Social media advertising 'will intersect with other marketing in 2010'

15:00 23rd December 2009

Online marketers will intersect their social media campaigns with other forms of advertising next year, it has been predicted.

According to the eMarketer Social Network Ad Spending: 2010 Outlook, 2009 will conclude with "major shifts" in how products and services are highlighted on sites such as Facebook.

Mark Zuckerberg's portal will generate more advertising revue than rival MySpace next year and will account for almost 25 per cent of all spending in this area, the research suggested.

As a whole, the market will be worth $2.5 billion (£1.56 billion) in 2010, a rise of 15 per cent on 2009's figures.

Meanwhile, social media campaigns will be interlinked with numerous other online and offline marketing opportunities in order to increase presence and impact.

Author of the study and senior analyst Debra Aho Williamson explained paid-for advertising will not be the primary focus for marketers next year and will instead drive traffic in a wider way.

"Concepts such as earned media, local social advertising, social search and social ad networks will be key themes," she said.

Earlier this month, eMarketer predicted 2010 will see micro-blogging portal Twitter focus on increasing its revenue after successfully boosting its user base in 2009.