Socializing for Money

Update to The New Frontier in Online Marketing:  Social Networking Sites

According to a BusinessWeek Online article, social networking sites are attracting major advertisers, particularly from the entertainment sector.  Consumer product companies, such as Target, NBC, and Proctor & Gamble, have also launched promotions on social networking sites.

However, not all for-profit social networking sites are relying only upon advertising revenue.  Some, like LinkedIn, have implemented pay-for-access models alongside their free access plans.

According to BusinessWeek Online,

“[t]he rise of social networking has created plenty of comparisons to the Internet bubble of the 90’s.  For sure, that era had more than its share of losers.  But it also created Yahoo, Google, eBay, and Amazon.  It could well be that a few of the next major Internet companies will come from the ranks of social networking.”

Online professional networking is certainly positioned to become the next profitable e-commerce enterprise, as businesses work to tailor networking services to the manner in which modern businesses and professionals build relationships.  Similar market forces are also likely to popularize collected knowledge sites, such as Squidoo, which rely upon online communications and relationship-building.