Advertisers Still Fear Social Media

For all the hype and hoopla over Facebook in the last year, the overwhelming share of traffic still goes to Fox Interactive Media’s MySpace, according to the latest breakdown of social networks by Hitwise. Fox Interactive Media continues to struggle to make the social model work for advertisers, however, as the relative ineffectiveness of advertising in these spaces becomes conventional wisdom among buyers. There is loads of room for novel ad and content packaging that makes social media make better sense to ad buyers. eMarketer estimates that about $1.56 billion in ad spending will go into these venues in 2008, up from $920 million in 2007.

The Social Centers

Chart: Top 10 U.S. Social Media Sites and Online Communities (by market share of visits)

1. MySpace        41.50%
2. Facebook        8.29%
3. YouTube        7.39%
4. Craig’s List        2.81%
5. Yahoo! Answers    .99%
6. Yahoo! Groups    .94%
7. MySpace TV    .93%
8. Yahoo! member directory        .78%
9. myYearbook    .73%
10. Bebo        .67%

Source: Hitwise