According to a new study by Insight Express, 43% of the online population is on social networking sites. On top of that, social network users see advertising as important. In addition to Insight Express’ findings, a recent report from Netpop Research LLC also has promising results. According to their report, social networking has grown 96% since 2006 and if users view advertising as an integral part of their experience, there’s a lot of room for expansion.

When asked, however, users are not excited by blatant advertising but are much more interested in unique advertising campaigns. With 76% of US broadband users, or 105 million people, are involved in social media (uploading photos, blogging, etc) and 29%, or 40 million, of broadband users directly involved in social networking and online communication, this notion becomes quite interesting. What also makes this quite exciting is that another, nearly simultaneous, study released by Netpop entitled “Social Networkers US” says that social networkers are also more likely to shop online.

There’s no doubt that social networking is growing at a very fast rate. On top of that, social network users are interested in advertising on those networks, but only if done in a engaging way. The exciting news is that it appears social networks can be a booming outlet for brands to take a stab at some new, creative campaigns. Could this be an integral part of saving our current, dismal economy? Only time will tell, but the news is promising and brands have one more reason to leap in.

For more: On MediaPost and MarketingCharts.com

This entry was posted on Friday, February 27th, 2009 at 4:39 pm and is filed under Discussion. You can follow any responses to this entry through the RSS 2.0 feed. You can leave a response, or trackback from your own site.