Marketing changes ‘to be driven by social networks’
The growing influence of social networks will shake up well-established marketing practices in the next few years, it has been suggested.
Figures from market research firm Strategy Analytics show that one billion people around the world will be signed up to social media websites come 2012.
With such a huge portion of the world’s population available as a potential audience for marketers, it was suggested that advertising tactics will focus increasingly on targeting these users.
However, Strategy Analytics principal analyst David Mercer admitted that the success of even the most successful social media sites relies on their ability "to develop targeted advertising techniques that are as yet largely unproven, or may ultimately be thwarted by privacy regulations".
Nevertheless, an eMarketer report showed that marketers are keen to experiment with the new medium, with some £800 million predicted to be invested in social network advertising in 2008 up from the £462 million spent this year.
The report added that the current method of targeting adverts based on user profile information will "evolve and be joined by several other methods" in the near future.
