It may seem like everyone and his brother is into social networking. But marketers aren’t convinced that popularity will translate into effective promotion. ■ At least, that’s the conclusion of marketing research firm eMarketer, whose revised estimate of social-net advertising this year sees a 3% falloff from 2008’s $1.2 billion to $1.1 billion in 2009. The drawdown seems even more notable given that ad spending on Web communities such as Facebook and MySpace grew 129% in 2007 and 33% last year. ■ According to eMarketer senior analyst Debra Aho Williamson, the biggest revenue problem resides with the biggest ad-spending recipient, MySpace. “They’ve fallen off a cliff in terms of unique visitors,” she says.
