There's been a growing debate swelling in marketing circles lately that we usually hear directly from the tech and web experience crowd. Should the web, and social media spaces, where people are increasingly spending their time, even be used for advertising? 

Matt Creamer of AdAage posted the question that maybe the Web is not even a place to "Stick Your Ads". Citing web usability guru Jakob Nielsen, the web is not a selling medium, "it is a buying medium, so the user controls the experiences." 

Yet despite all of our talk about consumer empowerment and engagement, however, the current digital marketplace has not innovated much beyond the days of TV and radio. "The internet is too often viewed as inventory, as a place where brands pay for the privilege of being adjacent to content, like primetime TV and glossy magazine relics of the pre-blog days when getting into the media game actually required infrastructure and distribution."

The concept of the internet as inventory was reiterated by several speakers at  the Adage Digital Marketing Conference. Collen DeCourcy of TBWA described the reluctance to engage in social media as a fear of business model shift. The formula for the digital media industry has been real estate times people times content. The social media space of interaction and participatory campaigns like Dell ReGeneration follow a different model, with engagement as the ultimate measure. And agencies are set up for the constant launch of campaigns, rather than the ongoing conversation involved in social marketing (although Drillteam is!). 

Finally, we know that Google has had a hard time monetizing MySpace, and that Facebook has barely broken even yet, potentially indicating that ads within social media just aren't relevant. People are not on Facebook to find, or buy, but to talk to their friends. Catherine Taylor of Media Post posed the question, "Maybe Advertising in Social Media is an Oxymoron,"  citing a recent debate between John Battelle of Federated Media and Nick Denton of Gawker. Battelle argues that social media is what will finally make online advertising engaging, whereas Denton says that people don't want to be sold in a social media environment. Who's right? 

We believe that the shift of brands moving into the social media space is being delayed because we are using a paid media mental model for the web, and for social media. Battelle is right if you change the word "advertising" for "marketing" or "relationship building." The social media space is the holy grail of conversational marketing, and the opportunities are huge. And Denton is right when it comes to inappropriate Facebook banner ads, but we know from experience that the digital native generation loves to interact with brands online, especially when brands are inviting them to the table to have a dialogue. The opportunity then is to think about social marketing influence, rather than social marketing advertising. The real challenge of web 2.0: how do we engage communities, weave our brands authentically into the fabric of the experience, and earn the right to be recommended and referred to other brand loyalists?

BY JEN

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