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Online ad market reaches tipping point as social networking booms

by Hayley Pinkerfield, Revolution UK 04-Apr-07, 12:45

LONDON - New Jupiter research reveals that 50 per cent of marketers will use social networks to reach consumers this year.This follows the IAB's increased online ad spend findings, and suggests the trend for online networking is slowing traditional marketing methods.

Microsoft research found that social recommendation is key, as 25 per cent of users paste comments about an ad and 35 per cent have forwarded an ad to others.

The results reveal huge potential for advertising on social networks, as 70 per cent of users are willing to put sponsored content on their space. Some 10 per cent have already branded their page.

68 per cent of consumers visit other sites for more information on brands their friends recommend online.

In the UK, nearly 40 per cent of people use social networking sites every day for at least 30 minutes to one hour, with activity peaking between 8pm and 11pm. The results show that there are 215 million global user accounts of personal spaces. This is more than the number of people in the UK, France and Germany.

Michael Steckler, business planning and development director at Microsoft Digital Advertising Solutions, said: "Social recommendation is the next iteration of customer segmentation. For marketers, it goes beyond identifying groups of people to pass your message on to individuals who’ll do it.

"This presents huge opportunities to advertise and create content in that space. While this is positive, brands need to be very specific about how they engage."

Microsoft Digital Advertising Solutions has created new guidelines for advertisers on how to succeed in social networks.