According to Tribe.net's Gullet, "the paradigm for SN is Six Degrees of Separation: you reach other people through your friends. But that's not what these sites are actually being used for, and not how people are interacting with the sites. People don't join because their friends are in a tribe. They find their own topics of interest. Yes, they make friends and find friends on the site, but that's not the driver. They come looking for information about their interests."

"Most people don't realize," says iCrossing's Hutchings, "that the majority of searches going to major SN sites are brand-name based. So it's very important to look at how people are searching once they are on the site. They first go to the SN, whether it's BlackPlanet [http://www.blackplanet.com] or MySpace [http://www.myspace.com], and only then begin to look for what they want. Advertisers can benefit from looking at those searches and trying to understand behavioral patterns based on that: what behavior are the SN members exhibiting on the site? "

"Because people are assigning their own descriptors for sites that capture their attention," says Elkin, also of iCrossing, "you can obtain another view, a fairly precise view of what they're looking for from a category or brand perspective. This is particularly important for categories around which there tends to be a fairly powerful community; cars are a good example. Think of the number of enthusiast sites for cars and motorcycles and aftermarket conversions, that sort of thing. There are specific language terms used within those communities. That's something marketers can build on."

"From the BT standpoint," points out Alexander of Accipiter, "one of the challenges is that behaviors outside of a SN may not be relevant or appropriate inside it. For example, a mother who visits general news sites looking at family activities is rightly categorized as a parent and would likely not object to ads about that. However, upon entering a SN for mothers re-entering the workforce, she might consider an ad for a sippy cup to be intrusive. Now she wants ads for work apparel instead. This is a key challenge: respecting the unique reason why a person is entering a social network. Conversely, once she's back browsing the web she probably wants the regular ads again."

"In our research and surveys," explains Forrester's Kim, "we're seeing more acceptance of advertising at blogs and at SN types of sites. The SN allows advertisers to piggyback on the implied trust and endorsements that come along with the SN itself. But there's also a shift in the demographics of trust: when you go lower and younger there's less trust associated with traditional advertising. They're a little more skeptical and jaded, and they're looking for a trust relationship before they believe. That's one reason SNs can be so good for advertisers."

According to Forrester research provided by Kim:

• Forty-three percent of young consumers will tolerate ads that pertain to their interests, 80 percent more than adults.
• But only seven percent of them believe companies tell the truth in advertising.
• 13 percent of these same consumers frequent blogs and 24 percent regularly go to social networking sites, compared with only six percent and five percent of adults, respectively.

"In some ways," points out Elkin, of iCrossing, "a SN is the creation of a self-selecting group. So, in effect, it creates a somewhat more refined target just by virtue of what the group is interested in."

"However," cautions Kim, "it's still not 'build it and they will come.' Messaging needs to be compelling in order to incent user actions like clickthroughs. Understanding the customer remains the key to success."

Geoffrey Alexander, of Accipiter, points out that "people are joining Social Networks to communicate, connect, and share interests. As opposed to search, where they want to get in and get out as quickly as possible, with SN they want to stay and interact with others in the community. Because of the frequency and duration that people spend within the SN, it's an attractive spot for branding, creating awareness."