Social Network Advertising on the Up-and-Up

Great news today coming out of eMarketer regarding SNS (Social Networking Services) and ad spend. According to the report, Social Network Marketing: Ad Spending and Usage, “social network ad spending is expected to grow by 81%, to $2.2 billion in 2008 from $1.2 billion this year” and “spending [in the US] is projected to rise to $1.6 million in 2008, from $920 million in 2007.”

A large portion of the spend is coming from deals between the two largest SNS properties: Microsoft/Facebook and Google/MySpace.

I’d be interested to see what details and best practices are mentioned for targeted ad spend on SNS within the report. Neither I or famed SNS researcher, danah boyd, have seen relevant evidence to track eyeballs into actions.

Join Baratunde Thurston (left), The Onion’s Director of Digital and author of How to Be Black, for an entertaining look at creative social media campaigns in our Social Media Marketing Boot Camp starting February 16. Other speakers include Morin Oluwole (Facebook), Tim Devane (bitly), and SocialTimes' writer Devon Glenn.   Register now.