The Interactive Advertising Bureau (IAB) has released a sheet of best practices for advertising in the social media space.
Social ads are thus defined:
An online ad that incorporates user interactions that the consumer has agreed to display and be shared. The resulting ad displays these interactions along with the user's persona (picture and/or name) within the ad content.
It can be composed of profile data, a given type of social targeting/dissemination behavior (such as encouraging people to pass an ad to friends) and social interactions within the ad (sharing/commenting). According to the Washington Post, emphasis is put on giving consumers control over what kind of data is shared with their friends, and in what context.
The IAB says its objectives are to give marketers more access to social media's natural "combination of reach, relationships, and relevance."
According to Nielsen, social media has overtaken email as the most popular consumer activity, giving it exceptional reach — increasingly among users between 35-49, and 50-64 years of age (on Facebook, for example).
Relationship-wise, social media enables a broader array of personal connections and peer contact, giving users reason to visit such sites regularly and for a long time. Finally, the content and desirable connections compose social media's personal relevance to consumers — making it ideal for advertisers that know how to target their markets.
The IAB's Social Media Best Practices are intended to help marketers leverage the aforementioned benefits, as well as to protect consumer privacy and maintain transparency in the space. For example, it strongly encourages advertisers to give users an opportunity to opt in to certain instances of advertising and data release — rather than making opt-out the de facto choice.
A 151-committee, composed of 218 members in total, helped draft the standards. They included MySpace, Microsoft, Google, Facebook, SocialMedia.com, CBS, Accenture, PriceWaterhouseCoopers LLC, Condé Nast Digital, IDG Entertainment, and Nielsen Online.
Earlier this month, the IAB released the Social Media Ad Metrics Definitions — an attempt to help marketers measure ROI in participatory and user-driven communication.
