Ad Networks + Profiling = LinkedIn to leverage a new strategy?
Profiling to cluster web visitors according to their interest points, their Internet travel among websites, and time spent on different content. That’s the graal of some online ad network: being able to connect Internet website comsumption of the visitors, to be able to address them message according to the profile requested by brands. A grail that LinkedIn may reach moving from social network platform to their real objective ad network.
Social network platform are all dormant ad networks
Social networks like Facebook, MySpace, Hi5, Bebo, and others are all seated on a gold mine. They know about that and they’re digging the Internet ground to find out the right tool to leverage business from their users. Those networks are all trying to make money trading their ad spaces. Not really well working for the moment since users are on networks to actually use them to connect with friends and play with the features of the platform, showing no interest in ads (Facebook CPM rate is like free when MySpace is serving the most ads of the world, actually a bad news showing the ads don’t sell well).
But one thing they’re forgetting, or at least don’t estimating enough, is the fact they’ve already profiled their users. The users’ profiling is their value, not the amount of subscribers of their service. They’re not Skype but still are using its business model. While they’re looking at the subscribers metric, LinkedIn is looking at the profiling metric and their network ability to drive trafic to other websites.
Networks and their killer ability: drive traffic to others
As said previously social networks users are focused on using those platforms to connect with their friends and play with the different features (Facebook applications for Facebook, Questions to the community for LinkedIn). They don’t care about advertising and are easily sent out of the service to visit links suggested by friends. That’s the social networks killer ability: redirecting traffic, and that’s what LinkedIn relies on to generate business.
Leveraging users ability to follow outside links to sell traffic to partners is the fundation of the new advertising strategy of LinkedIn. The profiling process has been exposed by TechCrunch and the users data selling would be a value added when creating their ad network and suggesting partnership with big accounts related to their audience.
Now Facebook has a model to follow, if not willing to adapt it to their needs and specific users pool. Things are moving, and the advertising is really turning to become added value information, hopefully.
Photo Credit: The Vision of Kai
