Advertising, ad campaigns, ad agencies, and the people that make it happen

I don’t want to be a wet blanket here, but I am getting a little suspicious about this great “Social Networking” bandwagon everyone, particularly the analyst community, is jumping on right now. A new report by Piper Jaffray "The User Revolution" claims users are going from simply exchanging information, to sharing information, ideas, content and entertainment, all within a social context, as part of a process dubbed "Communitainment." (I love the way these guys bastardize the English language) They say that as Communitainment grows, users will move from traditional media forms, to spending more time with niche internet sites, and they estimate that half of all media consumption over the next decade will be Communitainment. Based on the average analysts forecasting track record, I’ll wait and see. As they also point out content is created and shared by users. So, it's a closed system and advertisers have to find a way to get into it. But once you get in, you're actually part of the family." What they seem to miss is that most social networks are inhabited by people trying to avoid advertising. That’s why they create their own content. So, even if “Communitainment” does grow, it will be at the expense of advertisers.

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All this "Communitainment" is giving me a headache!