• by Michael Burke , March 12, 2009

"The more we know about you, the better the advertising will be" is a statement or a paraphrased mantra that you hear often when discussing behavioral targeting, data collection and profile targeting. I'd say this is a largely unfinished effort and only tells about half the story, at best. Here is why: no matter how much information you have on me, the context, timing and manner to which advertising is delivered is more important than anything else.

Although I wrote this article before yesterday's announcement, my thoughts on behavioral targeting are very timely with Google's Behavioral Ads.

Here's a real world example to get us started: I am a small business owner and you can find that out pretty easily. So, if you want to sell me something, connecting with me at my office will be a lot more valuable to you and I, than if you tried to pitch me as I'm eating dinner with my wife or out having a beer with a buddy.

I am not an advertising historian, so I won't talk about where we used to be, but I can certainly speak to where we want to go. And, that is, largely in social media terms, to speak directly to users, in the environments they live, the activity they create or the conversations being had across web platforms. The advertising effort that we push every day is less about what the platform is and more about who the users are and what they are doing. So, the obvious reaction is to create a technology or partner with the data companies to learn everything about an individual and hand deliver the message to them. The message is delivered often without thought as to where the person is or what they are doing, because, "Hey, it's definitely the right message and they will appreciate it." I applaud these technologies, I truly do. But they only deliver part of the solution.

When it comes to social media, there a slew of behavioral networks, data aggregators and even the social nets at times, which talk about the masses of data they have and how one day this will evolve into the secret sauce of social advertising. And why wouldn't they? With the excessive activity, deepening profile information, and access to your "friends," social media is a data collector's haven. So, with all of this information, advertisers clearly want to use that to get their message to the right people.

For example: you've got data on a frequent traveler, so messaging travel offers should be appreciated at all cost could make sense. Well, if it's travel on a begrudgingly "because I have to" basis, then it's a reminder of their transient life. Or, maybe someone truly unlocked the binary code to deliver ads to the not only moms, but the influential moms, so it's appropriate to push that leak proof diaper on them, right? Not so fast, if there is a mom at work enjoying her break reminiscing over some old college pictures, does she want to be reminded of the dirty diapers at home?

So in an effort to keep the progress we've made in behavioral targeting (even though I still get emails for women's clothing sales for some reason), I do not want to disregard the ability to reach the right person. But rather, I want to suggest that good ol' blocking and tackling and understanding of what the user is doing, what the conversation is and what they want from an advertiser is crucial to the success of marketing within social environments. I won't get to the notion that a banner ad might not be involved at all, because they're certainly going to be around for a while. So, I'll save that for the next time I write.

In the meantime (as if that wasn't enough), remember to always consider the "time and place." In the social graph focus in on contextual relevance, matchmaking and partnership opportunities with communities, which will embrace, rather than disregard your presence, not to mention your message.