Social Networks, Tweens and Ads

Over seven out of 10 US children ages 9 to 17 visit social networking sites weekly, according to the Alloy Media and Marketing-commissioned "Social Networking and Advertising" paper. The study was underwritten by Microsoft, News Corporation and Verizon, and fielded by Grunwald Associates in March 2007.

The study also revealed over half of teens had participated in some kind of advertiser-branded activity like visiting company profile pages in the past month.

Nine in 10 tweens and teens said they would like to hear about one or more types of entertainment products on social networking sites. About a fifth said they were willing to add branded content to their own sites.

Over 30% of teens also wanted to hear about college information or educational products from social networking sites.

Full article