Social Media Ad Spending Expected to Explode...Well, DUH!
Two months ago Warren Buffet scared the pants off of investors and marketers saying that social media companies were leading the charge in the second great internet bubble. He wasn’t able to understand how money was actually being made with social networking sites because they don’t actually make anything, and he said (paraphrasing) he didn’t believe the hype and others 
should be wary about investing money in social media as well.
Hmm, as it seems, not too many people agreed with him. His oracle days may be in their twilight years as a new era of business peeps who know nothing but the fast, ever-changing world of social media and internet marketing, make predictions in stark contrast to the ones made by Warren Buffet and his seasoned posse.
Although kinks are being ironed out, social media networking companies are making money. People believe in them and people use them and isn’t that what solidifies the staying power of a company? Just ask Yahoo! When the decision was made to eliminate the social bookmarking site Delicious, users made a big stink about it, and not only did it not disappear, AVOS purchased it, and it looks like they’ll be around for a while.
Social media is not a fad. It’s a legitimate part of a healthy marketing mix and growth should be expected. Business owners and marketers who are comfortable with social media marketing, and consumers who engage with companies on social media networks, aren’t really shocked by the fact that ad spending is set to explode. All new media had their moment of extreme ad growth and now it’s social media’s turn.
Facebook and Google are the most well-known for social media ads and are expected to lead the social media ad spend “explosion” but it wouldn’t be wise to overlook Twitter and LinkedIn nor the location based apps like Foursquare when considering what may work best for your business.
Will this social media ad spending forecast give the naysayers a new outlook on the future of social media? Probably not. But these are the same people who didn’t believe mobile apps would be successful and that the iPad would be a dud, so you be the judge.
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