their personal information is being used, we’ll be seen as the ones being evil.

I actually really don’t think we should try to monetize and leverage this information. Those of us who have a spectacular enough product and story will reach our target markets by virtue of simply engaging our targets openly. No need for stalking!