InsightExpress just released the results of a study that looks at the attitudes of social network participants toward advertising. The upshot? Traditional ads – not so good. Participatory and opt-in marketing campaigns – good.
The responses do vary quite a bit based on which sites the respondents are using; CafeMom users are especially passionate about the site and open to ads. Some key stats:
- 43 percent of the online population reports using a social networking site
- Of those individuals who participate in a social networking site, most have profiles on two or more different properties (71 percent)
- MySpace, Facebook and Classmates are identified as the networks with the most obvious advertising, while LinkedIn has the least number of individuals who think the advertising is obvious
- 40 percent of social networkers find opt-in ads acceptable
- Behavior-based campaigns are far less acceptable with only 20 percent of respondents finding them acceptable
- 23 percent of LinkedIn, Facebook, Classmates, MySpace, and Reunion profilers say randomly generated ads approach are acceptable; but 43 percent of Cafemom, Twitter, and Flickr users find them acceptable
The research was conducted by InsightExpress between December 15, 2008 and January 12, 2009 using the companys e-RDD sampling methodology. A total of 1,593 respondents completed the survey, and the results were weighted to reflect the online population.
