So, what’s up with social networks?

Every marketer is faced with the same challenge of spending ad dollars in the right place. Sometimes it’s millions or billions of dollars, but most marketers have far less to spend — making it more critical for them to make the right decisions. I’m not going to pretend that there is an easy answer, but one way to get your boat sailing in the right direction is to understand how your consumer would rather receive data.

Digital content has become more than a peripheral element of a marketing plan. Ten years ago, companies created Web sites simply to have a presence online. Oftentimes, little thought was allowed to the way it was delivered. Today, successful marketers are using the power of digital media to tailor messages to a focused group of their market. Web 2.0 is ushering in a new trend of user-generated content. Half of all U.S. consumers are watching and/or reading content that has been generated by others. In 2006, 63% of Internet users looked at videos online and it will increase to nearly 87% by 2011.

Social networks are a great way to take advantage of these observations. They provide users a forum to create their own content, as well as consuming other user-generated content. Social networking sites had tremendous growth in 2007, with yearly increases in global total visitors of 270% for Facebook. It’s not a secret that social networks are a powerful attraction for teens and young adults, but 30-somethings shouldn’t be ignored because the overall demographics continually age. In 2007, half of the unique audience for MySpace in the U.S. was 35 years or older. Similar trends are found for online video viewers: During October 2007, 61% of YouTube users in the U.S. were 35 years and older. The growth in social networking sites supports the conclusion that consumers desire to receive information this way and it should be considered a valuable vehicle to reach them.