Bebo, Facebook and MySpace have over 301m users between them. There has always been debate about how best to monetize the inventory generated. There now is a positive solution. Widgets, or applications give context to social media sites.

Alex Burmaster from Nelson Online says "...From one in every 18 minutes spent on Facebook in the UK to one in every five in October 2008, apps now account for almost 1bn minutes. This time isn't being spent by a niche section of Facebookers either. Over half of its UK audience - 56% or 8.6m people - visited an app. Mobwars, a mafia warfare game, was Facebook's most engaging app (measured by total time), accounting for an astonishing 3% of all Facebook time and 13.1% of Facebook application time by its 861,000 UK visitors. To put this in context, if Facebook Applications was a brand it would be the eighth biggest brand in the UK by time spent, ahead of the likes of YouTube, all Microsoft's properties, and all of Apple's, Virgin's and Sky's. Conventional wisdom is that banner ads on social networks struggle because they're seen as invading personal spaces. Advertiser-created pages where members can become 'fans' are yet to really take off. So, beyond the highly engaged and often large audiences that apps like Mobwars deliver, why could they be the ad solution? Applications are viral, through direct referrals to friends and indirect endorsements via postings to users' walls, so they grow quickly. Apps are unusual in that they provide a rich source of demographic info; downloading an app automatically pulls in a user's social profile information, which can be used to target ads. Furthermore, as apps are opt-in, no one sees ads unless they've first downloaded an app. They could also be seen as safer than other ad formats because there's little or no consumer-generated content. As there's an awful lot of this inventory available, apps could be good for driving traffic too..."

Utarget.FOX can now offer brands access to Social Media opportunities. The following examples are just some of what we can offer. For more information please contact Francis Turner on 01753 847 360 or Francis.turner@foxnetworks.com