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The commercial measures of social networks<\/p>\n
Social networks have been around for a while, and Facebook has been the absolute spearhead in this amazing growth over the past two years. The market, once in infancy, has quickly matured and evolved into an array of individuals, companies and corporations who spend their time Facebooking, Blogging, Twitting, Beboing, MySpacing, creating, commenting, interacting, bashing, selling, buying, annoying, faking, gratifying and generally interacting in what has truly become a world wide web.<\/p>\n
Agencies and individuals who have seen the industry grow and develop since the days of old, before wireless and cyber-optic lines, are still in awe. We all say we saw it coming, but never really imagined it taking off when we were all still tied to the wall in a restricting umbilical cord of connectivity and thirty second download times. The pace of growth is truly inspiring. Mind- boggling. Revolutionary… it’s a lot of things.<\/p>\n
And there is one thing that it is not. At least not yet: it is not commercial.<\/p>\n
For all the hundreds of millions Facebook generates in revenues every year, growing costs and unclear financial issues leave it without much profitability, at least not a visible one. Other social websites are in similar situations. User backlash and mixed reviews have prohibited the growth of ad- based revenue streams on social networks.\u00a0 Facebook’s latest idea- charging for vanity URL’s, is running into some serious criticism before even launching. In one of the latest industry gatherings in London no representative of any social network group was able to clearly answer the question- ‘where is the money?’<\/p>\n
It is a fair question to ask. It is fair because at the end of the day it is the bottom line that allows for the operation of these platforms. It is fair because despite the recent arguable collapse of capitalist philosophy, individuals and corporations are still driven into growth through benefits and incentives. It is a fair question, however the answer is still not clear cut and in a marketing world dominated by gray areas this reality must sometimes be accepted rather than broken down to its most basic denominators.<\/p>\n
The difficulty in measuring most marketing activities is a longstanding issue and ROI can truly be derived only in perfect conditions where external influences can be isolated, which in the real world is almost never.\u00a0 PPC activities, for example, seemingly provide a clear cut answer to ROI questions. You know how much you invest in a campaign and at the end of a specified period of time you know exactly what you got out of it. But do you?<\/p>\n \n Get exclusive insights into digital \n \n \n Stay Forward <\/h2>\n
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