One thing you can be sure of: No matter how good a social media platform is right now, it will change several times over the next few years. You only have to look at the stats given by Nielsen Online to see how dramatically and unpredictably internet users have turned to social media lately. It started out about seven years earlier; built slowly… then took off in February 2009 at a never-before-seen rate.
Perhaps it's just coincidence that this growth started as the economy was plummeting; perhaps not. Whatever the reason, ads now are becoming more and more user-driven.
Twitter hasn't yet got an advertising program together – but the Huffington Post is offering tweets to paying advertisers. So it is possible for businesses to make money from social media advertising – not by advertising themselves. Hey, you may not have the prestige and authority of the Huffington post yet, but If you have a decent website, and pick highly related (but not competing) ads – especially if they're from partners better positioned and more well-known than you – it might actually give your business a boost.
The Death of Advertising?
One thing a lot of people just don't get: Advertising as an industry is breaking down; just as architectural drafting did, in the early 90's. Seasoned manual draftsmen suddenly found themselves out of work after years of paying their dues and working their way up the ranks, as college students and housewives with computers and AutoCAD took over. Companies no longer invested in permanent drafting staff, but instead hired people freelance – and fired them the instant the job was done. (Most draftsmen predating AutoCAD who couldn't adapt are now performing jobs like being a greeter at Walmart… while their grandchildren multi-task on MySpace, text on their mobiles, all while listening to their iPods, watching TV and doing a whack of homework.)
If you find yourself resisting change, one of those people almost proud of saying: "You'll never catch me on Facebook", you might want to rethink that, before not technology, but society, sweeps by you in a whirlwind of change. Your biggest warning lies in Google finally being eclipsed by Facebook and other social media, as people search by:
- What their friends recommend
- What their friends talk about
- Online social media drama
The latter includes heated and differing opinions, scandals about a product or business and complaint, loudly voice. Complaints, of course, are your doorway to "filling the gap"; which reminds us that social media is like having the collective consciousness buzzing around in our head, till a handful of the strongest complaints emerge.
It pays to take a hard, long look at social media advertising for your business, and learn to go with the flow… but don't wait too long to do it: Social media advertising and operation will probably change again, while you do.
