• by Seana Mulcahy , July 9, 2007

I've written a lot about this in the past and it's still a hot topic: social networking. Many advertisers and brand marketers come to my team asking if they should be advertising on social networks. Most of the time my answer is no.

Before you rant and rave, consider some of the facts. Social networks seem to be a mecca for behavioral market research. As for the audience wanting to shop and buy -- it hasn't gotten there yet. Jupiter research released a study earlier this year that found, "The majority of online shoppers who have used social and community sites while researching and purchasing do not believe that such sites affected their purchase decisions, and few online shoppers said they spend incrementally more due to their use of social and community sites. Thus retailers should mitigate their expectations of influence and sales driven by exposure on social and community sites."

It's quite simple -- Web users do not view social networking sites as a place to buy products and services. Right now sites like Facebook and MySpace aren't particularly retail driven. However, brand marketers and agencies should take advantage of user-generated content for product reviews. If done the right way, this could only reinforce a brand, generate buzz and potentially lead to sales (on eCommerce-enabled sites).

According to Ipsos Insight's annual study "The Face of the Web," it seems that the U.S. leads the world in social networking although other countries are embracing and using it. Findings show that about 20% of users the world over had been on a social networking site. In the past month, however, the highest percentage of users on a social networking site -- 55% -- was tracked for South Korea, as compared to 24% for the U.S.

South Korea's big social networking site is called Cyworld, which has 18 million members. That's about 30% of the entire population of the country.

Brian Cruikshank, executive vice president and managing director of Ipsos' Technology & Communications practice, claims that the numbers are particularly noteworthy "when one considers the various ways for users to interact with others using these sites, such as online chat, text messaging, email, video, voice chat, file sharing, blogging, discussion groups, and so on."

Other findings include:

-- Almost one in four adults (24%) has ever visited a social networking Web site.

-- In South Korea about half (49%) of all adults in this country have visited at least one of these Web sites in the past.

Cruikshank continued, "The frequency of visitation to social networking Web sites globally implies that many Internet users are no longer simply 'trying out' these sites, but rather adopting social networking as a significant part in their evolving digital lifestyle. What will be interesting to monitor is the effect social networking will have on other online and offline entertainment behaviors that ultimately compete for a share of the consumer's disposable time. We have already seen some effects of social networking cannibalizing other online activities in some markets."

Social networks are chock full of behavioral data. Just look at some of the user's pages. They are laden with personalization from photos, icons, graphics and music. So how can we as advertisers take advantage of social networks? IS the timing right or is it too soon? Post to the SPIN blog.