Yahoo has about 90 million users in its social media destination, and the recent expansion of Yahoo Answers may be the single largest repository for human knowledge on the web. The service defines "personal knowledge" network.
Like other Yahoo user-centric properties such as Flickr and del.icio.us' Yahoo Answers Network (still in beta), its social media destination seeks to connect like-minded individuals so that common interests and resources can be shared.
eMarketer has social media advertising spending pegged at $865 million in 2007, with $525 million aimed at MySpace, $200 million headed for the Facebook/Friendster ilk (i.e., sites other than MySpace) and only $95 million for portal-based social offerings. Vertical social networks and marketer sponsored social networks are the smallest category at about $45 million.
Clearly there is room for growth in the social media ad spending category, and $95 million dollars is not going to make or break a billion-dollar portal's bank. Every portal is betting big that social media ad spending will grow exponentially in the next few years, but with rapid growth comes rapid growing pains.
There are no standards for social media, and few industry initiatives have been able to define what constitutes social media. Advertisers often have difficulty adopting new platforms, and the user-generated component makes a few advertisers a bit skittish. Placing listings on near-questionable content is always a fear, but a bigger problem is the lack of definition.
Ask a dozen social media providers or agencies about social media and you are likely to get a dozen different answers. Early-adopting advertisers may adopt social media advertising, but we aren't likely to see any real traction for a few years to come.
If we have learned nothing else from the evolution of online advertising, we should know that advertisers need something tangible. Social networks are cute and fun, but we have yet to see anything that is adoptable on large scale. Yahoo has an open invitation to help define the space and provide tangible opportunities for advertisers.