3 Classifications of Social Network Advertising

I classify social network advertising to come in three major forms:

1) Direct Advertising that is based on your network of friends

2) Direct Advertising placed on your social networking site - usually uses demographic information from your profile.

3) Indirect Advertising - usually building a brand - by creating 'groups' or 'pages'

Let me dig deeper into each one of these.

The first format can be the most effective but also causes the most controversy. Heard of the facebook beacon project? That would fall into this category. Based on an action your friend has taken, you might see a message in your news feed saying 'Hussein has just bought a 'RadioHead CD from MusicWorld'. I definitely consider this a form of advertising and it is using your friends to influence you. This can be the most effective means as often people make decisions to purchase something or do something based on their close group of friends. However, there is also a lot of controversy surrounding this as it can be considered exploiting the personal relationships you have with your friends and also raises privacy concerns.

The second format is what you would consider 'normal' advertising. Just like you see google AdSense or banner ads on many many sites, this is the same thing except on a social network site. You can see these - for example - as a brick in the top right of myspace pages, or as a banner on the left of facebook profiles and so on. There are two differences however. One is that these social networks can take advantage of demographic data on your profile and hence target the ad directly to you. Secondly, these types of ads can also be placed by individual developers on their application pages. They have access to the same data and can generate income for application developers giving them further motivation to create apps.

The third format I called indirect advertising but perhaps that is not the correct word. Many times a company will use this method specifically as a marketing technique - the difference is that it is not 'in your face' without you asking for it. It is usually a 'page' or 'group' that they have created that you can choose to join. These can quickly grow in numbers of subscribers and fans and become a very effective marketing tool.

No matter which format or combination of formats your company chooses - realize that it will most likely be far more effective than traditional methods. The very nature of social networking creates a more personal feel and - although this is open for debate - creates a more comfortable setting for marketing your product or service.