Social network advertising: not your father’s banner ad
When i visited the San Jose Mercury News yesterday, what did we talk about? Advertising and how newspapers were going to make it online.
Well, one trend we’re seeing big time is the move to social networks. Facebook alone has more than 100 million people on it. When you add MySpace, Microsoft’s new network, Hi5, LinkedIn, FriendFeed, Twitter, and others, these networks are seeing some sizeable traffic.
But how do they monetize? Well, Facebook has been seeing a bunch of ads lately.
Problem is banner ads just aren’t working well anymore. Most users ignore them and the smartest users use software that blocks them from being seen at all.
So, how do you overcome those problems? Make ads that people play with and want to talk to their friends about.
That’s what Kevin Barenblat’s firm, Context Optional, does. One of his Facebook apps is driving 60,000 users a day to the website that sponsored it.
In this two-part video we take a look at both the kinds of apps that Context Optional is building, but in the second part we look at the whole Facebook marketplace.
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November 26th, 2008 at 6:04 am
[...] Scoble interviews Context Optional The famous video blogger Robert Scoble interviews Kevin Barenblat’s of Context Optional to discuss how advertisements are now becoming interactive ads, watch the 6 min video to get the [...]
November 26th, 2008 at 9:15 am
I would agree that the plain old banner ad is going out of style, but those interactive flash ads can be very distracting.
November 26th, 2008 at 11:06 am
hmmm…
But the bottom line is that no matter how entertaining the ads are - are they driving prospects to buy???.
Giant companies still manage to get their tech products reviewed by many to blogs - so ads really are not that vital when you have permanent viral marketing. However, for the vast majority, having innovate ads that don’t generate an measurable, immediate ROI (especially in THIS economy), may not really be helping your finances all that much. :-|
Of course, one benefit is branding and even getting exposure for possible venture funding, but there is no guarantee that will happen.
November 26th, 2008 at 12:44 pm
The Context Optional website is actually rather good too - thanks for sharing that.
November 26th, 2008 at 2:00 pm
What is Microsoft’s “new network”? Am I that far out of the loop or is Microsoft just not that newsworthy anymore? What is that, link me…
November 26th, 2008 at 5:44 pm
What’s the attraction of social networking? What’s the attraction of Twitter? I’ve logged into Facebook, MySpace, Wayport, and Twitter multiple times. Still don’t get it. What’s the attraction? Why does anyone find these sites of interest? I just don’t get it.
November 27th, 2008 at 1:06 am
Thanks for telling this dude……..hit on banner ads really have decreased a lot….this may be quite helpful….i’m gonna try it now !
And have u tried it yourself too?
November 27th, 2008 at 1:16 pm
[...] Scoble interviews Context Optional The famous video blogger Robert Scoble interviews Kevin Barenblat’s of Context Optional to discuss how advertisements are now becoming interactive ads, watch the 6 min video to get the [...]
November 27th, 2008 at 1:16 pm
[...] Scoble interviews Context Optional The famous video blogger Robert Scoble interviews Kevin Barenblat’s of Context Optional to discuss how advertisements are now becoming interactive ads, watch the 6 min video to get the [...]
November 28th, 2008 at 1:16 am
Well now that I know I’m not supposed to follow that seagate ad in the upper left of this page …
Really I went here:
http://www.contextoptional.com/index.php
They have flash running a bit in the upper left on nine images of something they have done and it goes so fast you cannot read it and if you try clicking on one of the images it double loads one over another … and it that is to convey what they do???
I waited a while and it seemed to then work as planned. Maybe it is a slow download or something? But it was run-away and annoying and I’d never have stuck around if I wasn’t planning to complain about it …
November 28th, 2008 at 2:55 am
Hi Scobleize,
Does Social media really works to rank well in the SE’s?
Yes, Social networking sites like facebook, myspace and twitter will really helps your business to grow well in the market.
Thanks Scoble… having Survey on these sites…
Cheers :)
November 28th, 2008 at 4:56 am
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November 28th, 2008 at 12:39 pm
Facebook is Alexa 5, it gets more traffic then even google.com
November 28th, 2008 at 2:16 pm
[...] See the postings and videos here. [...]
November 30th, 2008 at 7:17 am
Sorry, now in english. i think that the advertising in social networking is still in its infancy.
November 30th, 2008 at 7:27 am
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November 30th, 2008 at 11:10 am
Bah, banner ads are going anywhere for a good long while, especially on non-social sites. Too much branding to give them up. I still see excellent CTR on plain ol’ static image banners. As long as they continue to produce good revenue I am not going to dispense with them.
Allen
December 1st, 2008 at 7:30 pm
Not sure why a lot of the posts above are so negative on this. Facts are banner advertising on Facebook, MySpace, and etc are horrific. CPMs there are microscopic so anything that engages users is a huge improvement.
Thanks for posting.