Stop trying to advertise in social networks. Please.

Advertisers are confused.  The world used to be so much simpler.  Find where the most people are, throw ads in front of them, and throw your head back and laugh hysterically at how easy it was to get more customers.  Or increase your brand awareness.  Or whatever metric that type of advertising got you.  Personally, I never understood it so I’m not a good barometer for that side of the house.

So advertisers are confused when they look at advertising in areas like Facebook or MySpace and they don’t get the results they are used to.  Online advertising is tough as it is, but in social networking sites its even less effective.

On the web, an effective ad doesn’t shout at me the way traditional media does (Billboard ads, TV commercials, etc.).  So banner ads can be effective only when you make them entertaining or beneficial AND interactive.  But we know this, so we chuck video and functionality into our ads and get our amazingly high .5% click through rates, and once again throw our heads back and laugh again.

Ah, but even the flashiest, video-rich ads don’t work on social networking sites.  Why?  Simple.  Let’s imagine an alternate scenario.  You are walking down the street and you see one of your old friends from college.  Goes like this:

“Hey Susan, how have you been?  Still live in Buckhead?  How about your twins, they’re about 3 now right?”

“Yes, they’re getting so big!  How’s your family doing?”

A dude walks up and stands next to your friend.  You continue talking.

“They’re doing great!  My son is getting ready for pre-school…”

Dude starts waving his arms and yells out, “HEY, LOOK AT ME!  CHECK OUT HOW I DANCE!  WANNA GO BACK TO SCHOOL AND GET YOUR MASTERS?  ASK ME ABOUT THAT.  AND WATCH ME DANCE SOME MORE!”

I imagine, after your friend shoots the guy in the face with mace and the two of you run off blowing your rape whistles, you think, “Man, wtf was that dude’s problem?”.

Yes, when you’re having a conversation with someone, you don’t want someone trying to sell you something.  Doesn’t fit.  You’re not in that mode of thinking.  This is why advertising in social media doesn’t work.  There are SO many more ways to take advantage of the massive amounts of people that spend time in social networks, but advertising to them the same way you do on other areas of the web just won’t work.

So stop doing it.