How Well do Behavioral Targeting and Social Networking Fit Together?

From the advertiser's point of view, "Behavioral Targeting and Social Networking are an absolute good fit for where advertising is going," says Peter Kim, Senior Analyst at Forrester Research, an independent technology and market research company. "Social Networking (SN) sites like Friendster or Classmates are connecting with customers in a forum where there is a certain level of openness and trust that is a little different from a media publisher like the NYTimes. You're definitely connecting more directly. On the marketer's side, there is a lot of potential for SUV ads, for example, playing well with people who are on a site to talk about SUVs. Ads on SN sites may potentially have a lot more impact than when they appear on sites where people are simply doing research. Obviously, however, success depends heavily on when and where you serve the ads."

Jan Gullett, CEO of Tribe.net, one of the largest social networks with over 55,000 separate "tribes" or interest groups, says that having developed a "real time relevance engine" to "help people get in touch with people of like interests," it wasn't hard to notice the natural affinity between relevant information and relevant advertising.

"Although the first thing that's important to recognize is that this is not just about advertising, but about topics that are relevant," explains Gullet, "if you can give them enough relevance, they're more likely to be responsive to the advertising and not think it's intrusive."

According to Noah Elkin, an iMedia contributor and Industry Relations Director for iCrossing, the largest independent search engine marketing agency, "SN sites like del.icio.us [http://del.icio.us], where users can create their own public bookmarks and assign their own page tags or keywords, can be of great value for an advertiser to help orient a campaign. It's another way to get to know their customers better, see what the vernacular is for a given brand or product, or learn how a user or a group of users describe a brand."

"One thing we see for our clients," says Geoffrey Alexander, Director of Product Strategy with Accipiter, an online advertising technology innovator since 1996, "is that the biggest BT areas are auto, travel, technology, and health. SNs that cater to these users -- such as the auto community or the travel community -- or ones that can thrive within a sub-section -- such as parenting and travel -- are likely to attract and hold advertisers."