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The Evolution of Social Advertising

Are you familiar with the Sponsored column on Facebook? That series of ads on the right side of the screen that highlights products and services and then says 4 of your friends like this? If so, then you’ve been introduced to social advertising. Named as such not because it is advertising that appears on social networks, social ads are marketing messages that integrate an interactive social element to them. On Facebook, this comes in the form of friend referrals, but it can also include shared links to fan pages, #FF on Twitter and viral YouTube clips. For now, this form of advertising has been widely absent from the web outside of Like and Retweet buttons. One company, however, is taking social advertising to the next level, and may reinvent banner ads as we know them.

Enter RadiumOne, the online advertising network that has developed a way to insert social sharing mechanisms into served advertisements. Called the R1 Like Button, the service features a Facebook-esque like button within the ad, which is aimed to mimic the learned behavior in users to voice their positive opinion towards products they enjoy. Unfortunately, pushing the button will have no social effect, rather it tells the service what types of ads the user enjoys so it can deliver similar messages in the future. R1 also offers the option to place a share button within the ad, again similar to Facebook or services like Addtoany. These buttons do offer social interaction by posting to Facebook, Twitter, blogs, Digg, etc. 

The marketing principle is that ads with social context will increase user interaction and retention of the advertised product. What is usually a passive observance will become a deeper, longer relationship due to time spent on the ad, deciding whether or not to like it, and sharing it with your networks. Additionally, marketers get the chance to learn what types of served advertisements user respond to best and on which sites. The counter argument is will users notice the presence of a like button on the ads, which their minds have already been semi-trained to ignore.

What are your thoughts on social advertising? Will this new service improve web ads?

(Source: feedproxy.google.com)