Socialmedia.com Launches Social Banners(TM), the Next Evolution of Social Media Advertising

NEW YORK, June 24 /PRNewswire/ -- Today, Socialmedia.com, the largest independent social media advertising network, officially announced the launch of their newest form of social advertising, Social Banners(TM). Socialmedia.com creates new ways for adverting to work within social media, redefining the opportunities for targeted interaction and engaging social influence marketing. Social Banners(TM) are powered by FriendRank(TM), socialmedia.com's patent-pending algorithm that aggregates interactions from social network applications to determine what friends to display within an ad.

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With studies from eMarketer estimating social network ad spending to reach at least $1.4 billion this year, and up to $2.7 billion in 2011, social media has never been so sought after by brands looking to move to the next level of consumer engagement. The demographic that uses social media the most, ages 18 to 25, spends $172 billion a year, according to a recent study by Peanut Labs, and spends the majority of their time on social networking sites.

Through Social Banners(TM), advertisers have the ability to reach and communicate with online consumers in ways that resonate with their specific interests and values by leveraging a user's network of friends. Social Banners(TM) dynamically insert a user's friend(s) into an ad creative as a picture or first name to make the ad more relevant and engaging. By integrating the social experience into an ad, users see content that is more relevant, entertaining and engaging.

"A successful advertising campaign within social networking sites should not only be engaging and creative, but authentic and social. Friends are interested in what their peers are doing, where they are going, what they are buying. They look to their network of peers," says CEO of Socialmedia.com, Seth Goldstein. "Social media advertising should be an active process, where brands join the online conversation. Social Banners lead the way by leveraging the relationships within a peer's network and using that picture or name within an ad to give legitimacy to a brand's campaign. FriendRank(TM), helps the process by understanding which friends are influential."

Socialmedia.com has implemented Social Banners(TM) in a way that provides consumers with complete notice and choice to opt out. Besides being able to opt out from sharing their information within the social network and from socialmedia.com's privacy page, users are able to also opt out from the ad itself by clicking on "what's this" text. This navigates users to a page informing the user how their information is used within a Social Banner(TM) and allows them to opt out of their information being used by socialmedia.com.

For more information and to learn about Socialmedia.com, please visit: http://www.socialmedia.com/

About Socialmedia.com:

Socialmedia.com is the largest independent social media advertising network, delivering ads within 5,000+ applications running on Facebook, Bebo, Hi5 and Myspace. The company has created the Socialmedia Advertising platform, enabling advertisers to effectively reach over 25M monthly unique users through its network. The company's platform allows developers of social media applications to monetize their traffic from advertising. Socialmedia.com has learned what developers and advertisers need first-hand, having internally produced hit Facebook applications such as FoodFight (throw virtual food at your online friends) and Happy Hour (send that friend a virtual cocktail), which have been installed by over 10 million consumers. Socialmedia.com is based in Palo Alto and San Francisco, CA, with a seasoned leadership team that has been building businesses in the online advertising space for the past 10 years. Interested in joining the conversation? Please visit: http://www.socialmedia.com/