Social gaming may be a hot growth area in advertising, but it targets only 3% of online game players, according to panelists focusing on the topic at OMMA Social. That's the sliver of players that are willing to take certain actions, like completing a survey, to gain virtual currency for use in social games. A small but lucrative niche to mine. Consider that two-thirds of time spent on Facebook is playing games, noted Jay Samit, CEO of SocialVibe, which matches brands with social game audiences. When it comes to ads, he said across hundreds of campaigns, average engagement time with …

Facebook admits it doesn’t have all the answers! That’s right, Jennifer Kattula, Head of Agency Marketing at the social network just said so! (How’s that for “gotcha" journalism?) Specifically, Kattula was talking about branding efforts and other forms of advertising on Facebook. So, who does have the advertising answers? Everyone at OMMA Social! Yep, “The people in this room are poised to be the architects of Facebook By Design,” Kattula told conference attendees in reference to Facebook Studio, which is part of the company’s broader agency outreach effort. If you didn't know, just like Google a few years …

Jennifer Kattula, head of agency marketing for Facebook leads off the afternoon discussing Facebook's outreach to agencies to pull in more brand advertising. Obviously, brands haven't viewed the social network's banner ads as a canvas for great creative executions. Recently, the company launched Facebook Studio to showcase successful creative campaigns and demonstrate the potential for advertising on the site beyond the small boxes on the right side of pages. In creating Facebook Studio, Kattula explained the company wanted to make it "social by design"--fostering community by letting agencies and brands submit work examples to the site and allowing visitors …

Speaking of Buddy Media, the company today announced the hiring of former Yahoo exec Dennis Morgan as its new CFO. Most recently, he served as CFO of three venture-backed technology companies: EPAC Technologies, Panther Express and Vibrant Media. Before that, Morgan led corporate finance efforts at Yahoo for more than $5 billion in acquisitions and business development deals. He also ran Yahoo's corporate-wide budgeting process and served as finance head of its $3 billion search business. At Buddy, he will help manage growth at the Facebook marketing company that's added 165 clients this year including brands such as Kraft …

A key split among luxury brands in the L2/Buddy Media study was between those that allow users to post to their page to encourage dialogue and those that don't. Company that allowed posts generally had a higher brand "IQ" according to the study's scoring system. Contests and sweepstakes have been a popular way for marketers to try to gain new fans on Facebook. But the research actually showed this was one of the least effective ways to try to gain or engage fans. Posing questions to users and posting product news drew the best response rates. So a straightforward …

On hand at OMMA Social to talk about their recent study on luxury brands is Scott Galloway digital think tank L2 and Mike Lazerow, CEO of Facebook marketing firm Buddy Media. Mike points out that as attention has shifted from traditional lean-back mediums to Facebook, the audience for brands on the social network is larger than the combined circulations of major magazines. Burberry's Facebook page, for instance, has nearly 7 million fans. Galloway noted however that fan base size isn't everything on Facebook. Burberry was only rated average in the study which analyzed 100 luxury brands on Facebook because …

That's what Buddy Media chief Michael Lazerow seems to be suggesting during his presentation on how prestige brands rank on Facebook at OMMA Social in New York. "Magazines, which used to get most of our lean-back time is now going to Facebook," he said noting that upscale brands used to go to Vogue or Cosmopolitan magazine to reach their audience, but Facebook has flipped that model. "Now you have brands that are bigger than Vogue," he explained, citing Burberry, which has 7 million fans. "That's bigger than most magazines," he pointed out.

Funny, Bryan Perez, SVP and General Manager at NBA Digital, says the league doesn’t filter any of the tweets or various other social media messages put out by players. As if it could. Wait, could it? (We’re not lawyers, but we’re guessing any attempt to muzzle players would send First Amendment flags flying.) Either way, it must be a little scary for any brand manager to imagine the prospect of thousands of, er, ego-rich guys capable of "representing" their brand at any time. Yep, “They are our product,” Perez said. Good luck with that, BP. Moving on, Perez then suggested …

Let’s be honest, lots of brand clients just want lots of “friends” on Facebook, and followers on Twitter, said Steve Latham, CEO of Encore Media Metrics. “They don’t care if [the friends and followers] are robots,” he said of some, unnamed clients. Which begs the question, “Can you buy ‘friends?’” The answer? “You can!” according to Latham. Yes, “You can buy friends,” agreed Mike Proulx, SVP of Digital Strategy at Hill Holliday. BUT, if they’re not loyal, friends aren’t worth the Facebook pages they’re featured on. In practical terms, if your friends and followers aren’t liking and retweeting actively …

It’s test time, and the industry’s current ability to measure social media ROI gets a big fat F. So said every panelist on OMMA Social’s first panel of the day, “Bridging the Gap: Linking Social Media to ROI.” Along with the majority of conference attendees, every panelist said social measurement currently gets a 4-to-6 on a scale of 1-to-10. Even Mark Kovscek, SVP of Enterprise Analytics at Converseon, gave social measurement a 4, although “It’s tough to say you all suck.” Harsh as it is to hear, the poor ratings are good medicine, said Steve Latham, panel moderator …